Session Information
12 SES 04 (JS), Information Literacy
Joint Symposium with NW 16 (check Chairs)
Contribution
"Information Literacy, in conjunction with access to essential information and effective use of information and communication technologies, plays a leading role in reducing the inequities within and among countries and peoples, and in promoting tolerance and mutual understanding through information use in multicultural and multilingual contexts." (The Prague Declaration: "Towards an Information Literate Society", 2003.)
A widely accepted definition of IL was published by the Association of College and Research Libraries in the United States and can by summarized as "the set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information." Based on this definition IL was established and differently modelled as a basic technique of information behaviour. We suggest to focus papers and discussions on two aspects:
1. In politics there is a lot of effort on national and international level to investigate und foster IL in educational settings: As a part of ICT Literacy or Media Literacy (primary schools through university and lifelong learning).
Background
On international level this effort is prominently supported by the UNESCO which devotes a special website to IL which provides for example resources on an ‘International state of the art report’ from 2007.
An IEA study in 2013 will focus on Information and Computer Literacy: http://www.iea.nl/icils.html
The EU addresses the topic only in the context of media literacy and has established a not very active Media Literacy Expert Group. Two political documents have been published: in 2007: A European approach to media literacy in the digital environment which was followed by a recommendation in August 2009. Three studies can be accessed on the respective EU website: http://ec.europa.eu/culture/media/literacy/studies/index_en.htm .
In PISA 2009 Assessment Framework the concept of IL was integrated in the dominant focus Reading Literacy:
Questions
Is there a special risk of the Google Generation to be information illiterate? (cf. http://www.skolbibliotek.se/nik/pdf/rowlands.pdf )
Is there a need to address the topic on international or European level?
Which are the educational means of better fostering information competent behaviour?
Which are the means of information providers to support these efforts and to improve wise usage of information sources?
2. Information Literacy can also be a problem of experienced scholars as it is not self-evident competence of (educational) scholars to optimize the subject specific selection, evaluation and use of information resources and to practice digital teaching and publishing cultures. In a time where scholars are nearly always online there seems to be still a gap between technical improvements and actual scholars’ use of sophisticated information, communication and collaboration infrastructures.
There is a good deal of research on the information behaviour of scholars. A comprehensive overview provides: Amanda Spink: Information Behavior. An Evolutionary Instinct. Springer 2010
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/briefingpapers/2010/bpdigitalinfoseekerv1.aspx
Questions
Do researchers need guidance and help to improve their information behaviour?
What can information and communication professionals learn from behaviour research?
Which are the incentives to stimulate the use of digital research and teaching environments?
Which features do inform the adequate design of information, communication and teaching infrastructures for scholars? (cf. http://www.asis.org/~iasummit/2006/files/181_Presentation_Desc.pdf)
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