Academic staff's views of Information Literacy #lilac17

Thank to Pam McKinney for another report from the LILAC conference: "Deborah Stebbing and Jane Shelley from Anglia Ruskin university reported on a study they undertook to understand the views academic staff have of IL. They had the support of a newly established pedagogical research unit at the university. Sheila's research on academic conceptions of IL was cited as being particularly useful background for the study.
"They used semi structured interviews to gather data from 22 lecturers, half in the business school and half from the health subject area. Interviewees were given the CILIP definition of IL prior to the interview. Lecturers were concerned with the linking of information to learning, and thought of information literacy as being very contextualised within their discipline, rather than a wider set of abilities across the life course. They were keen that information should be internalised and transformed. Lecturers found it difficult to differentiate skills associated with using information in their discipline, only different sources. In the health area it was identified that students needed to "keep up to date" with health practice as part of IL, whereas in the business subjects, knowledge of news and politics in the wider world was seen to be a key aspect of IL.
"Lecturers were asked what they thought the information literate student was like. They reported that some students are underprepared for university, they were technologically able but lacked skills to evaluate information. Students can be overwhelmed by the volume of information they find."