Embedding Information Literacy Within Public Libraries

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Embedding Information Literacy Within Public
Libraries

• Rónán O'Beirne
• Bradford Libraries Archives and Information
  service

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Aims

• 1. To explore how IL could operate outside a
  learning environment
• 2.To look at how IL fits in with the other
  literacies supported by public libraries

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Aims

• 3. To identify the operational barriers that
  stand in the way of IL implementation in Public
  Libraries.
• 4. To gather rich information from those working
  in Public Libraries.
• 5. To enlist the assistance of those who may be
  regarded as IL champions in PL.

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Working Definition

• Information literacy is knowing when and why you
  need information, where to find it, and how to
  evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical
  manner. (CILIP 2005)

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Using Public Libraries

• I can sit there and its like a wonderful bag of
  goodies. Im trying to read all the old
  Derbyshire newspapers from 1785, and its superb
  I know things the experts dont ! When youre
  studying for qualifications you go in straight
  lines now I wander. (Chesterfield library
  user)
• (Proctor Bartle 2002 University of Sheffield)

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Policy Framework

• Framework for the Future
• Public library standards
• these are related to
• Local Authority funding priorities
• Workforce's capacity to deliver change

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3 areas of IL activity

• Lifelong Learning - e-learning
• Digital Citizenship e-government and democracy
• Digital skills Fuller use of People's Network
  resource closing the digital divide

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Aims

• 1. To explore how IL could operate outside a
  learning environment

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Mini Case Studies

• Health information
• Environment information
• Citizenship information
• Learning information

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IL in practice

• Think of an information need, similar to the
  scenarios, which either you, a member of your
  family, or a close friend may have had and see if
  you might in theory be able to solve it in terms
  of a public library.

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Key points

• IL in PLs may be required to cover diverse and
  potentially boundless subject matter
• IL in PLs needs to address a non-captive
  transient audience a 'just-in-time' model

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Aims

• 3. To identify the operational barriers that
  stand in the way of IL implementation in Public
  Libraries.

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Operational barriers

• No best practice model to follow in PLs
• Empowering the user V serving the customer
• Building staff capacity
• Others?

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Aims

• 4. To gather rich information from those working
  in Public Libraries.
• 5.To enlist the assistance of those who may be
  regarded as IL champions in PL.

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The Search

• Modern library searches do not lead from a point
  A (the catalog, the reference desk) to a point B
  (the book, the answer, the truth), but instead
  invite their computer-literate users to explore
  on their own the many recesses of a multicursal
  maze, placing them again and again in decision
  situations, at forks or nodes where multiple
  paths lead down through hierarchies of subject
  headings, on their way to what may or may not be
  useful or even existing documents. (Garrett
  1991)

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And finally...........

• Who's responsibility is it to ensure that the
  UKs population is information literate?

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• ronan.obeirne_at_bradford.gov.uk