Introducing Information Literacy in the House of Commons #LILAC22

Sheila here, liveblogging from the LILAC conference. Anne-Lise Harding talked about Introducing Information Literacy in the House of Commons. She started by explaining what Select Committees were: groups of Members of Parliament from different parties who investigate key issues e.g. connected with Bills being put before parliament. A variety of people - mostly experts in the topic and stakeholder groups - provide testimony and evidence to teh committee so that the Select Committee can provide informed conclusions. Harding is Senior Liaison Librarian, so based with the select committees and working with senior researchers. Her background in Information Literacy was one of the reasons why she was selected for the role. The researchers she works with tend not to use formally published reports, but more with news reports, grey literature and also direct consultation with experts to collect original evidence. The researchers only work for a limited time in one area, as they get shuffled round periodically. The focus is on enrichment rather than (as with students, say) developing skills, so the support needs to be refined. 

Harding conducted (online) some information needs and information behaviour research: including the research process within different types of committee. She shadowed inquiries, she looked at scoping documents and carried out interviews. She found that early career generalists spend more time researching and analysing. Early-career Specialists spend more time managing the knowledge. For mid career specialists they have developed their specialist skills, but have not developed their general IL skils so much. The generalist, by contrats have had to develop IL skills to deal with the range of topics they investigate, but lack the more specialist subject skills. Harding identified two Liaison Committee reports which focused the initiative on a goal about inclusion and social justice: the reports were The effectiveness and influence of the Select Committee system and Witness gender diversity. 

Harding contrasted the way in which her role in education was teaching students to be performative (so students could do well in their studies) whereas in her current role she sees a broader goal to do with democracy and giving people a voice. 

Following on from Harding's research they created some development modules which could be delivered by MS teams (delivered live and recorded, so accessible afterwards). The modules were: Introduction to library services;  research biases; searching diverse sources; evaluating diverse sources; diverse current awareness; communicating in a diverse manner. The material was peer reviewed by several people (including diversity champions). They have solicited feedback, but it is on-the-spot, and they want some evidence about longer-term impact