Information Literacy draft statement
Introduction
Information literacy (IL) can be defined in a number of ways; each individual’s context is dependent
on their previous experience. The following is based upon JISC’s definition of i-skills but borrows
ideas from the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP):

the ability to identify, assess, retrieve, evaluate, adapt, organise and communicate
information ethically within a context of review and reflection
Information literacy skills:

enhance a student’s ability to study effectively and so to gain maximum benefit from their
studies. They contribute significantly to a student’s ability to become an independent and
self-directed learner, and are an essential component of the student learning experience;

enhance employability. Employers increasingly expect students to have developed skills
beyond their subject disciplines; numerous organisations and professional bodies now
specify the attributes that they expect graduates to be able to demonstrate. For example,
the British Psychological Society (2012) states that graduates of their accredited
programmes will be able to:
o
o
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Understand, analyse and use complex data.
Retrieve and organise information from different sources.
Handle primary source material critically;

are relevant throughout life in an information rich environment. They help individuals make
evidence based decisions, and to become informed and engaged members of society;

are fundamental to the development of the individual as an autonomous life-long learner.
The continuing need for information literacy development
Recent innovations have included the introduction of resource discovery solutions with Google-type
search capabilities. Whilst this can make resources easier to find at a superficial level, there is a
body of evidence, such as the CIBER study (2008) which suggests that students do not possess the
skills to search more deeply, nor to evaluate their search results.
The JISC study User Behaviour in Resource Discovery (2009) , found:
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‘…evidence to suggest that information literacy skills are lacking’. ‘..it continues to be a
problem’.
‘participants do not understand how to assess the quality of materials they find’.
‘being able to use a search engine does not mean that one is able to find ...good quality
information’.
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The Arcadia Project (Coonan, 2011), led by Cambridge University, re-iterates that ‘information
literacy is fundamental to learning in all contexts’ and emphasises that IL involves far more than
merely teaching students how to use a library or search a database and is ‘a fundamental
human right; that it is common to all learning at all levels; a key factor in the knowledge
economy’.
A recent DEMOS study (Bartlett, 2011) investigated the use of the Internet by young people (school
students) and the extent to which they are able to critically evaluate what they find. The report
recommended that young people should be taught how to think critically and develop “online
scepticism” as part of the school curriculum.
Pre-HE work
As part of the Library’s work with local schools we support the information literacy work of teachers
and librarians in a number of ways, including hosting visits to our libraries of 6th form groups who
wish to take advantage of our collections to support their studies and encouraging the use of
mySkills and the iSkillZone. In this way we play a small part in preparing future students for academic
study and the development of information literacy proficiency.
UWE context
The development of information literate students supports key UWE policies that focus on providing
an excellent student experience. This includes improving retention rates, ‘preparing graduates for
work and life after university, and ….supporting student learning’ (UWE, 2012a).
Information literacy framework
In 2012, a new information literacy framework for UWE was developed to reflect the changes to the
information environment predicated by the implementation of Library Search (Summon, a resource
discovery solution), and ready access to information on the wider internet. The framework was
developed following consideration of various models of information literacy, including the SCONUL
Seven Pillars of Information Literacy (SCONUL, 2011) and the Welsh Information Literacy Project
(2011), and reflects progression from novice to expert information user.
The Information Literacy Framework was developed to clarify skills which are fundamental to work
effectively with information. Whilst it reads left to right in a series of columns to demonstrate
information literacy activities, it is not intended necessarily to be equated to levels of studies, or to
be read linearly; a student returning to education as a PhD candidate, for instance, would need to be
aware of issues at the far right of the framework, but might equally need support in tackling some of
the activities or skills that are shown on the left.
Part of the rationale for the framework comes from the context of the Library Search which, like
Google, returns a wealth of information for students. In effect finding information can be relatively
easy, the real skill lies in evaluating the information that is found. The Information Literacy
Framework also takes information literacy in its widest sense, so that as well as finding specific
materials, or carrying out a general search, it also covers areas such as freedom of information, data
management and scholarly communication.
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Reading strategies
The University requires that all module specifications include a reading strategy statement. The
purpose is to ensure that students understand how to approach reading for their modules. At the
start of a programme, students may be told what they should read; as they progress, they may be
increasingly expected to identify appropriate reading for themselves. Inherent in this is the principle
that students are given opportunities within the curriculum to develop the information skills
relevant to these expectations. These skills will help them achieve module and programme learning
outcomes.
Academic integrity
In 2012, UWE introduced a Plagiarism Policy, with the intention to
‘foster and facilitate good academic practice, providing practical guidance to students to
help them develop learning skills that will enable them to reference their work correctly and
to avoid unintentional plagiarism’. (UWE, 2012b)
The Library contributes to this by providing:
‘opportunities for academic integrity and skills training for students eg myskills site and
Library-led workshops which will include material on identifying and avoiding plagiarism and
on the referencing and citation conventions appropriate to their subject discipline’. (UWE,
2012b.)
and by the development of targeted online learning resources and face-to-face support to
encourage information literacy development.
Library staff
Subject and faculty librarians consult with academic staff to identify ways in which information skills
development can be embedded within module learning and assessment. They are skilled in both
designing and providing information literacy teaching in a variety of ways. More detail is provided in
the Appendix.
Learning development
Information literacy skills contribute to a wider range of academic literacy skills that can be
supported through close collaboration between librarians, faculty learning support staff, and
academics. The report of the Arcadia Project suggests that:
‘…information literacy cannot be reduced to rote mastery of functional skills, and that its
provision should not be left solely to library or support departments, and thus
segregated from core academic practice and thought. Far from being a supplementary,
optional or remedial adjunct to the academic curriculum, … information literacy [is] a
continuum of skills, behaviours, approaches and values that is so deeply entwined with
the uses of information as to be a fundamental element of learning, scholarship and
research’ (Coonan, 2011)
There is the potential to offer students a more holistic approach to academic literacy development.
For example, the library oversees the development of the mySkills study skills web site.
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The proposed development of a learning object repository for UWE will bring the opportunity to
share technology enhanced learning (TEL) resources across the institution and encourage wider use
of materials created to support the development of information literacy skills.
Principles
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all students should have opportunities within their programme to develop information skills
appropriate to their level of study.
collaboration between library, academic, and faculty learning development staff should aim
to ensure that students have a cohesive experience in terms of academic literacy
development.
the development of information literacy skills should be assessed, and the impact of
librarians’ input evaluated. Assessment might be part of the assessment criteria, formative
learning or a discrete summative assessment.
library IL input can be achieved by online (TEL) resources, face-to-face sessions, or activities
embedded into learning and assessment.
References
Bartlett, J and Miller, C (2011) Truth, lies and the Internet: a report into young people’s digital
fluency (Demos study) Available from: http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/truth-lies-and-theinternet [Accessed 30 January 2013]
British Psychological Society (2012) Undergraduate and Postgraduate Psychology: Why Study
Psychology? Available from: http://www.bps.org.uk/careers-education-training/undergraduateand-postgraduate-psychology/undergraduate-and-postgraduate- [Accessed 20 November 2012]
CIBER/UCL (2008) Information behaviour of the researcher of the future. Available from:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/reppres/gg_final_keynote_11012008.pdf
[Accessed 10 November 2012]
Coonan, E (2011) A new curriculum for information literacy: theoretical background. Available from:
http://arcadiaproject.lib.cam.ac.uk/docs/theory.pdf [Accessed 10 November 2012]
JISC (2009), User behaviour in resource discovery. (UBiRD study) Available from: http://www.jisccollections.ac.uk/Reports/UBiRD/ [Accessed 10 November 2012]
SCONUL (2011) The Seven Pillars of Information Literacy. Available from:
https://www.sconul.ac.uk/groups/information_literacy/seven_pillars.html [Accessed 10 November
2012]
UWE (2012a) Student experience strategy Available from:
http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/aboutus/visionandmission/strategy/studentexperience.aspx [Accessed 10
November 2012]
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UWE (2012b) UWE Plagiarism Policy Statement. Available from:
http://www2.uwe.ac.uk/services/Marketing/students/Student%20advice/Plagiarism_Policy_2012.p
df [Accessed 10 January 2013]
Welsh Information Literacy Project (2011) Information Literacy Framework for Wales. Available
from: http://librarywales.org/uploads/media/Information_Literacy_Framework_Wales.pdf
[Accessed 10 November 2012]
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Appendix
Examples of good practice
FET Library Online Workbook (FET-LOW)
An online tutorial was designed to teach Level 1 students the information literacy skills needed to
get them started with academic study.
Although the Workbook was available to all students, it was primarily designed to be embedded
within the teaching and assessment of specific core modules, covering as many Level 1 students
within FET as possible, and intended to replace face-to-face teaching which was inefficient (high
non-attendance) and unassessed.
It was introduced to students by a subject librarian in a 15 minute section of a timetabled lecture in
conjunction with the module leader, and released to them via their module’s Blackboard page. The
final assessment, a 12 question multiple-choice questionnaire, was also released to them via
Blackboard, on a specific date, with a 24 hour window for completion. The final assessment was
worth between 6 - 14% of the module mark, and as it was entirely possible to get a score of 100%
(and many did), students were encouraged not to throw away these marks.
The tutorial used a variety of pedagogical methods and delivery styles, enabling students to practice
and share the techniques being taught using subjects related to their core module, to discover the
differences and limitations of different resources, and to test their learning with short exercises at
the end of each section.
86% of students on the core modules completed the assessment (compared with 46% of expected
students turning up to face-to-face classes the previous year), with most of those scoring 70% and
above, indicating more engagement and positive learning than we had previously achieved.
We also wanted to know what the students thought of the experience, and so we asked what they
felt was the most useful thing they learnt, and what didn’t work so well. From this we received
overwhelmingly positive comments, with some students listing virtually every section in response to
the ‘most useful thing they learnt’. The ‘didn’t work so well’ responses have provided us with some
areas for improvement and tweaking, but no-one indicated that they didn’t enjoy it, or resented the
time they had to spend on it.
Comments about the most useful parts included:
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“The art of searching effectively over the internet”
“Wide range of learning types employed, including…videos”
“How to improve my search results and also how I can decide whether information is
reliable and good enough to use”
Anecdotal follow up with the module leaders has indicated that the quality of the literature being
referenced in the associated written assignments has improved when compared with students at the
same stage in previous years, and hopefully this will therefore support the students’ learning of the
topic and their ability to continue successfully through the course.
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Building Legal Information Skills (BLIS)
The integration of information literacy skills into summative assessment takes place in the core level
1 Legal Method module. Building Legal Information Skills (BLIS) comprises a set of online tutorials
covering core areas of competency for the level 1 undergraduate in law. The tutorials were
originally created using Course Genie and later Wimba Create.
Each of the six units stands alone and students can work through the set independently and in
any order once the foundation module on ‘Database Search Strategies’ has been completed.
Within the framework of the Legal Method module students are scheduled to attend their first
seminar workshop in the library PC labs. The PC labs accommodate 50 students and seminar
groups are grouped to fill the lab.
One of the law librarians and one member of academic staff facilitate a one hour workshop
where students are introduced to BLIS and the first assessment in Legal Method. The focus of
the workshop is entirely hands on with students starting the BLIS modules in a supportive
environment where any queries can be fielded straightaway. This is usually the first time
students have used the VLE to access module information and students link to BLIS from their
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module pages rather than the law library web pages. The embedding of BLIS within the course
content on the VLE reinforces a message of integration between library and Law School.
The assessment follows at the end of November. The assessment software on the VLE is used.
All questions are multiple choice to allow for automatic grading since the cohort for 2011/2012
numbered over 400.
Feedback was provided to students in the format of a PDF document, with solution and working
for every question. Each answer was linked to where the student should have acquired the
knowledge, e.g. “See page 34 of your Legal Resource Book or the BLIS Case Law Tutorial”
Use of problem/enquiry based learning
Problem-based learning (PBL) is a technique used extensively amongst health and social care (HSC)
academics as a student-focused pedagogy. HSC subject librarians were keen to develop a more
interactive style of teaching information literacy (IL) and introduced PBL at levels 2 and 3 giving
students an opportunity to practice searching the databases using a quasi real-life case study or
scenario.
Methodology
The librarian explains the 90-minute lesson plan. We then ask students to form groups of 3 and
assign roles to themselves:
- searcher or seeker (person who types out the searches)
- scribe (who makes notes on the worksheet)
- spokesperson (who feeds back to the whole group at the end)
The case study or scenario (problem) is introduced and accompanying worksheets distributed. We
chose to use a few different scenarios in our sessions, but always made sure that at least two groups
were working on the same one so that they could compare searches, results, difficulties, etc, at the
end. Traditionally, only one generic trigger is used which students then interpret as they wish. We
liaised with academic colleagues to devise relevant case studies sometimes based on previous
student dissertations.
The students then have 30 minutes to tackle the problem. There are three stages:
1. They should brainstorm their topic for at least 5 minutes, thinking about concepts,
keywords, synonyms, search strategies, etc, writing it down, but not actually searching.
2. After 5 minutes they move on to search the databases to find relevant research papers. The
librarian walks round and acts as facilitator, offering advice with keywords, subject headings,
etc which allows you to observe how the students work in quasi real-life scenarios.
3. After 30 minutes, the students should be ready to feed back. The spokespeople summarise
what they did, why and how, explain any difficulties, how they resolved them. The librarian
can use the whiteboard to write up concepts and keywords and also use this opportunity to
reinforce any learning outcomes, i.e. explain any advanced search techniques, remind
students about RefWorks or personal accounts. This stage should be as interactive as
possible. It is important to ensure that each group contributes to the discussion.
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We evaluated each session and the feedback was always positive. The students enjoyed working in
groups and we witnessed a lot of peer learning. Most groups really liked the scenarios and we
overheard interesting discussions about the problems during the brainstorming phase. The librarians
also enjoyed delivering these sessions and found them challenging yet also satisfying.
Core workshop programme
At Frenchay and Glenside campus libraries, a programme of ‘core’ workshops is open to any student
or member of staff. The focus is on information skills which are common to all areas of study and on
topics where analysis of enquiries shows that students would benefit from further support.
The workshops were developed and are delivered by a core team of Assistant Librarians. This has
led to more effective use of library staff resources.
The programme varies depending on the time of year – for example with more focus on library
introductions at the start of the Autumn term, and more advanced sessions later in the year,
meaning that students can participate at the point of need. Sessions are promoted via the library
website, with online booking. This offersthe facility for a tutor to sign up for a group of students, in
addition to supporting individual sign ups.
At the end of each term, the workshop programme is reviewed and decisions made about what to
offer during the next term.
The UWE Plagiarism Policy (section 5.1.iii) suggests that students should:
‘ Avail themselves of the information and training opportunities provided by the University
aimed at developing their understanding of academic practice and skills such as referencing,
citation, paraphrasing and compiling a bibliography.’
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Information Literacy teaching offered by subject librarians:
This might involve:
 introduction of students to the library and its services and resources via activities that are
embedded into the curriculum and that take place either face to face or online
 information skills sessions appropriate to students studying at each level of their programme
and timed/devised to ensure maximum engagement, e.g.:
o at level 1 when researching for a first major assignment
o at the end of level 2/beginning of level 3 to consolidate previous learning and to
support higher level extended work
o to support specialist modules and integrated into the assessment
o at level M, as appropriate to the previous knowledge and understanding of the
students
 ‘team teaching’ with faculty staff which allows exploitation of the specialist skills and
knowledge of librarians, academics and learning developers, while providing students with a
learning experience which is contextualised and holistic.
 provision of technology enhanced learning (TEL) materials that can be used by students at
the point of need. These could be aimed at all students, or designed to support a particular
cohort, module or subject. The library’s iSkillZone provides resources that support the
development of core IL skills.
 provision of a programme of workshops open to all students
 workshops and support for academic and professional services staff
Library Services Faculty Librarians
http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/library/yoursubject/subjectlibrariansstudents/byfacultyandsubject.aspx
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