In the workplace IL is not generally considered “real” labour: however now work is being reshaped. Increasingly, it is taking place collaboratively, with the use of technology, needing workers to draw on varied information landscape, so the multimodal workplace really needs information literacy. It requires workers who can cope with the overload and uncertainty caused by information-intensive workplaces. She said that in her research information literacy connected people in their workplace, including the performative aspect of work. Workers needed information resilience, a term she put forward for discussion. They needed to understand the skills and knowledge required to innovate and to solve workplace problems.
Lloyd went on to discuss issues “in the critical ground of workplace information literacy research”. Her first lesson was that “workplace is a situated practice”, characterised by people engaged in the pursuit of a particular activity. Lesson 2 was that “information needs are referenced against normative and non normative dimensions” (e.g. nurses having to pay attention to information practices determined by doctors). Lesson 3 was that "work is a collective endeavour", with value placed on collective knowledge. Lesson 4 was that "performance of work requires other information modalities" (e.g. drawing on knowledge of corporeal practice). Thus IL emerges as a social practice, which means negotiating practice, working out the shape of practice and associated knowledge. Lloyd talked about a “People In Practice Approach” to IL (there is a website, but I didn't catch the address, I will aim to post it later)
So, Lloyd identified that IL was articulation work that drew people together, and fundamental to workplace practice. She saw challenges for librarians in supporting people transitioning between education to work, or between workplaces. Turning current workplace research into guidelines that can be used in the workplace was also seen as important.
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