Information literacy in the workplace: a small exploratory study

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Information literacy in the workplace a small
exploratory study

• Christine Irving - Glasgow Caledonian University

information interactions and impact i3
conference Robert Gordon University 25 28th
June 207
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Information literacy definition

• Information literacy is knowing when and why you
  need information,
• where to find it, and how to evaluate, use and
  communicate it in an
• ethical manner.
• The skills (or competencies) that are required to
  be information literate
• Require an understanding of
• a need for information
• the resources available
• how to find information
• the need to evaluate results
• how to work with or exploit results
• ethics and responsibility of use
• how to communicate or share your findings
• how to manage your findings.
• www.cilip.org.uk/professionalguidance/informationl
  iteracy/definition/

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Way people interact with the Information and
Knowledge content of todays systems and services

• not surprising the Internet was in many cases the
  most used information resource - this is the way
  most organisations use to satisfy their
  information needs.
• however the research identified that employers
  are at risk of an over reliance on technologys
  capacity to hold ever increasing amounts of
  information especially the organisations
  Intranet and the world wide web and
  underestimating their employees skills in
  managing, accessing and evaluating the
  information they find without suffering from
  information overload or only utilising the
  sources of information they are familiar with or
  find easy to use.
• Im sure that there are resources buried
  somewhere in the systems
• and archives but unbelievably its well nigh
  impossible and you only
• become aware of specific information because
  someone thinks thats
• worthwhile pushing onto everyones desktop.

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Levels of information literacy skills and
competencies

• interviewees felt that these skills and
  competencies were very / extremely important at
  work and that it was expected that people had
  these skills
• although employers are not explicitly looking for
  information literacy skills and competencies by
  name they are assuming that employees will come
  with these skills
• the individuals in this small study felt that
  they had some of the skills and competencies
  either to a degree or in part
• although there was an indication that for some
  their evaluation skills particularly of Internet
  resources could be improved upon
• Well sometimes its quite difficult because in
  the past I found some material on a website that
  looked like a reliable source and then I later
  discovered that it wasnt.

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Training received

• Generally, they had not received any formal
  training at work to assist them in using any of
  these resources as demonstrated by the following
  comments
• In house learning by example, watching and
  listening to other people.
• No, (laugh) you just pick these things up as you
  go along.
• At university
• In terms of Internet training the actual use of
  the Internet in terms of using search engines -
  acceptable use policy
• No. Im a huge fan of Google and theres very
  little information that Ive ever required that
  Ive not been able to get to.

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How the level of skills and competencies varies
in the different working environments

• Requires further research on a larger scale than
  this exploratory study.
• However what did come through in the study was
  that the quantity surveyor seemed to place a
  higher level of value and importance on
  information in relation to his job than the other
  interviewees did. For him these skills were
  essential tools for his job and his view that
  an employee with higher information literacy
  skills is more useful to an employer than one who
  hasnt.
• This suggests that a persons profession plays a
  key role of their view of and relationship with
  information and subsequently the level of
  information literacy skills and competencies
  required.

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Findings reflect literature

• as JISC (2005) highlight there is increasing
  evidence that our information skills are not
  keeping pace in any systematic fashion and we
  all need help to develop the techniques we use,
  often unconsciously, to handle information in our
  daily lives. There is therefore a need for these
  skills to be formally recognised and programmes
  developed as indicated by Gerber (1998) that are
  relevant to the workplace, policy requirements
  and to the workers learning style (p.175).

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Findings reflect literature

• Bruce (1999) cites information overload as one
  of the nine real-life inabilities and that this
  inefficiency is partly due to employees lack of
  information literacy skills. With the vast amount
  of information delivered to them through multiple
  channels and in a wide variety of formats,
  individuals need to become information literate

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Conclusions

• as Cheuk (2002) identifies, information literacy
  is still in its infancy stages and more applied
  research should be conducted in the workplace
  settings to qualitatively and quantitatively
  demonstrate the costs to business if the
  employees lack information literacy skills
  (p10).
• The building blocks for information literacy
  should start at school with a skill set which
  further and higher education can recognise and
  develop or which can be applied to the world of
  work directly.
• Within the workplace we can not look at
  information literacy in isolation we need to be
  aware of adult literacies, work-based learning,
  the learning organisation, learning theories and
  styles, formal and informal learning, knowledge
  management

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References

• Bruce, C.S. (1999) Workplace experiences of
  information literacy. International Journal of
  Information Management, 19(1) pp.33-47.
• Cheuk, B. (July 2002) Information literacy in
  the workplace context issues, best practices
  and challenges, White paper prepared for UNESCO,
  the US National Commission on Libraries and
  Information Science, and the National Forum on
  Information Literacy, for use at the Information
  Literacy Meeting of Experts, Prague, The Czech
  Republic. online Available from
  www.nclis.gov/libinter/infolitconfmeet/papers/che
  uk-fullpaper.pdf Accessed 11 May 2005
• Euart, M. (2007) Early career learning at work
  and its implications for Universities. BJEP
  article / paper supplied for Glasgow Caledonian
  University, Caledonian Academy - New Reading
  Group, 29th March 2007.
• Gerber, R. (1998) How do workers learn in the
  workplace? Journal of Workplace Learning, Vol.16
  (1 / 2), pp.22-32.

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References

• Irving. C. Crawford. J. (2006) Begin at school.
  Library Information Update, 5 (1-2).
• Irving, C., (2006) The identification of
  information literacy skills which students bring
  to university, Library and Information Research
  (LIR), 30(96) pp. 47-54.
• JISC (2005) Investing in staff i-skills a
  strategy for institutional development compiled
  for JISC by Alison McKenzie, Manchester
  Metropolitan University online. Available from
  http//www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/JISC-SISS
  -Investing-v1-09.pdf Accessed 11 May 2005
• Lloyd, A. (2003) Information literacy the
  meta-competency of the knowledge economy? An
  exploratory paper. Journal of Librarianship and
  Information Science, Vol. 35 (2), pp.87-91.
• Mackenzie, A. Makin, L. (2003) Beyond student
  instruction information skills for staff. New
  Review of Academic Librarianship, Vol. 9 (1) pp.
  113-130.

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For more information

• Christine Irving
• Research Assistant / Project Officer (part-time)
• The Scottish Information Literacy Project
• Learner Support
• Glasgow Caledonian University
• Room RS305, (3rd Floor)
• 6 Rose Street
• Glasgow G3 6RB
•  
• Tel [phone]
• e-mail christine.irving_at_gcal.ac.uk
• project website www.caledonian.ac.uk/ils/