Information literacy a key competency for enhancing competitiveness

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Information literacy a key competency for
enhancing competitiveness

• Zdravka Pejova
• Independent information professional
• zdravka.pejova_at_gmail.com
•  
• Business Information Conference
• Grand Hotel Sofia, Bulgaria, November 8, 2007

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USE OF BUSINESS INFROMATION

• This presentation comprises observations,
  conclusions and recommendations regarding the
  use of business information and the necessity of
  information literacy. It is based on the
  experiences of
• 8 workshops Market of Business Information in
  Slovenia in the
• period 1990 - 2006
• providing information and library support to
  the International
• MBA program at the ICPE, Ljubljana Slovenia
  (1989 2006)
• collaboration in national and international
  activities on promotion
• of Information literacy 2003 - 2007

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WORKSHOPMARKET OF BUSINESS INFORMATION IN
SLOVENIA

• A biannual event organized by the ICPE
  International Center for Promotion of
  Enterprises, Ljubljana, Slovenia, at which the
  latest national and international business
  information products and services, accompanied
  by an exhibition, demo and trial use, were
  presented
• Started in 1990, at the beginning of transition
  process towards market economy,
• over the years it developed into a
  specialized forum for
• addressing various questions of enterprises
  access and use of business information
• discussing current business information
  management concepts such as information
  management, knowledge management, business
  intelligence, competitive intelligence...

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WORKSHOPINFORMATION AND LIBRARY SUPPORT TO
BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT EDUCATION

• In 1996 the ICPE International Center for
  Promotion of Enterprises, Ljubljana, Slovenia
  organized a workshop on
• comparing the information and library
  support to business and management schools
  between well established schools from five
  developed economies and newly set up ones from
  eleven countries in transition
• The workshop highlighted a striking discrepancy
  in the range of
• information resources used in support to
  the academic and research work !

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WORKSHOPINFORMATION AND LIBRARY SUPPORT TO
BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT EDUCATION

• Well established schools from developed
  economies
• Rich in information resources (subscriptions to
  expensive databases and integrated information
  services)
• Well organized and run by highly specialized
  librarians and business information specialists)

• Newly set up schools from eleven
  countries in transition
• Extremely poor in information resources or none
• Lack of fully dedicated specialized librarians
  and business information professionals

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10 YEARS LATER

• We do not speak anymore of countries in
  transition ! We speak of
• countries members of EU and of
  internationalized and globalized
• economies
• We witness
• further development and sophistication of the
  business information products and services with
  extensive and deep coverage of emerging economies
• unprecedented possibilities for access and use of
  information
• enhanced by the continuous development and
  expansion of the
• ICT and Internet

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10 YEARS LATER

• Many business and management schools have
  improved their library and information support
  but still there is a considerable gap in
  resources and services provided
• We still face a serious underutilization of the
  existing wealth of information and knowledge in
  the academic and research sector, in the
  commercial and corporate sector, in public
  administration and among all citizens in general
  !
• One of the major reasons Lack of
  Information Literacy !

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UNESCO-CEI WORKSHOP ON INFORMATION LITERACY
INITIATIVES FOR CENTRAL AND SOUTH-EAST EUROPEAN
COUNTRIES, LJUBLJANA, ICPE, 2006

• Representatives of 19 countries, memebers
  of CEI Central European Inititaive
• presented the Information Literacy in the
  countries of the region and
• discussed the needs for awareness
  raising and building national
• capacities for information literacy
  development
• produced the document Achieving an Information
  Society and a Knowledge-Based Economy through
  Information Literacy Proposal for an Information
  Literacy Platform and an Action Plan for Central
  and South-East European Countries
• http//www.coil-ll.si/UserFiles/File/Proposal20fo
  r20an20Information20Literacy20Platform_Brochur
  e.pdf

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WHAT IS MEANT BY INFORMATION LITERACY ?

• 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. (CILIP, 2004)
• To achieve a strong knowledge economy countries
  need people who are lifelong learners, able to
  find, evaluate and incorporate new knowledge and
  technology into their practices at work. The key
  to their capacity to do so is Information
  Literacy. This is the capacity to find,
  evaluate, store, retrieve and use information to
  solve problems and to create new knowledge for
  new situations.
• Information literacy in the context of business
  and mangement education and practice is referred
  to as Business Information Literacy
• http//www.cilip.org.uk/publications/updatemagazi
  ne/archive/archive2005/janfeb/armstrong.htm
• http//www.coil-ll.si/UserFiles/File/Proposal20
  for20an20Information20Literacy20Platform_Broch
  ure.pdf

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INFORMATION LITERACY AND BUSINESS SCHOOLS

• Information literacy as a key outcome for higher
  education has been increasingly recognized by
  accrediting agencies, including the Association
  to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB
  International)
• Information Literacy and Business Information
  Literacy efforts continue to grow on campuses and
  in the work place across the world
• The increasingly competitive global market,
  which requires efficient and fast deployment of
  information and knowledge, is becoming one of
  the major drivers of the information literacy
  agenda

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BEING COMPETITIVE

• Being competitive for enterprises means
• possessing the ability for rapid adaptation to
  external conditions,
• quick response to consumer demands,
• continual innovation and improvement in products
  and services so that they can meet the test of
  wider regional, national and international
  markets.
• the above demands business intelligence,
  competitive intelligence, knowledge management
  solutuions
• these solutions on their hand demand advanced
  information literacy skills.
• ICT skills alone
  are not sufficient !

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Project proposal ALIGNING INFORMATION LITERACY
WITH WORKPLACE EXPECTATIONSALA 2007 Emerald
Research Grant Application, Submitted by Yuhfen
Diana WuDr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, San
Jose State University, San Jose, California,
USA

• This project proposal will examine the
  following issues
• if business students are properly trained and
  prepared to perform effectively in a highly
  competitive workplace
• what are industrys expectations for a new hire
  
• how information is gathered and used in the
  workplace
• if college information literacy programs align
  with industry expectations.
• http//www.sjsu.edu/dwu/ALAEmerald2007.doc

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Project proposal ALIGNING INFORMATION LITERACY
WITH WORKPLACE EXPECTATIONSALA 2007 Emerald
Research Grant Application, Submitted by Yuhfen
Diana WuDr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, San
Jose State University, San Jose, California, USA

• The author of this project proposal plans to
  conduct site visit and survey international
  companies in the Silicon Valley, California,
  Taiwan, and Hong Kong in order to study the
  information seeking behavior at corporate
  workplace.
• The expected valuable insight to be obtained
  will be incorporated into information literacy
  course plan to make sure SJSUs IL education
  aligns with the industry expectations.

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THE COST OF LACK OF INFORMATION LITERACY

• Studies have quantified the cost of not finding
  the right information at the right time.
  According to a report by Feldman (2004) of the
  IDC
• The time spent looking for and not finding
  information costs a
• company a total of 6 million a year.
  
• The cost of reworking information because
  it hasnt been found
• costs that organization a further 12
  million a year and
• The success rate in finding the right
  information at the right time is
• only 50 or less.
  http//www.sjsu.edu/dwu/ALAEmerald2007.doc

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THE COST OF LACK OF INFORMATION LITERACY

• Another study conducted by OutSell (2004)
  reveals that the salary cost in reworking and
  finding right information alone to American
  businesses is 107 billion a year, it further
  states,
• this is a 107 billion information literacy
  problem.
• What is the price of the information
  literacy (illitercay) problems in the businesses
  of the region ?
• http//www.sjsu.edu/dwu/ALAEmerald2007.doc

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CONCLUSIONS

• Despite the increased number of business
  and management schools, widespread use of the ICT
  and Internet, the countries in the region have a
  situation in which
• there is a lack of awareness and in-depth
  knowledge of both the enterprises information
  needs and the existence and availability of
  (business) information
• Despite the considerable increase in the number
  of business and management education schools and
  programs there is still a very high percentage
  of ignorance among enterprises (managers /
  entrepreneurs / employees) about accessing and
  using business information
• most enterprises still frequently rely on
  informal and unreliable sources of information
  to manage their business activities.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

• Governments and ministries should
• develop policies and strategies for expanding
  Information literacy training programs beyond
  education systems and make them part of the
  continuous professional education and lifelong
  learning for the workforce
• Schools of Business and Management should
• formally recognize the need for integrating
  Business Information Literacy within their
  curricula
• strengthen the position of their specialized
  business information centers and libraries.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

• Chambers of industry and commerce, business
  development centers should
• work on increasing the business leaders
  awareness on
• how business information services can support and
  advance the business activities of enterprises
• explaining the role of information literacy for
  improving the performance of employees /
  organizations / enterprises / economies
• Create numerous training opportunities on the
  access and use of business information and
  information literacy.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

• The presented experience from the activities in
  Slovenia as well as from the experience from
  similar conferences and workshops in the region
  show that these promotional actvities have been
  too few and too rare to achieve some significant
  advancements on the promotion of the use of
  business information and the necessity of
  information literacy.
• This unfavourable situation has been going too
  long which points out to the fact that it will
  not be resolved by itself.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

• The countries of the region, in cooperation with
  their governments, academic sector, chambers of
  commerce and industry as well as the national and
  international businesses information services
  producers and providers, should join their
  efforts and consider
• creation of a consortium for promotion of the
  use of business information sources and
  implementaion of business information literacy
  programs
• providing support to one of the existing
  business information workshops, conferences,
  forums in the region with the focus on SEE to
  become a joint and major, regular
  international event.

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CONCLUSIONS