The role of schools and libraries in the information society
Varga, Katalin, PhD
University of Pécs, Institute of Library and Information Science,
Pécs, Hungary
Well being in the information society
TÁMOP-4.2.2.C-11/1/KONV-2012-0005
Cultivation of a media- and information-literate population is essential for the sustainable development of any society.
MIL is defined as a set of competencies that empowers citizens to access, retrieve, understand, evaluate and use, to create as well as share information and media content in all
formats, using various tools, in a critical, ethical and effective way, in order to participate and engage in
personal, professional and societal activities.
Depending on the country, key stakeholders are likely to be found among the following
• Ministries responsible for information, communication, education, ICT and Internet, employment and culture;
• Universities, information and communication faculties or departments, national departments of statistics;
• Library associations;
• Information management institutions;
• Museums and archives;
• Educational institutions, including those training information and media professionals;
• Private sector representatives including those from IT, e-commerce, and the information and media sector;
• Information professionals and civil society.
• Definition of information need: question formulation in natural language and with controlled vocabulary, defining keywords, defining descriptors or subject headings, using a thesaurus.
• Definition of relevant information resources: printed resources, parts of a book, search engines, thematic websites, library catalogues, electronic, digital and virtual libraries, reference databases.
• Localisation of information: search strategies, filtering options, Boole operators etc.
• Finding relevant information: finding relevant information in different resources, selecting relevant information, finding the fastest way to the information, eliminating duplicates.
• Investigation of information from different aspects: selection, evaluation, analysis, organisation, storing, highlighting the most important elements.
• Processing information: reflection, synthetisation, making bibliographies, citing.
• Management of information: creating new information, applying new knowledge, presentation of new knowledge, managing information, saving information.
The model of information literacy
Requirements and competencies of information literacy
Requirement Competencies
Recognition of the information need Self-evaluation Problem solving competencies Intelligence Curiosity
Knowing the world of information Concept of information Information formats Measuring quality and quantity of information Knowing the significance of information
Knowing the nature of informationresources
Basic literacy Media literacy Library literacy Internet literacy Web 2.0 literacy
Information searching competencies Text comprehension Reading ability Searching among library materials Digital literacy Searching in databases Searching on the internet Using Boole operators and information retrieval
tools Handling the data structures Search strategies and tactics Evaluating search results
Requirements and competencies of information literacy
Evaluation and selection of
information
Recognising quality information
Concept of credibility
Concept of reliability
Concept of objectivity
Critical thinking
Arguing and discussion skills
Make use of information Application of research methods
Creativity
Innovativity
Ethical issues
o Citing rules
o Plagiarism
o Copyright
Creating new information Text composition
Presentation skills
Artistic, creative skills
Categories important for creating an enabling MIL environment at national
level• Media and information in education
o The existence of a mandatory MIL course in the official curriculum (by the
International Standard Classification of Education, ISCED level),
particularly in secondary school and in the teacher training curriculum;
o The existence of training programs to specialize teachers for teaching MIL;
o Specific programs specialized in MIL studies (by ISCED level).
• Media and information literacy policy
• Media and information supply
• Media and information access and use
• Civil society
Information literacy in practice
• In Hungary 11 higher education institutions are offering BA and MA programs in library and information science.
• LIS schools in Hungary work with the same core curriculum, which is supplemented by different specializations.
• Hungarian LIS students are well trained in digital literacy and can attend high quality courses on reference work.
Specialization in information
literacy pedagogy (Pécs)• This program emphasizes the importance of a
critical approach towards information and information resources, and teaches strategies of information retrieval, legal and ethical questions of the use of information.
• The courses’ aim is to develop students’ consciousness of information literacy, and to prepare them for teaching the competencies of information literacy in schools and libraries.
• Many of these students choose a topic for their theses from the field of information literacy.
Information literacy skills of
students in Hungary
• The survey was taken in 2014, the number of
answers is more than 2500.
• We got answers from almost all universities and
colleges in Hungary, and also from people who are
already working.
• A quite clear picture about information seeking
behaviour and information literacy of students.
friends
colleagues
radio
tv
journals
internet search engines
reference databases
borrowed books
own books
library
Where do you search information
for everyday life?
friends
colleagues
radio
tv
journals
internet search engines
reference databases
borrowed books
own books
library
Where do you search information
for your studies
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
politics,
economy, news
study, work,
research
hobby, games everyday
administration
government
administration
facebook e-mail, skype,
chat
What do you use the Internet for?
How do they search?
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Use Boole
operators
Evaluate the hits Satisfied with the
first 10 hits
yes
no
What is difficult in research?
Evaluating the sources Reading through the material
Taking notes Integrating different sources
writing Re-phrasing
Knowing when I should cite a source Knowing how to cite
plagiarism or not Deciding whether "I'm done" or not
Knowing whether I've done a good job
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
How often do you consult these
resources for providing information
during your course-related
assignments?
Course readings
Search engines
Library catalogues
Encyclopedias
Governmental Web
sites Research databases
Gray literature
Blogs
Wikipedia
You Tube
Slideshare
Online forums
Your personal
collection Library shelves
The frequency of consulting
different resources
Major findings
• Except for thesis writing, Hungarian students rarely are required to fulfil tasks that would be called research, either qualitative or quantitative.
• There are no difficulties for them in defining a topic and getting started on an assignment.
• They have no bigger difficulties in defining a search question and strategy.
• About 20% of the students said they have problems with identifying relevant hits.
• It is also hard for them to convert the collected material into new information.
Major findings
• For information seeking the majority of the students uses internet search engines, mainly Google.
• Hungarian students rarely consult government sites, and unfortunately they do not like to use research databases in order to solve study assignments.
• In the selection process freshness and reliability are major issues.
• One of the most important aspects is that the resource should be in Hungarian.
Thank you for yourattention!
Varga, Katalin, PhDUniversity of Pécs, Institute of Library and Information Science,
Pécs, Hungary
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