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Information literacy advocacy

Wales

The Welsh Assembly Government has committed itself, through Libraries for Life: Delivering a Modern Library Service for Wales 2008-11 , to “develop people’s skills in accessing information and using resources to assist them make informed decisions” (page 14). This strategy document highlighted the work of the Gateways to Learning project which aimed to widen participation in lifelong learning through developing participants information literacy skills though their local library.

In December 2009, a 24-hour event considered the development of a cross-sectoral information literacy framework for Wales. The event was organised by WHELF (Wales Higher Education Libraries Forum) and funded by CyMAL and the Regional Development Officers.  Delegates came from HE, FE, public and school library services, and included other interested stakeholders such as DCELLS and CyMAL.  For a report on the event, see Karl Drinkwater's post on the RSC Wales blog.  The delegates agreed an action plan including a draft statement and formulation of a steering group to progress towards an Information Literacy Framework for Wales.

Scotland

In this podcast interview John Crawford and Christine Irving talk to Philip Pothen about their work and argue that information literacy is the ‘democratic right’ of every person.

A petition regarding information literacy was submitted to the Scottish Parliament. The Public Petitions Committee met on the 31st May 2006 and agreed that given the number and quality of the responses they had received regarding the Information Literacy petition that they would seek the views of the views Information literacy skills - the link between secondary and tertiary education project team as the petitioner. Responses received included the Scottish Executive, Learning and Teaching Scotland, the Scottish Qualifications Authority, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education, the Educational Institute of Scotland, Universities Scotland, the School Library Association in Scotland, and Unison school librarians in Scotland. Some responses have been favourable but it is clear that the need to identify information literacy as a separate issue in the curriculum is not universally recognised. The responses can be accessed via the project website.

The petitioners responded to the Public Petitions Committee comments in September 2006. Additional responses were also made by the School Library Association (Scotland) and the National Forum on Information Literacy.

This tem was taken from a posting to the lis-infoliteracy discussion list by Christine Irving, Research Assistant / Project Officer (part-time), Information literacy skills - the link between secondary and tertiary education project and from their website.

England

In January 2009 the CILIP CSG Information Literacy group wrote responses to two recent government initiatives:

  • DCMS review on public libraries re the strand entitled Digital Services and Information Literacy. 
  • Digital inclusion: an action plan for consultation.
The responses stressed that information literacy skills are just as vital as easy access to IT hardware and software for individuals to be digitally included in society.

Representatives from the CILIP CSG Information Literacy group met with the DfES in November 2006 to discuss information literacy and the schools curriculum. Notes of the meeting and the powerpoint presentation given by the group are available on the CSG Information Literacy website.

Unesco
Unesco have produced an easy-to-read publication on what information literacy means. It is designed for busy public policy-makers, business executives, civil society administrators and practicing professionals and could therefore be used in advocacy work. It is called "Understanding information literacy: a primer" and is available for downloading in English or French from their website.

Page maintained: by the CILIP CSG Information Literacy Group
Updated: 5th March 2010