Information skills, information literacy

The development of information skills enables people to 'turn knowledge into wisdom through effective application'. Sconul is leading the campaign for information literacy in higher education, reports Hilary Johnson.

The Sconul Task Force on Information Skills was first convened in early 1999, as a result of increased awareness that information skills training was an important strategic issue for university and college libraries and information services. A major concern at that time was that the nature and importance of information skills were being overlooked in the rapid build-up of activity in relation to the use of IT in higher education.

Discussions of skills in higher education often conflate 'information technology' skills and 'information' skills. The latter term is much broader and more directly related to the aims and processes of higher education as a 'knowledge creation' activity. A broadly-based definition of information skills in higher education reflects the twin dimensions of the 'competent student' and the 'information-literate' person.

Both information skills and information technology skills are coming to be seen as essential parts of the wider concept of 'information literacy'. The term has been more widely adopted outside the UK, although it is now beginning to be used in the LIS literature in the UK, too.1,2 Much prior work has been based on the report of the American Library Association's Presidential Committee on Information Literacy,3 which identified: 'the need for all people to become information-literate, which means that they are not only able to recognise when information is needed, but also able to identify, locate, evaluate and use effectively information needed for the particular decision or issue at hand'.

Information literacy is therefore explicitly linked to concepts of the 'informed citizen', required for the effective functioning of modern democracies. Increasingly, too, this is a factor in the corporate information sector, with the advent of 'knowledge management' as a vital tool for modern global business.

Within the broader educational literature, there have been explicit links made with critical thinking as well as lifelong learning: '...individuals not only to use information and information technology effectively and adapt to their constant changes but also to think critically about the entire information enterprise and information society'.4

'...information is an "essential commodity for survival" ...[we need to teach people to become] independent and informed information consumers on their way to becoming lifelong learners'.5

We feel strongly that, within higher education, information literacy should include the notion of an individual who is able to contribute to the synthesis of existing information, to develop ideas building on that synthesis and, ultimately, create new knowledge in a particular subject discipline. Stephen Town6 argues that the development of information skills 'enables people at universities, and in their subsequent careers, to turn knowledge into wisdom through effective application', a prime learning outcome for higher education in all its manifestations.

The Seven Pillars Model
The ability to:

Arising out of the US work, the American Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) has produced Standards for Information Literacy, based on which a number of universities are developing associated curricula. The standards have been adopted in an adapted form by the Council of Australian University Librarians.7 While the 'standards' approach to information literacy is enabling useful work to be done in both the US and Australia, the task force feels that this approach is less useful in the UK. Here, the development of subject benchmarks under the auspices of the Quality Assurance Agency is becoming an established part of the UK quality audit and inspection scene. Task force members are trying to determine how much difference is made to the overall definition of information skills if the subject studied is a science or is arts- or humanities-based. A paper on this topic is in preparation.

Where the responsibility lies for the development of information-literate students in the UK has been a matter of some considerable debate. Librarians recognise that it requires a collaborative and integrated approach to curriculum design and delivery based on close co-operation between academic, library and staff development colleagues. The educational role of libraries is a broadly accepted concept - the pedagogical role of librarians (and other academic support staff), however, remains a vexed question. Recently, the broader contribution of library and other academic support staff is being made more visible, e.g. through contributions from the Association of University Teachers and the Institute for Learning and Teaching 8,9 in higher education as a whole. Difficulties in this regard are also apparent (see the Library Association's Libraries and Lifelong Learning policy paper).10

The Sconul Task Force
The initial task which the Sconul Executive Board set the group was to look at:

• defining what was meant by 'information skills';
• articulating why information skills are important for higher education students;
• assessing the size and scope of current activity in UK higher education;
• identifying principles of good practice in this area, within UK higher education, and from other countries.

As a result of the task force's work, a Sconul briefing paper was produced in the autumn of 1999,11 and the Sconul autumn meeting of that year took this theme as a major strand.

The briefing paper was very well received by the Sconul membership and generated considerable interest not only among UK academic librarians but also overseas, with, for example, a Spanish translation being undertaken and published.12 The task force's work was so well received that the group was encouraged to extend its programme, promoting the concepts identified in the briefing paper, and developing the ideas further.

The Seven Pillars Model The outline model of information skills generated in the briefing paper has now become known as the 'Seven Pillars' model (see figure, above. This was the focus for a very successful conference held at the University of Warwick in July 2000. The papers from the conference were issued in September.13

The information skills model attempts to show the relationships between the 'competent information user' at the base level, and the much more advanced idea of information literacy. The 'pillars' show an iterative process whereby information users progress through competency to expertise by practising the skills.

Task force initiatives Current task force initiatives are:

• development of a transferable module for first-year-level undergraduates, with accreditation, analogous to the International/European Computer Driving Licence;
• a series of workshops developing aspects of performance indicators and evaluation of IS work in HE. A presentation was made in August by Stephen Town;
• a sub-group of the task force is working on aspects of identifying subject norms and their effects on information skills in relation to course learning outcomes;
• liaison with the Jisc-funded 'The Big Blue' project led by Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Leeds, which is mapping current information skills teaching activity in both higher education and further education;
• the establishment of links with other relevant stakeholders in this area of work in both higher education, other education spheres, and more broadly in the LIS scene in the UK.

The Sconul Task Force focus has necessarily to be on UK higher education. At the same time, members of the group have been acutely aware of the wider implications of the work, linking as it does to issues of social inclusion in the information society, and issues of continuing professional development for teachers, LIS staff and indeed professionals of all descriptions. The Sconul Task Force is keen to work with other interested agencies - including representatives from other sectors and professional interests - in furthering the definition and recognition of information skills and information literacy and fostering the evolution of a sophisticated and alert community of users of information of all kinds.

There are precedents for this collaborative approach. In the US a cross-sectoral initiative has established a National Forum for Information Literacy, and the University of South Australia has led the establishment of the Australian and New Zealand Institute for Information Literacy. A feasibility study is under way into the idea of a National Information Literacy Coalition under the auspices of the Australian LIA. This topic awaits an integrated approach to policy development and strategic action in the UK.

References
1 Sheila Webber. 'Myths and opportunities.' Library Association Record, 103(9), September 2001, pp 548-9.

2 Mark Hepworth. 'Approaches to information literacy training in higher education: challenges for librarians.' New Review of Academic Librarianship, 6, 2000, pp 21-34.

3 American Library Association Presidential Committee on Information Literacy. Final Report. 1989. Quoted in A Progress Report on Information Literacy: an update on the American Library Association Presidential Committee on Information Literacy: Final Report. March 1998 (www.ala.org/acr/nili/nili.html).

4 Jeremy J. Shapiro, and Shelley K. Hughes. 'Information literacy as a liberal art: enlightenment proposals for a new curriculum.' Educom Review, 31(2), March/April 1996, pp 31-35 (www.educause.edu).

5 John J. Doherty, Mary-Anne Hansen and Kathryn K. Kaya. 'Teaching information skills in the information age: the need for critical thinking.' Library Philosophy and Practice, 1(2), Spring 1999 (www.uidaho.edu/~mbolin/doherty.html) .

6 Stephen Town. 'Wisdom or Welfare? The seven pillars model.' In Sheila Corrall and Helen Hathaway (eds), Seven Pillars of Wisdom? Good practice in information skills development. Proceedings of a conference held at the University of Warwick 6-7 July 2000. Sconul, 2000, pp 11-21.

7 Council of Australian University Librarians. Information Literacy Standards. First edition. 2001 (www.caul.edu.au/).

8 Association of University Teachers. Building the Academic Team. AUT, 2001.

9 Institute for Learning and Teaching. Initial Entry Route Guidance Note for Colleagues working within Higher Education Support Services. April 2000 (www.la-hq.org.uk/directory/training/ilt.html).

10 LA. Libraries and Lifelong Learning. Policy paper, April 2001 (www.la-hq.org.uk/directory/prof_issues/llp.html).

11 Sconul. Information Skills in Higher Education: a Sconul position paper, prepared by the Task Force on Information Skills... 1999.

12 Christóbal Pasadas Ureña (trad). 'Aptitudes para el acceso y uso de la informacíon en la enseñanza superior: la postura de Sconul'. Boletín de la Asociacíon Andaluza de Bibliotecarios, 16(62), Marzo 2001.

13 Sheila Corrall and Helen Hathaway (eds). Seven Pillars of Wisdom? Good practice in information skills development. Proceedings of a conference held at the University of Warwick 6-7 July 2000. Sconul, 2000.

Members of the Sconul Task Force on Information Skills: Deborah Bragan-Turner, Humanities Librarian, University of Nottingham; Sheila Corrall, Director of Academic Support Services, University of Southampton; Peter Godwin, Academic Services Librarian, South Bank University; Helen Hathaway, Team Manager, Faculty of Science, University of Reading Library; Hilary Johnson, Chief Librarian, University College Northampton (Convener); Jo Parker, Open University; Janet Peters, Head of Library and Learning Resources, University of Wales College, Newport; Stephen Town, Director of Information Services, Royal Military College of Science, Cranfield University.

Hilary Johnson is Chief Librarian, University College Northampton, and Convener of the Sconul Task Force on Information Skills.

© The Library Association
Last updated: 14 November 2001