Information literacy is for life, not just for a good degree: a literature review
Introduction
The concept and practice of information literacy has been widely discussed in library and information professional literature in recent years. In the main, these discussions have focussed on practice in Higher Education (HE), specifically on how librarians may be involved in developing the skills of students to enable them to maximise the use of academic resources, predominantly librarybased, in order to meet the requirements of learning outcomes of their courses. More recently this focus has widened to examine transition from school and Further Education (FE) into University but also into the workplace, recognising the UNESCO assertion that information literacy is a process for lifelong learning (UNESCO, 2006) (eg Antonesa, 2007, Julien & Barker, 2009). The identification of information literacy as an attribute of employability and the concepts, policies and practices of workplace information literacy is the subject of this review. Here, key texts are drawn from academic theoretical and practice-based research and official reports from stakeholders including government, professional associations and industry and commerce in order to provide an overview of the main issues around workplace information literacy, focusing on employability and transition, context and theory, practice and policy. The purpose of the review is to inform CILIP members of the wide range of issues in this developing area in order that they may contribute to its development at all levels in an informed manner.
Background
There are numerous definitions of ‘information literacy’, a term initially proposed in 1974 in a report by Paul Zurkoswki for the (US) National Commission on Libraries and Information Science discussing “universal information literacy by 1984” (1974:1). Information literacy, then, meaning “being able to find what is known or knowable on any subject” (1974:23). Zurkowski was writing about workplace information literacies:
“People trained in the application of information resources to their work can be called information literates. They have learned techniques and skills for utilizing the wide range of information tools as well as primary sources in molding information solutions to their problems” (1974:6). Since then there has been much discussion in the library community, generating numerous slightly varying definitions of information literacy (ACRL, 2000; ANZIL, 2004; CILIP, 2004; SCONUL, 2011), although Owusu-Ansah (2005) suggests that there is more consensus than disagreement, recommending a focus on developing literacies rather than revising definitions. Generally it is agreed that information literacy is about recognising that in an information society we are presented with a multitude of choices of information sources and that navigating these sources and their content in order to maximise the benefit of the information conveyed therein is a literacy in itself as important as reading and numeracy. This is now recognised as a basic human right (UNESCO, 2006). Employability and transition When considering workplace information literacy it is appropriate to consider the current delivery of information literacy, which is located predominantly in Higher Education institutions. Questions arise in the literature about how this type of information literacy may connect to the work environment, and the level of its relationship with employability of students entering the workplace. Despite claims to the contrary, ‘workplace information literacy’ – the effective use of information in the workplace – is nothing new. However it is important to distinguish it from ‘workplace literacy’, a concept which benefitted from much attention during the 1990s relating to wider literacies such as reading levels in workplace learning (eg Hollenbeck, 1993; Perkins, 1993; Stapp, 1998; Hull, 1999; Burnaby & Hart, 2001; Hicks et aL, 2007) and also from the challenges presented by the increase in use of information technologies (ICT) since that period (eg Mabrito, 1997; Mikulecky & Kirkley, 1998; Grabill, 1998; Haas, 1999; Muir, 2002; Panell, 2005; Spitler, 2005; Casner-Lotto & Barrington, 2006;
Cooke & Greenwood, 2008, etc). While these research areas provide some context for workplace information literacy they are not examined in detail in this review. Prompted by information overload issues such as email (eg Peckham, 1997) discussion started to examine the workplace. A general move from ‘library instruction’ to ‘information literacy’ in academia started to consider employability outcomes (eg Abbott and Peach, 2000; Candy, 1995; Calderhead, 1998; CBI, 2009). Cheuk (1998) looked at auditors and engineers using Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process model (Kuhlthau, 1991). The Kuhlthau user-centred model is a frequently used theoretical approach in this research (Limberg (2000), Gasteen and O’Sullivan’s “information literate law firm “ (2000), and most recently applied by Lawal et al, 2014 in their study of Nigerian legal information literacies). Cheuk’s later work in this area (2008) considers the importance placed in business on value and the challenges of information overload. She recommends the wider adoption of information literacy concepts and approaches from education in the workplace environment. Business students and their employability is returned to by Costa (2009), who notes the importance of networks and context and raises the importance of HE information literacy provision in considering these employability needs when preparing students for the workplace. The repeated appearance of the importance of networks and communications with other people are key aspects of workplace information literacy literature (Crawford & Irving, 2011). This user information needs approach to information literacy and the introduction by Wenger (1998) of a communities of practice approach to learning reflected a shift from a library / resource-centred approach to user education to a more user-centred approach. This shift significantly accelerated the growth in attention paid to information literacies during this period. Although, as demonstrated above, there is generally considered to be a link between information literacy and employability (Crawford & Irving, 2012), until recently there was little research into this
Context and theory The work of Christine Bruce (1999) draws together the issues of user-centred information literacy development in Higher Education and the context of the developments in technology in the workplace – and their relative emphases. She suggests different ways of describing information literacies (such as environmental scanning, information management, research and development) that map to the HE view of information literacies, and reinforce the simultaneous link and disconnect between information literacy in education and in the workplace:
“Information literacy is about peoples’ ability to operate effectively in an information society. This involves critical thinking, an awareness of personal and professional ethics, information evaluation, conceptualising information needs, organising information, interacting with information professionals and making effective use of information in problem-solving, decision-making and research. It is these information based processes which are crucial to the character of learning organisations and which need to be supported by the organisation’s technology infrastructure.” (Bruce, 1999:47)
The tension created by this link/disconnect is a key issue still manifested in the current literature and is a fundamental problem which continually undermines attempts of the engagement of the library and information profession in the development and delivery of workplace information literacy. One of the main challenges facing librarians in developing opportunities to develop information literacies in the workplace is through lack of recognition at an organizational level that these literacies are not relevant. Kluseck & Bornstein (2006) reviewed job profiles of US job descriptions drawn from a government database and found that many jobs recognized the importance of information skills – under another name. Similar conclusions were drawn by Conley & Gil (2011) in their research into business professionals, who only recognized information literacy elements when identified separately from the umbrella term. Hart Research Associates (2010) report for The Association Of American Colleges And Universities on employers opinions of skills of college leavers supports this finding (although ‘locate, organize, and evaluate information’ (2010:2) comes sixth in a ranked list of seven ‘intellectual and practical skills’ (2010:2)). In business, for example, critical thinking is a key attribute, considered to be an element of information literacy (Heichman Taylor, 2008). This attribute was not addressed in Australian government librarians’ definition of information literacy (Kirton et al, 2008), which reinforces the contextual nature of this concept. A link between information literacy and person-job fit (and subsequent job-performance) was identified by Li (2010) suggesting an employer-focused rationale
for identifying these literacies. Environmental scanning is another workplace attribute which connects to information literacy (Zhang et al, 2010). Networks and informal sources are identified by Travis (2011) and even within HE the difference may be noted in non-academic staff, where it has been noted that information literacy is less clearly defined, and is related to networks, time and organizing information (Hepworth & Smith, 2008) while O’Farrill (2010) noted the importance of other people in the process of gathering and evaluating information in a Scottish NHS call centre. The tension may be caused by the difference in context: in the workplace, Cheuk’s observations include “information seeking is not always necessary; is often by trial and error; is not 'getting the answer'; is not linear; is not a one man job; and that relevance criteria change” (in Bruce, 2000). Bruce discusses these differences in terms of her Seven Faces of Information Literacy, thus: Information Technology Experience Environmental Scanning Information Sources Experience Becoming Familiar with and using information sources and services Information Process Experience Information processing; packaging for internal/ external consumption Information Control Experience Information management Knowledge Construction Experience Corporate memory Knowledge Extension Experience Research and development Wisdom Experience Professional Ethics Seven faces and workplace processes (Bruce, 1999) (from Bruce 2000) An extension to this comprehensive analysis is supported by library practitioner Smalley (2001), whose workplace research raises the issue of a close relationship between workplace information literacy and knowledge management (“employees and knowledge workers” (2001:689). This connection is strongly supported by the work of Annemaree Lloyd (2003), who, along with Christine Bruce, has made significant contributions to research in the area of workplace information literacies. Lloyd calls for a shift in thinking by librarians in order “…to realign their roles from providers and organizers of information, to facilitators and educators of clients' information access and process.
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