Helping Students Develop
Information Skills is Everyone’s
Business
Examining Information Contexts

Welcome
Lauren Hays, Librarian @Lib_Lauren

MidAmerica Nazarene University, Kansas, USA
Claes Dahlqvist, Librarian @clabbedahl
Kristianstad University, Kristianstad, Sweden
Erik Christiansen, Librarian @eriksation
Mount Royal University, Calgary, Canada

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3

Outline
1. Objectives and purpose
2. Define information literacy
3. Discuss the theoretical underpinnings of information
literacy
4. Overview of the United States and Canadian context
5. Overview of the Swedish context
6. Group brainstorm activity and discussion (information
contexts)
7. Information literacy through the SoTL lens
8. Critiques of information literacy and future research
directions within SoTL
4

Objectives
By the end of this session, participants will have
● Defined information literacy
● Discussed the information literacy skills in
their disciplinary/professional context
● Developed ideas about how information
literacy is best taught in their discipline
● Explain how SoTL practices can strengthen
information literacy research
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1

Information
Literacy Theory
and Practice
Foundations and ties to SoTL

ACRL

“

Information literacy is the set of
integrated abilities encompassing the
reflective discovery of information, the
understanding of how information is
produced and valued, and the use of
information in creating new knowledge
and participating ethically in
communities of learning

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Alexandria Proclamation

“

Information literacy empowers
people in all walks of life to seek,
evaluate, use and create information
effectively to achieve their personal,
social, occupational and educational
goals. It is a basic human right in a
digital world and promotes social
inclusion in all nations

8

Theoretical I.L. teaching and learning perspectives
Behaviorism - Focus on passive learners´
observable and measurable generic transferable
behavior and skills
Constructivism - Focus on learners´ construction
of internal active behavior and experiences





Phenomenography – Focus on learners´
variation in experiencing phenomena
Social constructivist theory – Focus on
learners´ as active part of situated contexts
and communities of practice

Photo by Iñaki del Olmo on Unsplash

(Limberg, L., Sundin, O., & Talja, S., 2013; Marton, F. & Booth, S., 1997; Pilerot & Hedman, 2009; Rosman, Mayer, &
Krampen, 2016; Vygotsky, 1962; Wenger, 1998)

10

Group discussion
What are the essential
information literacy skills in
your discipline?
What skills do your students
need to be successful in your
discipline?
Photo by Dylan Gillis on Unsplash

14

Common instructional approaches
One-shots
Embedded librarianship
Liaison vs functional
teams

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

(Abrizah et al., 2016; Stephens, 2018; Bruce, 2016)

15

Traditional I.L. research (i)

Four phases of I.L. research (history), Lloyd
and Williamson, 2008

One - Precursors phase, information skills and
bibliographic instruction
Two - Experimental phase, I.L. used in a
research context in education
Three - Exploratory phase, moving beyond a
positivist approach
Four - Evolving phase (current), moving away
from educational and other contexts and
recognizing the variety of cultural settings

CC image by Startaê Team on Unsplash

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Traditional I.L. research (ii)
Local experiences in the classroom
●
●

Reporting on new instructional
approaches (local)
Understanding student I.L. competencies
(discipline and institution specific)
○ Fluency with different resources and
concepts

Broad
●
●
●
●

Survey I.L. instruction at a national-level
Threshold concepts
Theories and frameworks
Curricular integration

I.L. research tends to be highly collaborative

CC image by Startaê Team on Unsplash

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2

Regional Contexts for
Information Literacy

Maps

19

The North American Context
United States and Canada

Image by Erik Christiansen (CC-BY 4.0)

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North America: Mount Royal University
University
●
●
●
●

Small undergraduate university in
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Approximated 9500 full-time students
Focus on teaching over research
Heavy SoTL research focus

Librarians
●
●

●

Full faculty status
Primary responsibility is information
literacy instruction and teaching
equivalent activities
Librarians also involved in research and
service

CC image by Erik Christiansen
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North America: I.L. instruction prevalence (i)
United States (Julien et al., 2018)
●
●

55% of respondents were full-time
instruction librarians
Undergraduate and first-year students
were the primary target demographic

Canada (Julien et al., 2013)
●

●

Fewer percentage of full-time
instruction librarians (29%).
○ Responsibility shared among
multiple reference librarians
Majority of respondents felt I.L.
instruction should be a shared
responsibility

CC image by CollegeWiseCEL on Flikr
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North America: I.L. instruction prevalence (ii)
Bury (2016) - Faculty perceptions I.L.
Instruction
●
●

●
●

Surveyed faculty from a university in
Toronto
Majority of respondents address I.L. in
their teaching and thought librarians
play a critical role
Respondents in favour of diverse
instructional methods/approaches
Authors stress importance of
partnership and programmatic
instruction
CC image by CollegeWiseCEL on Flikr
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North America: Challenges
Challenges facing librarians is almost
identical between countries
● Faculty buy-in
● Ratio of librarians to students
(especially when demand is high)
● Maintaining student engagement
● Curricular integration

CC image by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash

(Bury, 2016; Julien et al., 2018)

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The Western European Context
Sweden

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Sweden: A very brief history of I.L. instruction
From bibliographic instruction to I.L.
instruction
○

From focus on systems and
sources to focus on students´
behavior and learning, including I.L.

The Bologna process
○
○

Even more focus on students´
learning and I.L.
Librarians involved in I.L. curricula
design
CC image by Kristianstad University

(Attard, A., Di Iorio, E., Geven, K. & Santa, R., 2010; Boyer, 1990; Lindberg, 2015;
Limberg, L., Sundin, O., & Talja, S. 2013; Pilerot, 2018; Virkus, 2003)

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Sweden: I.L. instruction today
●
●
●
●

I.L. instruction today a fundamental part of
Swedish academic librarians’ professional
practice
Librarians do not have faculty status
Most universities have I.L. instruction
functional teams
I.L. and library and Information Science
research strongly influenced by sociocultural theory of learning - information
practices
○ Gap between I.L. research and I.L.
instruction practitioners (librarians)

CC image by Kristianstad University
(Pilerot, 2014; Limberg, L., Sundin, O., & Talja, S. 2013)

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Sweden: I.L. instruction at Kristianstad
University

ILO´s

Constructive alignment in information practices
Librarian-faculty collaboration essential for success

Intended learning outcomes (ILO´s)
●

I.L. in
information
practices

Integrated in discipline- and course-specific curricula

Teaching and learning activities (TLA´s)
●

Integrated with discipline- and course-specific TLA´s
○
Lectures and workshop
○
Flipped classroom

Assessment tasks (AT´s)
●

AT`s

TLA´s

Integrated with discipline- and course-specific TLA´s


Seminars


Worksheets


Quiz

(Biggs, 2011; Limberg, L., Sundin, O., & Talja, S. 2013, Vygotsky, 1962)

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Sweden: Challenges
Challenges facing Swedish and North
American librarians are similar:

●
●

●
●
●

Recognition as teachers
Collaboration faculty - librarians,
librarians - educational developers,
librarians - students
Integrating I.L. in curricula
Ratio of librarians to students
Bridging the gap between I.L. research
and I.L. practices

(Andersson, 2015; Pilerot, 2018; Limberg, L., Sundin, O., & Talja, S.
2013)

CC image by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash

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Group discussion
What are the essential
information literacy skills in
your national/cultural
context?
Are there common
challenges your students
encounter?
Photo by Dylan Gillis on Unsplash

30

3

Information
Literacy through
the SoTL lens
Opportunities

Criticism of information literacy
Treatment of I.L. as its own discipline and
decontextualization of information skills (Farrel & Badke,
2015; Pilerot, 2016)



Treated as generic skills that librarians prescribe
across disciplines

Little evolution beyond the traditional ‘one-shot’ model /
course-level instruction (Saunders, 2012)
Despite the level of instruction, I.L. has not become a
priority for disciplines’ curricula (McGuinness, 2006)





Faculty still see I.L. as an essential skill
I.L. seen as disciplinary-specific and are learned by
doing (situated socio-cultural practices)

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Opportunities in SoTL
Bradley, 2009
●

Provides librarians another avenue to
develop their own teaching practices
○ SoTL underrepresented in the
library literature
○ Framing teaching in SoTL terms

Bring information literacy outside of the
library and information science domain
●
●

Forge new faculty collaborations
Develop the disciplinary contexts
CC image by Javier Allegue Barros on
Unsplash

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Bridging the gap

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CC image by Cody Hiscox on Unsplash

Thanks for attending!
Contact information
Lauren Hays - MidAmerica Nazarene University
ldhays@mnu.edu
Claes Dahlqvist - Kristianstad University
claes.dahlqvist@hkr.se
Erik Christiansen - Mount Royal University
echristiansen@mtroyal.ca

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References (i)
Andersson, H. (2015). Informationskompetens i högskolans kursplaner: En kvalitativ textanalys. Master thesis, Akademin för bibliotek, information, pedagogik och IT. Borås: Högskolan i Borås.
Association of College and Research Libraries. (2015). Framework for information literacy for higher education. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework
Attard, A., Di Iorio, E., Geven, K. & Santa, R. (2010). Student Centred Learning: Toolkit for Students, Staff and Higher Education Institutions. Brussels: European Students´ Union and Education International.
Beacons of the information society: The Alexandria proclamation on information literacy and lifelong learning. (2005). Retrieved from https://www.ifla.org/publications/beacons-of-the-information-society-thealexandria-proclamation-on-information-literacy
Biggs, J.B. & Tang, C.S. (2011). Teaching for quality learning at university: what the student does. (4., [rev.] ed.) Maidenhead: Open University Press
Marton, F. & Booth, S. (1997). Learning and awareness. Mahwah, N.J.: Erlbaum.
Boyer, E. L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered : priorities of the professoriate. Princeton, N.J.: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Bradley, C. (2009, May). The scholarship of teaching and learning. College & Research Libraries News, 70(5). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/203825337/
Bruce. C., Edwards, S., & Lupton M. (2006). Six Frames for Information literacy Education: a conceptual framework for interpreting the relationships between theory and practice. Innovation in Teaching and Learning in
Information and Computer Sciences, 5(1), 1-18. DOI: 10.11120/ital.2006.05010002
Bury, S. (2016). Learning from faculty voices on information literacy. Reference Services Review, 44(3), 237–252. doi:10.1108/RSR-11-2015-0047
Farrell, R. & Badke, W. (2015). Situating information literacy in the disciplines: A practical and systematic approach for academic librarians. Reference Services Review 43(2), 319-340. https://doi.org/10.1108/RSR-11-20140052
Limberg, L., Sundin, O., & Talja, S. (2013). Three theoretical perspectives on information literacy. Human IT: Journal for Information Technology Studies as a Human Science, 11(2).
Julien, H., Tan, M., & Merillat, S. (2013). Instruction for Information Literacy in Canadian Academic Libraries: A Longitudinal Analysis of Aims, Methods, and Success. Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science,
37(2), 81–102. https://doi.org/10.1353/ils.2013.0007
Julien, H., Gross, M., & Latham, D. (2018). Survey of information literacy instructional practices in U.S. academic libraries. College & Research Libraries 79(2), 179-199. doi:10.5860/crl.79.2.179
Lindberg, J. (2015). Att bli bibliotekarie: informationssökning och yrkesidentiteter hos B&I-studenter och nyanställda högskolebibliotekarier. Diss. Borås : Högskolan i Borås, 2015. Borås.
Lloyd, A. & Williamson, K. (2008). Towards an understand of information literacy in context: Implications for research. Journal of LibrarianShip & Information Science 40(1), p. 3-12. DOI: 10.1177/0961000607086616
McGuinness, C. (2006), “What faculty think – exploring the barriers to information literacy development in undergraduate education”, The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Vol. 32 No. 6, pp. 573-582.

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References (ii)
Pilerot, O. (2014). Connections between research and practice in the information literacy narrative : A mapping of the literature and some propositions. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 48(4), 313–321.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000614559140
Pilerot, O. (2018). Information literacies in higher education : A Swedish perspective. Éducation Comparée / Nouvelle Série, 19, 261–289. Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-1477
Pilerot, O. & Hedman, J. (2009). Är informationskompetens överförbar? [Is information literacy transferable?], In: Hansson, B. & Lyngfelt, A. (Eds.) Pedagogiskt arbete i teori och praktik: Om bibliotekens roll för studenters
och doktoranders lärande. Lund: BTJ förlag. pp. 7-44
Saunders, L. (2012), “Faculty perspectives on information literacy as a student learning outcome”, Journal of Academic Librarianship, Vol. 38 No. 4, pp. 226-236.
Virkus, S. (2003). Information literacy in Europe: a literature. Information Research. 8(4), 1-56
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Vygotskij, L.S. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge, Massachusetts: M.I.T. Press.

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