Measuring (or trying to) information literacy: or Naught for

your comfort John Crawford

Glasgow Caledonian University

• ‘Some surveys of academics’ use (or non-use) of electronic journals, databases or subject gateways have made academics sound like naughty children who are wilfully refusing to use these nice electronic goodies. Rather than trying to measure academics’ level of information literacy against some generic standard, it makes more sense for librarians… to engage with the language and social discourse of the discipline…’

• Webber et al, LIR, 29 (93) 2005

Pedagogical models: Objectivism/transmittal mode

• Objectivism ‘views the world as an ordered structure of entities which exists and has meaning quite apart from the observer or participant’. Brophy 2001

• ‘..transmittal mode of learning based on the assumption that students are empty containers receiving knowledge transmitted by their tutor’. Andretta 2005

Pedagogical models: Constructivism

• ‘Knowledge is a state of understanding and can only exist in the mind of the individual [learner]; as such, knowledge must be constructed – or reconstructed by each new learner through the process of trying to make sense of new information in terms of what that individual already knows. Bruce 1997

Practical pedagogy ?

• Learners place their own interpretation on learning events based on previous experience (BNE FT/PT focus group 2005)

• Much user education is based on objectivism – a correct way to use the catalogue, DDC, EIS etc. Brophy 2006

• A right and wrong sort of way to do it – e.g. Gateways?

Practical issues

• Metasearching – the trend to the presentation of services which hide complexities from the end user and aggregate together heterogeneous resources (JISC Information Environment)

• The reality of students’ lives

• Acquisition of information is a way of life

Specialist Practice Nurses focus group, GCU Nov. 2001

• ‘ We have no time to play around or even to take a broad educational view. It has to be relevant to assignments. We just want to get through the course and get out of here’.

A brief history of EIS usage evaluation 1

• A counting culture – the Equinox Project 1999

• Munster – Email and Internet – services most used by students and these mainly for private purposes. Obst 1995

• Justeis Project – Internet, OPACs and email most used. Use of ejournals, web databases and JISC mediated services low. Armstrong 2001

A brief history of EIS usage evaluation 2

• Jubilee Project 1999-2004 – Initially little change in patterns of usage over time

• 5th and final annual report (2004) – Student usage of EIS had increased from 40% to 80% in 5 years. Ease of access improved but lack of evaluation of information students receive electronically

A brief history of EIS usage evaluation 3

• the inability to see the complex truths beyond the figures… need to take into account the flow of electronic information, information literacy skills and their measurement, and satisfaction and experience measures’. Town 2004

Usage of Electronic Information Services at GCU (EIS)

• Preliminary focus groups November 2001 – March 2002

• Surveys - Spring 2002 and Oct 2002 – Feb 2003• Hierarchy of usage by subject• Link between EIS usage and student

progression and retention• Link between EIS usage and an innovative

learning and teaching agenda • Growth in off campus use – home and work

Webber et al 2005

• A large scale study of UK academics’ conceptions of information literacy across a range of disciplines

• Article focuses on English and Marketing • English – emphasis on the printed book as most

important for their research. IL not career but citizenship orientated. Attachment to the ‘physical library’

• Marketing – Emphasis on a variety of sources – market reports, company websites etc. organisations and people. Preferred electronic access to the physical library with a strong emphasis on the ‘real world’ and career development.

Modes of knowledge

• Mode 1 – Problems are set and solved in a context governed by the, largely academic interests, of a specific community. Disciplinary and characterised by homogeneity. Organisationally hierarchical and tends to preserve its form

• Mode 2 – Work environment - Knowledge is carried out in the context of application and is transdisciplinary. Characterised by heterogeneity. Organisationally more heterarchical and transient. More socially accountable and includes a wider, more temporary and heterogeneous set of practitioners. Gibbons et al 1994.

Questions

• Where have they come from?

• Where are they going to?

Where have they come from?

• People come to IL from their own experience which may not be compatible with library models

• People use other people – social networks, trusted colleagues

• Reliance on readily accessible, preference for one/few points of access

• The library may be respected rather than used

Where are they going to?

• Lifelong learners – shift from content to ability to learn

• Workers – information to support decision making and career development

• Is it a competition issue?

• Problem based thinkers

• People with recreational information needs

Specialist Practice Nurses focus group, GCU Nov. 2001

• ‘We cannot trust Internet direct[ion] to companies e.g. drug companies [which] are unlikely to provide unbiased research evidence especially if they did not pay for it. Our research will be implemented in practice and can influence practice. We need best practice for the good of the patients and we get respect and ‘clout’

Specialist Practice Nurses focus group, GCU Nov. 2001

• ‘Yes we use electronic services to a very high degree. Every piece of work that we do needs backup evidence from research e.g. matching drugs to specific illnesses. Critical thinking and analysis is [the] key to our course. Traditional library research methods would not deliver at the level we now require. Electronic services are, without doubt, the best thing about the Library.’

Conclusions

• Usage varies with subject• Tell them what they need to know, not

what you think they should know• Keep an open mind about the definition

and experience of information literacy • Try to contribute to the long term

professional development of students• Interest yourself in and try to influence the

workplace

Some references • Crawford, John et al (2004) Use and awareness of electronic

information services by students at Glasgow Caledonian University: a longitudinal study, Journal of librarianship and information science, vol. 36, no.3, pp. 101-117

• Webber, Sheila et al (2005) A comparison of UK academics’ conceptions of information literacy in two disciplines: English and Marketing, Library and information research 29. (93), 4- 15

• Crawford, John (2006) The use of electronic information services and information literacy, Journal of librarianship and information science, 38, (1), pp. 33-44

• Crawford, John & Irving, Christine (2006) Begin at school. Library + Information Update, 5 (1-2), pp. 38-39

Contact details

• Dr. John Crawford,• Library Research Officer, • Glasgow Caledonian University,• Room 302, (3rd floor)• 6 Rose Street,• Glasgow,• G3 6RB• Tel: 0141-270-1360• Email jcr@gcal. ac.uk