The Scottish Information Literacy Project: working with partners to create an information literate Scotland

1. The Scottish Information Literacy Project:working with partners to create an information literate Scotland Dr John Crawford A National Information Literacy Framework for Scotland – How did we get here? An Information Literacy Framework for Wales? Gregynog Conference Centre 30/11- 1/12/ 2009

2. Who are we?

3. Where it all beganDrumchapel Project 2003 • An exploratory project – initially ICT skills orientated • Community ICT facilities little used - Library and Cybercafés – implications only now being addressed • School and School Library are main focus for IT use in deprived areas • Little integration of information literacy into the curriculum • Levels of ICT ‘deprivation’ did not seem to be high • Basic IT skills exist- WP, email, Internet • Pupil evaluation of websites poor • An asylum seeking issue • An information literacy skills/transitional agenda emerged

4. Project objectives • to develop an information literacy framework, linking primary, secondary and tertiary education to lifelong learning including workplace and adult literacies agendas • Advocacy on behalf of information literacy for education and the wider community • Working with information literacy champions both UK and worldwide  • Researching and promoting information literacy in the workplace • Identifying and working with partners, both in education and the wider community • Researching the role of information literacy in continuing professional development • Researching the health and media literacies agenda

5. Agenda issues • a need to explain and promote the concept of information literacy to educational and other bodies - advocacy focus. Included a petition to the Scottish Parliament 2005 • Recruited leading information literacy advocates in Scotland as Project partners. (Initially secondary HE/FE) partnership focus • the workplace (studies of GCU students/alumni) - a workplace focus • Adult literacies contacts – an employability focus • Continuing Professional Development (CPD) a CPD focus • An independent learning skill - lifelong learning focus • A major skills agenda but see below

6. Agenda of issues 2004 -2007-8 • 2003 – The Drumchapel Project – where it all began • 2004 – The ‘one year’ Information Literacy, the Link between Secondary and Tertiary Education Project launched • 2005-8 - the first draft of the National Information Literacy Framework Scotland completed, piloted and evaluated • Contact and work with Learning and Teaching Scotland and learndirectscotland (now part of Skills Development Scotland) • Extensive network of partners and contacts from school, FE/HE, workplace, lifelong learning, Adult literacies + overseas • Website developed and more recently blog + PR activities • Initial health and media literacy contacts

7. 2008 -2009 Focus(Esmee Fairbairn Foundation funding) Restructure the Framework to make it easier to use / more interactive + extend the early years, workplace, wider access and lifelong learning components to make it a genuine lifelong learning policy document Research and progress the information literacy in the workplace agenda

8. The FrameworkSkills Levels • Background information and provenance • Acknowledgements • Information literacy – what it is • Information literacy and lifelong learning • Information literacy education • Use of the Information Literacy framework • The framework levels • Information literacy and assessment • Appendices

9. The Restructured Framework • Draft pdf further developed as a Weblog • static pages (background information, different sectors, levels etc.) • interactive through postings (current activities, developments etc.) http://caledonianblogs.net/nilfs/ • Requires case studies to added: • workplace, SME’s, large organisations (public and private), different professions, FE & HE, public libraries, community learning

10. The Restructured Framework

13. Working with the Curriculum for Excellence Literacy team Curriculum for Excellence Literacy across learning – experiences and outcomes Information literacy can be found in: • finding and using information in the listening and talking, and reading sections • understanding, analysing and evaluating in listening and talking, and reading sections "to encourage progression in understanding of texts, developing not only literal understanding but also the higher order skills" • organising and using information in the writing section “It is expected that the literacy experiences and outcomes and this accompanying paper [principles and practice], will be read by a range of practitioners, including those who work in school library resource centres, who make an enormous contribution to the literacy skills of children and young people. “

14. Working with the Curriculum for Excellence Literacy team Real and Relevant – Information and Critical Literacy Skills for the 21st Century Learner’ (Early and First Level) The Project’s aims are to work with the Curriculum for Excellence Literacy Team to create a quality CPD Information Literacy resource pack whose target audience will be Early Years (Primary 1, 2  and 3) teachers. This will contain:- • Background Information re Information Literacy • Learning and teaching approaches • Supporting resources –e.g. identification of information literacy / information related activities within the Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes For more details see http://www.caledonian.ac.uk/ils/il21stcenturyskills.html and http://curriculumforexcellence.pbworks.com/ (shared collaborative space)

15. Survey of Scottish school librarians and their knowledge and use of Curriculum for Excellence • reading CfE learning Experiences and Outcomes plus Principle Practice papers • identification of information literacy related activities in experiences and outcomes •  piloting / creating new activities / updating existing IL activities • what activities they have been involved in and with whom •  how school librarians can optimise their efforts to support information literacy and the Curriculum for Excellence experience and Outcomes locally and nationally?

16. Information Literacy in practice Pupils from Craigholme School in Glasgow working on their Information Literacy Project (Junior 6)

17. Information literacy in the workplace study Dec.2007- Jan.2008 – key findings • The traditional ‘library’ view of information as deriving from electronic and printed sources only is invalid in the workplace and must include people as sources of information • The public enterprise with its emphasis on skills and qualifications is a fertile area for further investigation and developmental work • Advanced Internet training extends employees’ information horizons • A skill and qualifications based agenda is an important pre-condition • Most interviewees viewed public libraries as irrelevant for anything other than recreational purposes • Information literacy training programmes must be highly focused on the target audience • An understanding of what constitutes information literacy is widespread in the workplace but is often implicit rather than explicit and is based on qualifications, experience, and networking activities • Organizations which access a wide range of information, of high quality, including sources outwith their organization, will make the best informed decisions

18. Putting definitions into practice "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 (2004) Information Literacy Definition “Information Literacy was defined as the ability to identify, locate, evaluate, organize and effectively create, use and communicate information to address an issue or problem.” Prague Declaration

19. What we have found • Different groups of people constantly reinterpret IL in the light of their own qualifications, training, experience and needs • IL is a key career choice, progression, CPD, employability and workplace skill • IL is still not recognised in government policy skills documents produced since 2005. It is rolled up with IT although digital literacy appearing – But see Scottish Government website – Education and Training (Information Literacies)   http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education/skills-strategy/progress/sg/supportingindividuals/InformationLiteracies/Q/forceupdate/on

20. The big lessons: (1) general • Develop a community of practice • Partnerships/networking crucial • Use both personal and professional contacts • Work cross sectorally and not just with librarians • Need to balance the utilitarian educational agenda against personal social development • Need to generate learning material content – e.g. workplace community learning • Develop strategies and advocacy from existing policies – but problems • Identify organisations to work with – Skills, Curriculum, CLD, Ofcom • Research/exemplars of good practice – focus on market research • Advocacy strategies – who to talk to – pitfalls – e.g. question to Fiona Hyslop • Funding • Practitioners value support offered – especially school librarians • Have meetings/involve people • Encourage writing and reporting • Evaluate what you do • We need a common language

21. The big lessons (2) Schools • IL skills training must link to the curriculum • Literacies curriculum outcomes are the most relevant • Librarian should be part of an information literacy skills audit/ literacy team/Cfe team • Whole school initiatives rather than specific departments/subject areas • Most work is done with S1/2; less 3-4; some 5-6 • Role of head teacher • Curriculum can inform the structuring of research skills workshops • Curriculum can inform an Institution’s Information Literacy framework • Curriculum can inform planning • Topics perhaps missed – IPR and Internet safety • Is an innovative learning and teaching agenda a key factor? - Govan High e.g. • IL training for trainee teachers? • Partnership working – other schools, other agencies e.g. Young Scot IL material • S 3/4

22. The big lessons (3) Workplace • Information policies – people, intranet; small range of websites, a few paper sources • Contacts should be established with chambers of commerce, skills agencies and other organisations involved in workplace training • Organizations’ information polices which are largely implicit should be made explicit and should include accessing a wide range of information, of high quality, including sources outwith their organisation • Preliminary skills audits should be carried out within organizations to determine staff information literacy skills and the organization’s information literacy policy • Public sector looks more promising • Information literacy training programmes should initially target sympathetic organizations e.g. public sector • Advanced Internet training programmes should be offered to all workplace employees • The private sector should be researched further – SMEs are difficult • Link to organisational aims and objectives • Do employers know what they want?

23. Skills utilisation ?A workplace issue • 'Skills utilisation is about ensuring the most effective application of skills in the workplace to maximise performance through the interplay of a number of key agents (e.g. employers, employees, learning providers and the state) and the use of a range of HR, management and working practices. Effective skills utilisation seeks to match the use of skills to business demands/needs.' (p.2) • Skills utilisation literature review, a report by CFE for the Education Analytical Services, Lifelong Learning Research, Scottish Government (Executive summary and full text available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/12/15114643/0)

24. The big lessons (4) Community development • Support from government policy – e.g. Digital Britain www.culture.gov.uk/images/publications/digital_britain_interimreportjan09.pdf • Public libraries have a key role • Recruitment strategy essential – link with Job Centres Plus • Community Learning and Development and librarians should work together to develop appropriate content • Build training round local industry needs • Health information and health management an employability issue • Course scheduling issues especially for men

25. Open Space Event (SDS) 2009and June 15th meeting • About 35 people attended including representatives from secondary and FE/HE education, adult learning, local government, the STUC, Learning and Teaching Scotland, BBC Scotland, a number of commercial agencies and Skills Development Scotland staff. There were also a number of librarians • Consistency and info. Literacy skills to be embedded in all curriculum subjects. (10) • An element in teacher training (young people) inputs (8) • Shift focus to individual learners and their successes in developing their own information lit. skills and publicise their rewards in doing so. (7) June 15th meeting • Lesley Thomson and Jenny Foreman from the Scottish Government agreed to set up an online community of practice to facilitate further discussion and action – role of civil servants

26. Other issues • Health literacy agenda can be pursued cross sectorally e.g. public and health librarians • Good practice in HE .e.g. Dundee – Abertay and Dundee University • Scottish Government Information Service – have set up advanced Internet searching skills courses for staff; developed an information strategy for the Scottish Government. Now on Scottish Government website – Education and Training (Information Literacies) – a first? http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education/skills-strategy/progress/sg/supportingindividuals/InformationLiteracies/Q/forceupdate/on • Media Literacy – work through Ofcom

27. Sources of advocacy • Australian Library and Information Association – Information Literacy Forum Advocacy Toolkit   http://www.alia.org.au/advocacy/literacy.kit.pdf • Understanding information literacy: a primer. Forest Woody Horton, Unesco, 2008http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001570/157020E.pdf • Better informed for better health and better care. NHS Scotland 2008 http://209.85.229.132/custom?q=cache:VJZLz91SmKEJ:www.infoliteracy.scot.nhs.uk/media/1012229/theframework.pdf+information+literacy+framework&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&client=google-coop-np

28. Some further information (1) • Crawford, John and Irving (2008) Going beyond the ‘library’: the current work of the Scottish Information Literacy Project. Library and information research, (32) 102, pp. 29-37 http://www.lirg.org.uk/lir/ojs/index.php/lir/article/view/89 • Crawford, John and Irving (2009) Information literacy in the workplace: a qualitative exploratory study, JOLIS, (41 )pp. 29-38 http://lis.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/41/1/29?etoc • McDonald, Natalie and Keenan, Peter (2009) The ‘stuff beyond Google: information literacy in a corporate setting . http://www.information-online.com.au/sb_clients/iog/bin/iog_programme_you_may_be_right_C1.cfm?vm_key=8EDF7462-D5A6-FFAA-AB89D511D74817DA • Crawford, John et al, (2008) Use of information in the Scottish Government, Library & information update, Dec., pp. 48-49 • Interview with Philip Pothen, formerly of JISC, 28.11.08 about the work of the Project http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2009/02/podcast71johncrawfordchristineirving.aspx

29. Some further information (2) • Irving, Christine. (2010),Collecting case studies / exemplars of good practice to enrich The National Information Literacy Framework (Scotland). Library & information research. Forthcoming. • Crawford, John and Irving, Christine (2010) The Scottish Information Literacy Project and school libraries. Aslib proceedings. Forthcoming. • Crawford, John and Irving, Christine (2010?) Information literacy in employability training: the experience of Inverclyde Libraries. Writing up almost complete. • Review article on the work of the Project to be written

30. Contact details Dr. John Crawford, Christine Irving Library Research Officer, Researcher / Project Officer Milton Street Building Milton Street Building MS004, (ground floor) MS005, (ground floor) Glasgow Caledonian University Glasgow Caledonian University Cowcaddens Road Cowcaddens Road Glasgow, G4 0BA Glasgow, G4 0BA Tel: 0141-273 -1248 Tel: 0141-273 -1249 Email jcr@gcal.ac.uk Email christine.irving@gcal.ac.uk Or polbae2003@yahoo.co.uk Project website www.caledonian.ac.uk/ils/ Project blog http://caledonianblogs.net/information-literacy/

31. Questions?