It & Ilit 2002: The 1st International Conference on IT and Information Literacy
Hannelore Rader
On the days of 20-22 March 2002 the first International Conference on Information Technology and Information Literacy was held in Glasgow, Scotland,under the sponsorship of three academic institutions, the University of Glasgow,the University of Strathclyde and Glasgow Caledonian University.
A total of 143 people from 13 countries including librarians, information technologists and academics were in attendance. Two keynote speakers and 45 parallel session speakers addressed a variety of topics related to information and technology skills. The themes of the meeting focused on empowering and enabling learners, effective access to information, cooperative ventures between faculty, librarians and technologists, the difference and similarity between technology and information literacy, and the development of standards for improved learning outcomes. The conference provided an effective venue for attendees to discuss topics, exchange ideas and share practices.
Bill Nisen, Director of the e-Institute at the Universities of Strathclyde and Glasgow spoke about "Never enough time". He discussed problems related to the constantly changing technology. He stated that there is too much information but not necessarily appropriate tools nor enough energy and time to deal appropriately with the constantly changing information environment. He spoke about the need to transform institutions and having the courage to change. He posed a number of challenges related to human and technical interfaces in the future electronic environment such as economic issues, difficulty in personalizing information, software changes and related impacts on education. New pedagogical models will be needed in the technology environment and information technology skills levels must increase.
Hannelore B. Rader gave the second keynote address. Her presentation was entitled "Preparing an information literate society: the US experience."She summarized the changing higher education environment and new challenges for educators in the changing information and technology environment. She talked about library-faculty collaboration to ensure that students learn information skills, and she provided examples of such undertakings at various academic institutions in the United States. She described the ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries) national standards for information literacy as well as expected outcomes of teaching information skills in a successful learning environment.
The parallel session papers originated mostly in England and Scotland with a few from Australia, Canada, Iran, Ireland, Nigeria, Sweden and the USA. The topics ranged from information skills instruction to students in kindergarten through higher education. Several talks covered the teaching of information skills within distance and online education. A variety of methodologies were described on how information skills are taught. Some institutions have it integrated into the curriculum, some offer separate credit courses, and others have online modules.
Descriptions of the British information literacy endeavors included detailed information on the SCONUL Task Force on Information Skills. The Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL), founded in 1980, has 157 members. It works to improve the quality and to extend the influence of libraries in higher education, and the national libraries in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It has recently published its vision for academic information services in 2005 http://www.sconul.ac.uk/vision2005.htm.
The SCONUL vision for 2005 stresses the development of Web portals, managed information environments and formal partnerships. It emphasizes learning and research as a distributed model in a seamless system of local, regional,national and global resources. Finally, it predicts the role of library staff will be one of advisers and trainers. SCONUL holds meetings and conferences,works on staff development, provides information and advising services, provides guidelines on learning and teaching and publishes working papers, briefing papers, statistics, guidelines and newsletters.
A number of British universities are working with the SCONUL guidelines and several presentations from Cranfield University, University of Sheffield,University College Northampton provided descriptions of their experimentation with the SCONUL seven pillars model for information literacy and related assessments. Other British universities are utilizing virtual training suites,e.g. www.vts.rdn.ac.uk online modules,tutorials, distance education modules, and a variety of other modes of instruction to teach students appropriate information skills. One interesting research project currently conducted at Northumbria University is JUBILEE, a study of user behavior in information seeking, to predict, monitor and characterize information-seeking behavior related to electronic information services in British higher education institutions. At Cardiff University work is in process to adopt an information literacy policy by the university as a whole. Several presentations summarized information skills training in primary and secondary education.
The University of Glasgow has been working on the CITSCAPES Project since 1999 to investigate student computer and information technology training at universities and colleges of higher education throughout the United Kingdom. Information literacy was discussed in terms of staff development and networked learning throughout the University of Glasgow.
The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) has provided funding for projects related to information literacy for students in UK tertiary education. Several learning materials have been developed to help with this endeavor and to help students develop research skills (http://edina.ac.uk).
The Australian presenters emphasized the need for learners constantly to refine and upgrade their information skills in an ever changing information environment. Lifelong learning is a necessity and students must be prepared for it in higher education. At Queensland University of Technology in Australia academicians and librarians collaborate to ensure that students develop appropriate information skills utilizing a variety of teaching and learning strategies.
At Linkoping University in Sweden librarians and faculty have been experimenting for more than ten years to teach students appropriate information skills so they can function as information communicators who have highly developed problem-solving and information skills, who can evaluate information critically and who have an understanding of knowledge production.
Collaboration between the library and information technologies at the University of Calgary in Canada during the last three years has resulted in the development of a student learning center called the "the Information Commons"with 24/7 access. This facility provides learning and practice of information and technology skills.
From the USA four presentations addressed:
a computer fluency course at the University of Buffalo using e-learning and online teaching and assessment;
a description of a study of people's Web use experience in higher education at St Johns University in New York to link usability research with information literacy program planning;
a description of the "instruction commons" at Iowa State University,an information literacy project designed to integrate electronic resources and library research instruction into classes (www.lib.iastate.edu/commons/index.html);
a research project to measure students' information literacy competency at Ferris State University in Michigan.
An analysis of in-depth interviews with 20 academic lecturers from social science faculties in five Irish universities to assess the role of information literacy in academia revealed that information literacy holds a relatively insignificant place. More research is needed within the academic community to integrate information literacy programs into the university curricula. At Queens University in Belfast a pilot project for information and communication technology training was instituted for staff and found to be effective for them. However, a more appropriate approach will be needed for students as part of their existing courses of study.
The conference concluded with a panel discussion on building partnerships between librarians, technologists and faculty for information literacy,development of measuring instruments for learning outcomes and training the workforce.
More research is needed especially in library and information schools. Policy makers in government and education need to become involved in these discussions. Australia provides a good example where government policy has been instituted to ensure information literacy preparation throughout education. Better preparation is needed to transition students from the university to the workplace.
A book will be published later this year to summarize the conference, papers and discussions.
Hannelore B. Rader(h.rader@louisville.edu) University Librarian, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
