Information Literacy in the Workplace

A collaborative design initiative in a North American academic library was initiated in 2016 to enhance information literacy and enrich learning conditions in the workplace. This paper describes co-workers’ information intensive and learning centered design processes, which intend to further collective capacity for ‘using information to learn’ over a twelve-month period. Throughout, attention focused on aspects of informed learning - being aware of the kinds of information we are using, how we are using information and how different forms of information come together to inform and transform our work. Reflection and dialogue on information experience stories further aimed to inform information experience design - to allow individuals and groups to experience information and the information environment surrounding it in a range of increasingly complex ways which offers them a richer, broader and more effective information engagement experience.

The paper investigates how the library understanding of the organizational strategy and values affect the adoption of innovations and new services. The paper is based on research and data collected from the adoption of the e-book in Finnish public libraries. The aim is to find out the factors in the libraries’ operating culture that support and prevent the introduction of the e-book. It was noted that in the adaptation of new services management needs to market the strategies and motivate the staff in order to encourage the staff to adopt new innovations.

Information literacy and its related concepts are increasingly important in the digital workplace. How workers use and experience information are dependent on or shaped by the context, such as work tasks, on-the-job experiences, and social aspects. Thus, the role of an organization’s information culture would be expected to influence the development of workplace information literacy. This connection however has not been explored previously. The objective of this paper is to focus information literacy on an organizational level. The connection between information culture and information literacy research is explored in an extensive literature review including about 1800 references in these fields of study. The review shows that only few studies address information literacy in connection to information culture (n = 23), which indicates there is a research gap. With the insights from this analysis it is addressed that there is an advantage of combining the two perspectives in future research.

The paper explores information literacy practices of researchers in the context of information ecologies. Selected examples of information behavior studies of researchers and workplace information literacy are reviewed. Information ecologies in workplaces are explained. Findings of a qualitative study of 19 researchers in Slovakia are presented based on methodology of semi-structured interviews and concept mapping. Two concept maps representing issues of barriers and values in information practices are outlined. Findings suggest that multidimensional factors influence workplace information ecologies, mainly disciplinary cultures, values and tasks. Barriers include administrative overload, disintegration of sources and lack of funding. Main values include deep motivation and development of knowledge. Workplace information ecologies can improve research infrastructures and models of information literacy practices.

The aim of this paper is to investigate how two European university libraries have utilized communication tools to guarantee information literacy and numeracy for academic librarians in order to increase the quality of the services. The paper is based on data about the communication tools implemented and used in the selected institutions. Each communication tool has been defined and their uses compared at each library and its role in their PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) circle considered. The workplace information systems and their valid implementation can help in the organization’s strategy work. It also enhances the quality of the library’s service processes.

This paper reveals the results of the “Informatıon Literacy across the university and workplace reality” survey. This study revealed which are the most needed information skills for the faculty at the workplace. The questionnaire was addressed to Masters students from two universities in Romania and Moldova, who have a job or have their own business. The results of this study will be taken into account in the improvement of the discipline of Information Literacy and Project Management. The survey targeted a pool of 66 individuals from Transilvania University from Brasov and 53 individuals from the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova. This study utilized the questionnaire survey method as a research tool, using SurveyMonkey online.

The purpose of this paper is to present results of the application of the Cognitive Work Analysis (CWA) framework on the study of the ability of subject indexers in Croatian libraries to find and apply the necessary information in order to perform their work. The research was conducted in April and May 2013 on the sample of 10 subject indexers in five Croatian libraries. During the simulated indexing task, subject indexers were asked to index a few documents in the way they usually perform such tasks at work and to verbally describe their thoughts while performing that task. The analysis of the simulated task data revealed that the biggest problems and obstacles for Croatian subject indexers were related to information searching and retrieval of the final subject access point. Majority of subject indexers in the sample had pronounced difficulties in the search and retrieval phase of the task.

Preparing new information professionals for work is challenging and difficult for organizations like libraries, archives, museums and other public and government institutions as well as for commercial firms seeking highly knowledgeable, skillful and motivated individuals. The paper presents the results from the research study in public libraries in Croatia about their views on knowledge, skills and literacies required for employment in these institutions. The research questions inquire about the understanding of knowledge, skills and literacies of new employees; the adjustment of university study programs to the library practices; and about introduction and frequency of changes of the university study programs. An online questionnaire with nine closed type questions was chosen as the research method. A total of 159 public libraries participated in the research which presents a clear view of public libraries’ attitudes about the paper topic, and a need for further and more frequent communication with universities.

The research aims at presenting the way legal practitioners in the Republic of Croatia (judges, lawyers, notaries) access relevant sources of information necessary in their profession as well as at defining the problems emerging therefrom. The answers to these questions have been obtained through the study by applying quantitative and qualitative research methods. The analysis results showed that, given the requirements of the labour market, in addition to legal skills, legal practitioners should also develop their information literacy skills. The results will be used to set indicators for creating a learning environment that allows students to continuously and systematically acquire information literacy IL competences required by the global market.

This paper discusses the specialized instructional needs of creative practitioner communities and consequent tensions students of applied fields face related to their place in the academy. By drawing on the literature of workplace information behavior and exploring the multiple communities of practice that creative practitioners navigate, we suggest information literacy approaches that acknowledge and accommodate their unique needs. If librarians acknowledge an inherent multidisciplinarity, wide ranging use of sources, tacit knowledge, and information use in specialized creation spaces, they can teach information literacy skills that are transferable and meet workplace affordances and needs. This leads to information literacy instruction that resonates with students in these fields and positions them to better succeed in their chosen fields.

Employability of young graduates is one among top goals of the European Union. As today’s graduates are expected to work in information-demanding environments, information literacy should play much more important role in linking educational, academic, and economic sectors. Improved communication requires better understanding of the discourse in the employability arena. The results of a bibliometric analysis of scientific discourse of graduate employability domain conducted from the perspective of IL is a valuable starting point for all information professionals interested in appropriate topics on a youth employment agenda.

This paper first presents the information literacy competencies in both public universities and institutions of applied learning in Switzerland. Based on the project “Information Literacy at Swiss Universities” launched in 2011, it shows how the Swiss Standards of Information Literacy were designed and applied. These six standards have since been supplemented by related learning objectives. In the second part, the author will answer the question formulated in the title in order to understand if those standards reflect the reality of the job market and the workplace. Two case studies, one at the University of Geneva and the other at Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne in Switzerland (where the author is presently working) are given. In conclusion, he analyses the reasons behind such a gap and proposes several solutions to bridge the gap. Solutions do exist and information professionals hold the key to unlocking information literacy.

The potential of case-based learning, or the use of case studies for information literacy instruction is explored within the context of information literacy for workplace readiness. Taking a constructivist approach, students were asked to use their professional experience to analyze a case study for information needs and resources, and then create a recommendation based on this evaluation. Student learning was assessed through similar reflective prompts applied to their own wine business plan. Using qualitative content analysis, reflections demonstrated students were able to use diverse information sources to apply to complex information needs, mirroring the complex information environment of the modern workplace. Results indicate case-based learning has value for information literacy for career readiness.

Knowledge sharing is a key competence in a work context. In this study we address knowledge sharing from an individual difference perspective, exploring whether an employee’s sense of coherence influences knowledge sharing. Additionally, we investigate whether dedication to diversified learning mediates the relationship between Sense of Coherence (SOC) and knowledge sharing. A survey was conducted in a multinational organization. We received 403 responses. Partial least square structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. The results show that SOC significantly influences the respondents’ self-perceived knowledge sharing activities. However, the relationship is partially mediated by dedication to diversified learning. Results suggest that an employee’s knowledge sharing partly arise from personal characteristics. How much is shared in actuality, however, depends on motivation and contextual factors.

The paper describes all aspects of a train-the-trainer course that was applied to research data literacy to serve two goals: (a) allowing future trainers to gather and combine content according to the needs of their students and organizational parameters, (b) providing them with essential knowledge concerning didactical approaches to the matter. The course was centered around a series of practical exercises that asked the participants to start with a two dimensional representation of all possible competences and skills to acquire before reducing them to a linear sequence of the concrete course content, and finally the punctual specification of a single lesson.

This report is a part of an international survey on data literacy and research data management and is concerned with the Croatian state of affairs. A key aim of this study is to elicit the practices of Croatian researchers and PhD students regarding the production, dissemination, provision, storage, and description of research data, as well as portraying institutional attitudes towards those issues. By contributing Croatian data this study widens the international perspective on research data management. Findings of this study expose the current levels of awareness and gaps in knowledge and allow creation of structured and well-focused educational activities.

In the new data-intensive research environment, research data is an important part of scientific findings and every researcher will face sophisticated data management problems during their research life. Solving these data problems requires researchers and students have new skill sets and competencies, which ensure their outputs are accessible, discoverable and reusable. Using the online questionnaire survey method, we conducted a data literacy survey among 59 graduate students of life science in University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS). The current situation and needs of graduate students’ data literacy competences are revealed. On the basis of demand investigation, the data literacy education model of teachers, students and curriculum is constructed, the education content is based on research data lifecycle and includes three levels of learning modes. In addition, the data literacy education implementation scenes for graduate students in UCAS were also designed, and provide evidence for libraries to implement data literacy education services better.

The goal of our study, based on an extensive survey, is to discover the attitudes toward data sharing and research data management among Charles University doctoral students. The research was carried out as a part of a Data Literacy Multinational Study cooperation project. We have used a Czech version of the data literacy questionnaire presented by Gobinda Chowdhury et al. at the ECIL conference 2016. Results show that doctoral students from all disciplines are willing to share data, but they are not aware of open access principles. Doctoral students have confirmed they share their data at least among their research teams. The results do not show a significant difference in this practice between disciplines. Doctoral students prefer their research data to be preserved for further research.

Data literacy and data management have received growing attention in the past years, with open access and data sharing plans as a focus point. The study is part of an international research and the same questionnaire was used by all countries. The focus here is on data practices, collaboration and data sharing among academics at the University of Iceland. Response rate was 15%. Collaborating and sharing data with others was found to be a normal practice in the academics’ work. This was done within a rather closed circle of researchers, whom they knew. Thus, their relationship is built on trust that has developed through the collaboration and partnership and it may be assumed that this forms the basis for data sharing. Offering open access to data to everyone was rare. Legal and ethical issues were the main causes of concern for sharing data but other reasons were also identified.

The big data era has arrived. Library and information schools should track the emerging trend among employers demanding skills in working with big data. Educators should be able to respond to the demand for talent in this area by educating graduates and undergraduates to meet social needs. The article provides a preliminary outcome of a long-term research project of the School of Information Management at Sun Yat-sen University using content analysis as a method to study recruitment data, from November 2016 to January 2017. The framework of content analysis comes from earlier research on Data Competence Framework (DCF), which is part of the project, and in this period, 358 positions from 147 libraries and related organizations posted online, 66 of which met at least one competence index of the DCF. The study finds that libraries and information institutions, of different types and across various regions, are becoming more and more interested in data literacy as an ability among their future employees.

Research Data Management (RDM) is an important ability required in the global knowledge environment and essential in the university research context. In this work we will present the results of the application of a web survey of faculties and doctoral students from three Spanish universities, with the aim of knowing their current levels of awareness and gaps in different issues of RDM. This study is part of an international survey on “Base Data Literacy” led by Professor Joumana Boustany from Paris Descartes University. The questionnaire was sent to the research academic staff and student research fellows of the three universities. We received a total of 828 responses, 591 of which were completely filled out. In accordance to the results of this survey we have detected a growing need among research academic staff and research students for RDM skills.

We present the results of the Polish part of a study conducted within the framework of the international research project named ReDaM coordinated by the Information Literacy Association (InLitAs). It was a quantitative study based on use of a questionnaire consisted of 25 open-ended and multiple choice questions that was translated from English into Polish. Data were collected from February to the end of April 2017. The target groups were doctoral students and faculty employed at the University of Warsaw and Wrocław University of Science and Technology. The study revealed that a significant number of respondents knew the basic concepts related to Research Data Management (RDM). At the same time, they had not used institutional solutions elaborated in their parent institutions. We did not notice any differences in RDM practices between the fields of study at the two universities. However, we did notice significant differences between academic staff and research students.

Research Data Management (RDM) is a new practice in Lebanese academic institutions. The purpose of this study is to assess technological and organizational needs of one of those institutions, the Lebanese University (LU). A questionnaire was sent to academics from all faculties and branches at LU. The survey measured the demographics of survey respondents, their use of data, the degree of openness and the readiness of researchers to manage, share, and preserve datasets. Results described the concerns, challenges and level of commitment of the researchers to data management and sharing. They revealed a moderate level of awareness of information literacy and RDM practices and gave a preliminary figure of the quantity of data generated at LU allowing participants to express their needs. The paper offers guidance for developing a collection of services to support different activities in this area.

The purpose of this proposed work is to present a theoretically and methodologically sound grounding for the critical apprehension of what constitutes authoritative news and news sources. The presentation will demonstrate clearly that there are variations in reports of news: intentionally objective news items (“intentionally” in that there is a deliberate attempt at objective reporting), unintentional error in news items (“unintentionally” mistaken), and intentionally false news items (“intentionally” in that there is a deliberate effort to deceive readers). The proposed work will focus on the first and third of the possibilities. Within the functioning of information literacy, it is argued, there is an obligation to recognize the intentionalities for what they are—objective reporting and efforts to deceive. Ultimately, the presentation will suggest ways to realize that obligation.

The Media and Information Literacy Program (MIL) proposed by UNESCO aims at the promotion of a conscious use of information by bringing together academic and public initiatives aware of the relevance of information and communication technology (ICT) in contemporary society. The MIL program elects communication and information professionals and teachers in general as a key professional group. The objective of this work is to collect data on Brazilian MIL professionals: how they are accessing, using, and learning ICT. The data considered in the analyses presented were obtained from the Brazilian Bureau of Census (IBGE). Results suggest that, although they access the Internet for personal use, MIL professionals in Brazil do not have sufficient technological infrastructure at their disposal. Besides, focusing on the sub-category of elementary and high-school teachers, we observed a lack of institutional support for their ICT learning and preparation to act as MIL promoters.

How to infer the digital media literacy competences of office workers related to distant teamwork from the observation of collaborative practices? This paper presents a qualitative method that combines deductive and inductive approaches to analyze interviews and observations carried out in ten organizations. From a deductive standpoint, our analysis is anchored in a review of the literature in Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. From an inductive standpoint, our analyses use principles from phenomenography and grounded theory to abstract a theoretical understanding of the studied experiences. The combination of these approaches allows us to examine the way workers experience distant teamwork activities and to consider how their competences reside in their ability to frame the work situations they encounter, and to develop responses accordingly.

A major component of any information literacy training program incorporates training on copyright and fair use. While in the library literature, librarians have provided excellent training on understanding copyright and appropriate use, they have not focused on providing training on other forms of intellectual property (IP), particularly patents. As IP in the form of patents is becoming exponentially more important in the research-to-commercialization process, more work on information literacy training about patents is needed. This paper provides definitions of IP literacy, places the value of IP literacy in a larger context, looks at target audiences, proposes a framework for IP literacy and provides suggestions about the role that librarians can play in developing IP literacies beyond copyright.

This paper paints a picture of the views on copyright literacy in Hungary. The Hungarian Library and Information Science (LIS) community has been introduced to varied literacies, mainly in their native language. The best-known literacy is information literacy, but step-by-step other literacies appear in Hungarian journal and conference papers. Due to the adherence of Hungarian librarians to their native language, there are still abstracting services that deliver abstracts on different LIS subjects that are available in the Hungarian language. Translations of the term copyright literacy to Hungarian bears resemblance to information literacy, that is, they are either verbatim translations of the concepts or emphasize literacy’s meaning as being educated and having erudition. On this background, the results obtained on a convenience sample of the Hungarian part of an international copyright literacy survey are presented and compared to the findings of two other surveys that used the same questionnaire.

Copyright is involved in many of the educational and informational activities that take place in the environs of higher education, and not only professors but also students and librarians should know its main principles and rules. The aim of this paper is to identify the main differences and similarities in knowledge of the basic matters of copyright literacy among these three sectors of the university community: faculty, students, and librarians. To this end, the results of three different questionnaires in two Spanish universities (Extremadura and Granada) were analyzed. The results reveal that essential mistakes and misunderstandings are shared by all three sectors, although there are some interesting differences as well.

Copyright literacy in Spanish librarians, archivists, documentalists and directors of museums was studied by a web survey as part of multinational research originating from a project funded by the National Science Fund of the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science on “Copyright Policy of Libraries and Other Cultural Institutions”. The purpose of this study was to examine perceptions, opinions and knowledge of those information professionals with various aspects of copyright and intellectual property, as well as, the need for copyright education. For this study we received a total of 325 responses, 225 of which were completely filled out. This study is the first of its kind in Spain and the results will be compared with those obtained in other countries.

University of Library Studies and Information Technologies (ULSIT) has contributed to the successful dissemination of knowledge in Intellectual Property (IP) field, as there are already 20 years of experience in IP courses for non-lawyers. Although the importance of IP training for the Library and Information Science (LIS) students and professionals is recognized, a study of copyright literacy of specialists from the library and other cultural institutions conducted in Bulgaria in 2013, highlighted serious gaps in the knowledge, awareness and inability of the professionals to deal with copyright issues arising in real work environments. The report presents own Educational IP model for LIS students at ULSIT, implemented in the Bachelor’s Program “Library and Information Management” from AY 2013/2014 up to now, as an answer on the established knowledge gap.

This work explores the institutional strategies performed to combat academic plagiarism in Mexican higher education by pursuing two specific aims: 1. To know the role of Mexican university libraries in the processes linked to prevent academic plagiarism; 2. Identify the skills related to copyright and intellectual property pertaining to university librarians. The methodology used is a descriptive and exploratory study of four public universities that offers education in social sciences and humanities located in Mexico City. Information was obtained through a survey of the librarians (data concerning to skills, knowledge and attitudes) and the content revision of information literacy courses or workshops provided by them. Finally, the relation between the librarian’s responsibility to restrain this dishonest activity and to promote information literacy, towards achieving the ethical use of information is analyzed.

Information literacy has long been considered an important aspect in school, as well as in the workplace. Teenagers are the first group affected by requirements based on information skills. Transliteracy occurs as a relevant concept to understand these information practices. Indeed, a holistic approach is needed in order to take into account the multiplicity of contexts of uses and interactions. The research work described here proceeds from a program funded by the French national research agency (ANR Translit 2013–2016) focusing on how high-school students (15–16 years old) manage information with all the available media and tools, individually as well as collectively. Based on ethnographic methodology, the study was carried out between November 2013 and March 2015, in five French high schools during specific learning project based activities. Findings demonstrate that activities and knowledge management on the school workplace must take into consideration complex information skills crossing personal competencies, representations, and self-esteem on one hand, school requirements and context on the other; complex social interactions during information activities; postures and spaces encouraging horizontal learning processes between teachers and students in order to build a community of practice. Our results highlight what is directly visible and what remains implicit. They are likely to be useful for teachers as well decision-makers when designing learning scenarios and guidelines or curricula.

A study of information literacy (IL) types, levels, and needs among the Polish small and medium enterprises (SME) was realized in the years 2015–2016, with the Catalogue of Digital Competencies of SMEs (Buchner et al., 2016) as its final product, a diagnosis and education tool, supporting the ‘Internet Revolution’ education project of Google Poland. Due to multidimensional diversification of the research group, design and implementation of the methodology turned out to be a more complex and challenging task than the catalogue itself. The IL diagnosis phase of the project was realized with different qualitative methods, including desk research, focused group interviews with experts, individual in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs, along with a component of observation, and semantic analysis. Interviews were conducted with the owners and employees of 30 Polish SMEs from various sectors and business branches. The Catalogue of Digital Competences of SMEs was developed with the use of Delphi method, and based on the outcomes of the analysis phase. The methods used during the project enabled identification of key areas of SMEs functioning, and benefits to be achieved as the effect of digitisation of processes, products and/or services. The SMEs sector’s information literacy was analysed and described in many aspects, including: size and trade types, location, motivations, types, levels, and shadows of Information and Communication Technologies implementation and information literacy advancement. The project revealed and confirmed the crucial role of methodology and a component of relativity in diagnosing information and digital needs and competencies, in workplace as well.

This paper reviews research on digital literacy practices of young children (0–8 years) in out-of-school settings or in informal learning spaces/settings. The purpose of this review is to identify the literature and topics that have arisen from non-school-based or informal space research and to highlight main directions and dimensions. The major research question is: What is the role of informal learning spaces in shaping children’s digital literacy practices? This research attempts to bridge the gap that exists between children’s uses of digital technology at home and in other informal settings and contributes and highlights the need for studying learning more holistically.

Future teachers are members of the digital generation so the authors are interested to find out what students (future teachers) consider as essential digital competence necessary for their future teaching profession. We are also interested in knowing if they think that competence, which is developed in existing curricula, should be further developed according to modern educational trends. We studied a sample of the students in the humanities and social sciences who are studying at the undergraduate and master’s levels for teachers in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at University of Zagreb, the largest teaching faculty in Republic of Croatia. Research was conducted using a survey with opened and closed questions. Students were asked to rate their attitudes toward the necessary digital competence of future teachers who will educate future generations of digital students using Likert scales.

Research shows high correlation between financial literacy skills and economic outcomes. This paper summarizes findings of a study on financial literacy competencies of women entrepreneurs in Kenya and how these skills affect their economic empowerment. The study used positivist/post positivist and constructivist approaches associated with Pragmatic paradigm. Data from 400 respondents were collected through questionnaires. Data analysis was through the Statistics and Data (STATA) package. Cross-tabulation analysis and chi-square test of independence were used to analyse relationships between variables. Willingness to invest in risky businesses (49.62%), not shopping around (48.74%), low numeric skills (66.92%), and taking loans without considering the cost (74.05%) are undermining women’s economic empowerment demonstrated by the fact that 79.68% of the respondents felt that their financial status was out of control and 83.59% felt uncomfortable about their current debt status. The study was limited to women entrepreneurs in Chuka Constituency who received Uwezo Funds during the 2013/2014 financial year.

The aim of this article is to show that search engine literacy (SEL) can be connected as a transliteracy to digital literacy and information literacy. SEL allows a better understanding of the relationship between information retrieval and technical systems. We show here that teaching Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be a part of SEL.

We report on a study on adult reading literacy (RL), closely related to information literacy (IL) and very influential in IL development. The level of adult RL, especially its background, is much less investigated than RL of children and young. Existing studies indicate that the level of adult RL in Slovenia is not as high as we would like, which could in the long-term lead to social and economic consequences as well as hinder the principles of democracy and active citizenship. We investigated the factors connected with the adult RL: (1) experiences with past and current promotion of reading (R), attitudes regarding R, family literacy and RL; (2) practices and experiences in lifelong learning and related competences which are influential in the development and maintaining of RL and IL; (3) RL factors investigated in the OECD PIAAC study: content, cognitive strategies, contexts. Our online survey used various types of questions: single/multiple choice, Likert-scale, ranking, open-ended. The sample was purposive (snowball-type) (N = 260) and included adults of all ages, genders, educational and social levels and roles, and various types of housing and residential locations. We gathered information on how the adults perceive and utilize R in its various forms and contexts, what are their attitudes towards the promotion and promotors of R and RL (such as schools, libraries), what practices of lifelong learning and reading culture are present in the society, which contents, contexts of RL are most/least present and how developed are their various cognitive strategies related to RL. Our findings are informative for researchers and teachers in the field of literacies as well as planners of national educational and cultural policies.

Western culture has developed based on notions that truth, by overcoming falsehood, underpins democracy. Libraries and librarians have played an important part in the provision of information to support democratic processes. This study explored information services offered by the small number of public librarians whose role is to provide information services to employees of local governments, elected representatives and to the general public in Sydney, Australia and their perceptions of their role in supporting the potential for civic literacy to contribute to the quality of public policies and democracy. In the interviews, librarians emphasised the importance of awareness-raising of their role in providing information; some perceived opportunities to highlight existing partnerships or to develop new ones; and community discussions of fake news were seen to give scope for repositioning the services of librarians. The regime of truth relating information access to democratic principles has not yet been replaced.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of scientific communication (SC) curriculum on blog writing skills of sixth-grade students, and opinions of the students and teachers about the curriculum. Through the curriculum, it was aimed to teach students the ability to access and evaluate information, organize information and share it by writing a blog. Students were given three different writing assignments and were asked to share them in their blogs. The first assignment was given for adapting to the writing process. The second and third assignments were assessed to determine the effect of SC curriculum on blog writing skills. At the end of the process, teachers and students were asked about their opinions on SC curriculum and blog writing. Study results revealed that SC curriculum had positive effects on research and writing skills development of the students, and showed that the curriculum was supportive in reaching the course-specific goals.

The communication of scientific knowledge about health related issues, and the enhancement of science literacy, has been generally recognized as an important factor in relation to lifelong learning about health. The significance of health self-efficacy beliefs has been emphasised in this respect. The study used the Perceived Health Competence Scale (PHCS) to examine the health self-efficacy of senior citizens 60 years and older. A total of 176 participants were divided in two age groups, 87 participants were 60 to 67 years old and 89 participants were 68 years or older. Seniors aged 60 to 67 years with primary education scored significantly lower on four out of eight statements, than those who had higher education, while seniors 68 years and older with primary education scored significantly lower for one statement. Taken together, the results indicate that senior citizens with primary education believe less strongly in their capabilities to effectively managing their health than seniors with higher education.

The purpose of this paper is to advance our understanding of approaches to information literacy skills development in disadvantaged and dependent circumstances, and the role of information behaviour investigations in informing meaningful interventions in context. We report on work with young mothers (<25) from areas of multiple deprivation, seeking to better understand their information needs, and the factors influencing their selective and infrequent engagement with state and voluntary sector information services. We evidence limited progress in addressing digital divide issues, and report young mothers as having multiple and complex information needs, and a dependency upon human information intermediaries due to access and behavioural issues. We discuss design and trial of a tailored digital resource to encourage digital access and use, and in turn literacy development; and report that while found useful by young mothers, usage is likely to be low without human intermediary led intervention. A transitional approach is discussed.

Information literacy (IL) and IL self-efficacy (SE) have already been studied in diverse ways by several research groups. However, to our knowledge, no medical curriculum-based studies are available on ILSE. This paper describes the study protocol of the longitudinal study of the evolution in ILSE among individual students as well as cohorts of students throughout (parts of) a complete medical curriculum. A thorough literature study of ILSE within a medical context formed the basis of this research. To evaluate medical-oriented ILSE, a standardized existing ILSE-scale enriched with ten specific medical items was completed, between 2011 and 2016, by all medical students at Ghent University (Belgium), ending with a surplus qualitative study. Data will be analysed statistically. This study will allow to look for cross-sectional as well as longitudinal results. The qualitative study at the end of the research will be performed to clarify some quantitative results.

University students face for their first time the necessity to find and access health services on their own. Information on health services is easily available online, but young people have difficulties with evaluating its trustworthiness and navigating multiple choices. We produced a digital information tool in the form of an interactive map displaying 88 preselected youth-friendly health services in the Bordeaux area (France). The tool was tested by 319 students who answered a first questionnaire on their knowledge of local youth-friendly health services. Among them, 73 students answered an additional satisfaction questionnaire: 85% declared having obtained clear information through this tool, and 100% felt reassured by the fact that information was advised by experts. Findings suggest that trustworthy institutional digital information tools can contribute to increase students’ health service literacy, thus enhancing their access to care.

A quantitative study linking individual differences in health information literacy to personality traits and demographic variables is presented. Vocational students from health-related, commercial, and technical professions (N = 317) completed the 30-item version of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI-30), a questionnaire measuring the five personality dimensions of neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness, as well as the Health Information Literacy Knowledge Test (HILK). Additionally, each participant indicated his or her gender, age, level of education, and occupation. A multiple regression analysis identified extraversion and education as significant predictors of health information literacy. In addition, a mediating effect of education in the relation between openness and health information literacy was revealed. No significant effects were found for gender, age, and occupation. Possible explanations of the findings as well as implications for promoting health information literacy in young adults are discussed.

In order to benefit from advanced mobile information technology (AMIT) in e-health services, people need competencies in finding, evaluating, and understanding health-related information in varying everyday life situations, that is, everyday health information literacy (EHIL). This study focused on the relationship between EHIL and AMIT use and attitudes towards it among older adults. A paper questionnaire was posted to a random sample of 1,500 home dwelling subjects aged 65 or more living in Northern Finland. A variety of themes were addressed in the questionnaire including a 4-item version of an EHIL screening tool. The response rate was 61% (n = 918). Older adults with negative attitudes towards or having less experience with mobile information technology were likely to have poor self-estimated EHIL skills. Older people are at risk of marginalization in regard to m-services, and these results should be utilized by decision-makers and software designers in digitalization of services.

This study systematically reviews concepts related to health literacy with an emphasis on the approach to information in their definitions. The focus was set on studies conducted in online information environments. In total, 180 full-text articles were screened and, of these, 71 articles were included in the analysis. Eight different literacy concepts and 17 definitions for them were identified. The most frequently used concepts are health literacy and eHealth literacy. They are used across disciplines. In information science the concept of health information literacy is also used. The approach to information in the definitions varies. Central in health information literacy is the information seeking process. In health literacy definitions the focus is on obtaining information to promote health, usually in a health care setting. eHealth literacy focuses on finding and evaluating online health information.

This study explores energy information literacy by applying an adapted version of an everyday health information literacy (EHIL) screening tool. For this study, the original EHIL tool was modified by adjusting its ten statements to an energy context. Data were collected with an online survey from students present for the academic year in 2016–2017 (n = 11,381) at the University of Oulu. Statistical analyses include an exploratory factor analysis and comparison of mean factor scores. Survey items on respondents’ background were also included in the analyses. The response rate was 12.2% (n = 1,390). The screening tool’s factorial structure was found to be multifaceted and to resemble that of the original EHIL tool with three factors: motivation (‘motivation’), confidence in finding energy information (‘confidence’), and perceived ability to evaluate it (‘evaluation’). Mean factor scores varied by gender and field of study. The study is among the first to examine energy information literacy.

The present study examines the psychometric properties and the usefulness of the Health Information Literacy Knowledge Test (HILK), a 24 item multiple-choice test which aims at assessing knowledge related to determining a health information need, searching and accessing information, and evaluating its relevance and quality. 144 German university students completed the HILK together with established subjective measures of health (information) literacy and health status. Correlations of the HILK with subjective measures were at least marginally significant, supporting the assumption that both types of measures assess related constructs. In multiple regression analyses, HILK scores predicted mental and physical health status while there were no associations between subjective health (information) literacy with both health measures. It is concluded that the HILK is a research tool which complements subjective assessments of health literacy and might even be more useful when it comes to predicting health outcomes.

This paper looks into the information horizons of Croatian family medicine physicians and clinicians with the aim of determining whether they differ from the findings of previous studies. In this pilot-study we used a map drawing technique and follow-up interviews. The sample consisted of ten physicians: (five family medicine physicians and five clinicians) from Osijek, Croatia. Clinicians were interviewed in 2015 and family medicine physicians in 2017. Respondents were asked to place the information sources on mental maps according to their importance and frequency of usage. The results show that clinicians use more information sources than family medicine physicians, which is particularly true for online peer-reviewed sources. Younger physicians use a higher number of information sources than older physicians (they rely heavily on professional literature and peer advice). Viber group messaging was identified as a new channel of communication for family medicine physicians.

Serendipity is a valuable constituent of professional work. In order to ‘control’ the phenomenon it is important to gain insight in its processes and influencing factors. This study examined two cases of serendipitous information behavior in professional improvised music, a domain often associated with unpredictability. The aim of the study was to validate McCay-Peet and Toms’ latest model on work-related serendipitous experiences. The study followed a semi-structured interview procedure that consisted of three one-hour interview sessions to select cases and collect data. Results show that our data fit the model. Process elements like ‘trigger’, ‘connection’, ‘valuable outcome’, ‘unexpected thread’, and ‘perception of serendipity’ were identified, as well as factors such as ‘trigger-rich’, ‘openness’, and ‘prepared mind’. We also identified other factors (i.e., ‘curiosity’, ‘interest’, and ‘initiative’) that might influence serendipitious discovery. Additional (multi) case studies are necessary to generalize findings.

To measure the healthcare professionals’ (HCPs) behavioral outcomes (knowledge, attitude, intentions, and behaviors) about specific health information resources available online in order to determine the stage of behavioral change using social learning theory. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 36 District Headquarter Hospitals (DHQs), 89 Tehsil Headquarter Hospitals (THQs), 293 Rural Health Centers (RHCs), and 2455 Basic Health Units (BHUs) in Punjab, Pakistan. The survey population comprised of rural HCPs (e.g., physicians, surgeons, and gynecologist) working in primary and secondary healthcare facilities of Punjab province, Pakistan. The results of the study concluded that majority of the HCPs’ knowledge of online healthcare information resources is limited. However, their attitude and intention towards using the online healthcare information resources for day-to-day clinical practice is positive. The study recommends a need to launch promotional and educational activities through which HCPs’ interest and awareness about online healthcare information resources and services should be persuaded.

This study has investigated format preferences for academic reading and reading behaviors of Chinese undergraduates, postgraduate students, Ph.D students and post doctorates, to see whether they like reading academic materials in print or electronically. This study adopted the Academic Reading Questionnaire (ARQ) originally designed by Mizrachi, and 1,165 valid on-line questionnaires were collected in mainland China. The ARQ survey in China shows students’ strong preference for paper or printed materials compared to electronic versions. This result is not surprising, compared to results from other countries. However, it is interesting to find the rise of smartphones to be an important course reading device among Chinese students.

The main purpose of this paper has been to discover how novice information management students perceive “their” information grounds, that is places/social settings in which people seek and share information while being involved in a focal activity. The ability to comprehend one’s own information behavior, including the identification and interpretation of “encountered” or “visited” information grounds, serves as a basis for, inter alia, the development of one’s information culture and literacy, which is particularly important for future information professionals/scientists. The reported research is empirical and exploratory in nature, based on a text analysis method. The sample included 67 first-year information management students of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. The following outcomes have been confirmed: (1) students are generally able to identify different information grounds following Fisher’s trichotomy of places, people, and information-related phenomena; (2) the concept of information grounds seems to be a good starting point for teaching information behavior theories.

The aim of this paper is to present the methods and results of qualitative research focused on the use of the Internet by senior citizens in the Czech Republic. These results offer a unique insight into the situation which is terminologically described as a secondary digital divide. The purpose of the qualitative research was to recognize and describe what topics seniors are interested in, what their motivation to use the Internet is and how and why they search for information. The outcomes define the senior citizens’ fields of interest, information behaviour and the level of their searching skills. The research is part of a doctoral thesis oriented to elderly people, their information literacy skills and secondary digital gap.

The objective of the study was to assess the influence of students’ self-efficacy and their use of electronic resources on their academic performance. A survey was conducted in The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan in which 307 students participated from five different faculties. A questionnaire was developed to gather the data for this study on variables related to demographic information of the respondents, their use of ‘library’s electronic resources’, ‘self-efficacy’, and ‘academic performance’. The results of the study concluded that the use of library’s e-resources has a significant influence on the academic performance of the students. However, it has a negative influence on students’ self-efficacy due to availability of wide ranging e-resources. The results of the study also concluded that self-efficacy is not correlated with academic performance of the students, however, it is negatively correlated with the use of university library’s e-resources.

The aim in this paper is to report the learning experience evaluation of an information literacy (IL) undergraduate compulsory credit course in a country where information and research skilled lecturers are scarce. Students should begin to develop information competencies during their K-12 education; however, this is seldom the case in the Mexican educational system where students enroll at universities with limited IL training. CETYS University, whose IL evolution has been previously reported in the ECIL Conference Series, made the decision to offer a compulsory eight-credit course for all first-year students. The implementation of the course had the challenge of hiring faculty who did not have, in most cases, IL facilitation experience. The outcome of the first cohort of 17 groups that included 361 students was that the students did have a positive learning outcome, according to the two technique-assessment study but did identify important opportunities to improve the course and the facilitation process.

From 2014 to 2016 DTU Library was involved in a large multi-institutional publicly funded DEFF (The Danish Electronic Research Library) project entitled “E-learning, information literacy and library services” that focused on enhancing links between education and employability, including information competencies. As a part of this project, DTU Library and The Royal Library, Copenhagen, developed and implemented a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on academic information seeking. This paper will analyze and discuss how we have used the results and experiences from the DEFF project to develop and further qualify our e-didactic and e-learning endeavors. The second part of the paper will look to the future and how a new DEFF funded project running will seek to establish new solutions taking their inspiration from the concept of co-creation. We will discuss underlying theory of the two DEFF projects, target groups, and how experiences and conclusions from the first DEFF project influenced and charted the direction of the second DEFF project.

The study investigated the predictive power of scientific literacy (SL), ICT use, self-concept, self-efficacy and motivation of 139 undergraduate university students on their information literacy (IL) before taking a compulsory credit-bearing IL course. Knowledge tests were administered for IL and SL, and questionnaires for ICT use and psychological factors. All predictors together accounted for 33.3% of the variance in the pre-test IL level. Significant positive predictors included SL and self-concept about learning, while external controlled motivation correlated negatively with IL. ICT tools and Internet confidence were poor predictors of IL. Internal motivation played a suppressor role in the model. The IL study course significantly improved the IL of students, with a mean difference of 16.38%; the students who scored poorly on the pre-test, benefited more than others.

This doctoral study aims to learn undergraduate student perceptions of the relevance of information literacy competencies applied to academic work. The study also intends to learn what students identify as factors that make information literacy relevant. This paper presents preliminary findings providing new insights for improving pedagogical work, supporting academia goals such as retention and completion, and improving how to communicate the value of information literacy competencies as transferable competencies to the “Real World”. Using a pragmatic epistemological and methodological approach, the research design includes a cross-sectional mixed-methods two-stage sequential study.

This study focuses on information related values, norms, and practices of information management students at the Institute of Social Studies, University of Tartu, Estonia. 100 interviews, conducted by students during qualitative research methods classes in 2015 and 2016, were analyzed by applying concepts of constructivist grounded theory. The preliminary results indicate the need to focus on students’ information culture related issues already in the beginning of studies by introducing context-dependent values, norms, and practices to the newcomers. Shared values and understandable norms related to student-faculty communication, information about support in urgent situations or earlier communication practices with faculty members are but a few examples of means that can aid students in the academic environment.

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a study that explored how students from four different disciplines perceive information overload and cope with this phenomenon. We have formulated three research questions: How do students perceive information overload? How do students cope with information overload? What are the disciplinary differences in coping with information overload? The research involved a mixed methods research strategy, using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, built into a two-stage research design. The first stage was a small-scale questionnaire survey among students from four disciplines: psychology, mathematics, informatics, and information science. The second stage involved the collection of qualitative data. In-depth interviews with students were conducted from four disciplines (psychology, mathematics, informatics, and information science). In this paper the authors will present the results of this study.

The nature of the relationship between information literacy (IL) and learning is important for academic librarianship and higher education. This paper will use a philosophical tool to investigate this relationship – a thought experiment. This is a type of creative narrative meant to advocate for or against a certain idea. The thought experiment will provide evidence for a strong connection between IL and learning. This suggests that one’s theoretical IL position implies certain commitments with regard to what learning is and how it should be fostered in higher education. Therefore, one method to progress IL theory is to look to learning theory. Explicit considerations on the nature of learning can yield more nuanced understandings of IL.

This study seeks to contribute to a reflection on teachers’ training and professional development in the field of information literacy, in Portugal. Aspects regarding teacher training and their role as spreaders of knowledge and multipliers of good practices are problematized. UNESCO’s curriculum for teachers and ACRL guidelines are used methodologically as the central thread of this interpretation. From here we seek to explain how a higher education institution – an Institute of Education, which is devoted to the professional development of educators, including teachers, has engaged in information fliteracy actions through training interventions, in recent years. The study concludes that through sharing and dialogue within the librarian profession, but also within the sphere of education professionals - teachers and trainers - the best training practices in university libraries can be consolidated. Finally, certain points for reflection and debate concerning this theme are proposed.

Upper-level undergraduate students need to recognize the role that disciplinary cultures play in the creation and dissemination of scholarship. This will empower students to navigate scholarly literature with a deeper understanding of how disciplinarity shapes their inquiry. When asking students to engage with scholarship, teachers often direct them to specific journals, without making the selection process explicit. Information literacy may be situated within disciplinary or communal contexts, often highlighting the need for recognizing authority. However, these descriptions may fall short of explaining the nuanced forces shaping such authority, and how disciplines, sub-disciplines, or multi-disciplines package information. Using Hérubel’s definitional model describing characteristics of disciplinary cultures, this paper offers a lens for working with undergraduate students to enable them to understand how it shapes the information they encounter and its potential influence on their own scholarly efforts.

Regarding collaboration building between teaching faculty and librarians in university education, there were a large number of practical reports on information literacy instruction projects in collaboration with teaching faculty. However, most studies did not focus on analyses of teaching faculty-librarian relationships in themselves, and few explained those relationships in terms of conceptual or theoretical frameworks. The purpose of this paper is to explain collaboration building between teaching faculty and librarians from the viewpoints of conceptual and theoretical frameworks. A grounded theory regarding collaboration building, which was constructed based on a case study of Earlham College in the United States, was interpreted in terms of educational development. As a result, librarians’ strategic approaches were located not only in instructional development which was concerned with enhancing course design, but also in relationship marketing which focused on building long-term relationships with customers in order to facilitate mutual value creation.

Preparing students for their masters’ dissertations requires understanding their abilities, needs and academic goals. This means faculty should provide multiple opportunities for students to develop and demonstrate information seeking skills and have opportunities to apply these skills to research practices. To contextualize challenges advisors face, this paper will describe methods lecturers can use to support masters level dissertation research in an interdisciplinary department. The challenges of teaching information literacy in a diverse academic environment will also be discussed. Evidence and descriptions will be empirical, but will shed light on the obstacles teaching staff may face when supporting student acquisition of information literacy skills at the post graduate level.

In this paper, we introduce a performance-based test for measuring adolescents’ competences in online inquiry. The test covers four competence dimensions: (1) searching and selecting relevant sources, (2) identifying the main ideas presented in the sources, (3) evaluating the credibility of the sources, and (4) synthesizing information across the sources. We implement a technological solution called NEURONE to carry out this routine. The scoring of the test data is demonstrated by presenting preliminary results of a case study. Finally, we discuss the strengths and limitations of the test.

Inquiry-based assignments are commonly used in information literacy (IL) instruction. However, guiding pupils through the inquiry process is challenging as the school’s traditional instruction practices are teacher-centered. Yet, there are teachers who continuously develop their personal pedagogies in IL instruction, but we have very little research insight into that. This paper reports on a two-year longitudinal case study based in the classrooms of a lower secondary school teacher. The teacher and her two colleagues were engaged in enhancing their pedagogical practices in IL instruction. The findings based on interviews and classroom observations indicate that the teachers use various types of assignments and instructional activities for IL instruction.

This paper presents the results of evaluation research of a loosely connected series of information safety lessons designed for all nine primary school grades and organized by libraries. All lessons took place in two libraries and in three other schools in the Czech Republic from 2013 to 2017. The author used evaluation questionnaire and participatory observation to evaluate lessons at the first two levels of Kirkpatrick’s model. Librarians can use the results as arguments for lesson effectiveness, for transfer of the lessons to other libraries and for planning other information safety lessons according to children’s needs. Results have shown that children evaluated the lessons positively. Children actively participated in activities. They liked to share their experience and opinions, but also showed some incorrect preconceptions. The analysis focused on the content of the lessons, the influence of the institution where they took place, the form of lessons, the school teacher and the ways of engaging students.

The objective of the research is to outline school librarians’ attitudes towards teaching information literacy by analysing teaching experience, the scope of courses taught, and attitudes towards motivation of teaching. Respondents to the survey were librarians from secondary schools in Lithuania and Poland. Respondents for the research were selected from the top 250 best secondary schools in Lithuania and Poland accordingly. Data for this study was gathered using Computer-assisted web Interviewing (CAWI) technique. The results of the survey showed that school librarians had more positive emotions about their teaching motivation than negative ones. We saw that school librarians concentrate more on finding information, but are less actively involved in developing skills on the use of the information found. Also, school librarians are more prone to speak about information sources and specific tools to find it rather than organising their teaching activities as a platform for building up learning experiences. For better insight, the analysis was carried out comparing results from Lithuania and Poland as well as linking emotions with job meaningfulness.

This presentation reports an analysis of good practices in information literacy (IL) education, with particular reference to practices which may be incorporated in the design on a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). Based on an analysis of published literature and reports, analysis of existing IL MOOCs, and expert opinion, it presents good practice eleven area: IL definition and models; IL content and contexts; pedagogical frameworks; teaching and learning methods; interaction and collaboration by learners; structuring of learning materials; assessment methods; multi-lingual and multi-cultural aspects; IL outside higher education; MOOC management; and MOOCs in LIS and IL.

This paper presents the findings of a case study that investigated international university students’ expectations and experiences of information literacy across two countries. The results from this case study provide insights that can be utilized by librarians working with international students, to plan and develop their information literacy instruction classes and programs. Armed with an awareness of what international students’ expectations and experiences with information literacy programs are, librarians can develop more meaningful instruction that better meets the information needs of international students. Moving beyond the pilot survey, the researchers aim to improve the survey instrument and collaborate with librarians in several countries to collect data from institutions and universities around the world. Exploring and comparing results from a truly global population will only enhance library services to international students and help librarians better understand the specific information needs of international students.

The author has been researching and reflecting on the importance of creativity in enhancing the information literacy classroom, particularly in the context of an academic library. The author approaches research with an increasing interest in exploring creativity as part of the ACRL Framework and the way the creative information literacy component fits into the holistic approach of a changing, more engaging curriculum on college campuses. Recently, the author conducted a research study that explored the role of creativity in information literacy. By examining the impact of library instruction on various formats of student learning, this paper will reflect on the definition of creativity, how it is implemented in the library classroom, and the results of a recent research study that outline next steps and opportunities.

Information literacy (IL) professionals are engaged in teaching, mentoring, and collaboration, roles that call for deep understanding of strategies for navigating the information environment. The relatively new construct of information experience provides insights into these integrative roles and is considered together with the theoretical construct of threshold concepts. Threshold concepts in the library and information science (LIS) domain have been explored for professional search expertise and for information literacy. The discussion extends from the IL professional’s roles to the experiential realm of threshold knowledge in online learning. Practical illustrations of designing online curriculum for information professionals based on threshold concept research findings are provided.

In a time of rapidly expanding information possibilities, including “fake news”, libraries as guardians of the quality of information have become even more important. In our era, however, it is the guardians of confirmed information themselves and information literate citizens that must be enabled to decide what facts to rely on. At the same time, new public management (NPM) is changing the way libraries, both public and academic, are allowed to act in their local communities. The effect of the “age of austerity” with libraries being closed due to an ongoing economic crisis must also be taken into account. The changing circumstances call for new leadership, new competences and new tasks in libraries. In this paper the authors will present results of European studies on changes in libraries as a result of implementing NPM. While it is evident that the environment and the libraries are changing, it is, however, not clear that the changes are going in only one direction, or how they actually will be impacting the need for more information literate citizens.

The three-year inquiry focuses on assessing the size of a university library’s support for engaged-learning courses and for student populations. In doing this, it models an effective way to obtain data from campus information systems. The inquiry’s research questions are, how can libraries identify courses where the library supports engaged-learning courses, and how can libraries target their efforts for maximum impact on student learning in overlooked components of the campus’ learning culture. Focused questions serving as data-gathering goals to answer the research questions are, how many students enrolled in these courses, and how many students in each class year passed a course each semester with a library assignment. Analysis of data collected can result in additional studies providing comprehensive assessments of the library’s effect on student-learning outcomes. Among other things, the inquiry found 22% of students enrolled during the study took part in engaged learning involving a library assignment.

A research study at a rural, public university revealed interest among college students in engaging in mindfulness and contemplative practices within their university library. This study also identified a gap between interest in contemplative pedagogy among faculty and their engagement in contemplative practices within this newly-created library space, The Library Brain Booth. This study shares the results of visits to the Library Brain Booth by both first-time and returning participants. It also provides mean usage time at each of the following stations that were created to support mindfulness and contemplation: biofeedback, color-relax, game-relax, light-relax, read-relax, silent-relax, sound-relax, audio-meditate, prompt-meditate, video-meditate, gratitude-express, and virtual reality-immerse. The results of the study are intended to support the explicit promotion of metacognition and mindfulness in the academic process, both through mindfulness activities within the library for students, and through contemplative pedagogy in information literacy instruction.

This paper analyzes CETYS (Center for Technical and Higher Education) University’s information culture experiences from the empirical perspective of the librarians. The goal is to analyze the development of information culture (IC) as well as the actions that have been undertaken and the proposals that are yet to be considered to consolidate IC. CETYS is immersed in an educational evolution and has succeeded in meeting the high standards of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC, USA). The institution viewed IC as an element that ought to distinguish and characterize graduates of any academic program that the university offers. IC is considered a seminal element to train professionals to understand their information needs, how to search, evaluate, and use information. The study of the IC outcome is assessed here, relying on the institutional plans and reports for five of the eight objectives where the librarians were involved. These achievements have enabled faculty, students, and librarians to prepare themselves for a cultural change around information.

Activity Theory (AT) is presented as a framework for explaining Information Literacy (IL) as a technologically mediated social practice. This is achieved in the context of a study conducted in 2016 on the information gathering and sharing activities of Scottish community-level elected representatives. This work demonstrates the value of AT as (i) a tool for IL research that seeks to present information practices in their social contexts, and (ii) as a means of highlighting underlying issues within the social environment under review through the identification of contradictions within the activity system.

In contrast to the relative abundance of conceptualisations of “information literacy”, the earlier research has placed considerably less attention on its alternatives. The findings show that there are shades of being less and non-literate beyond a mere lack of necessary skills or engagement in inappropriate practices. Information illiteracy can be experienced as a problem but it can also represent a conscious choice for delimiting and organising information practices. From a theoretical and practical perspective, this study suggests that both information literacies and information illiteracies should be taken into account in information literacy research and education, and when developing and deploying information systems and services to compensate for the lack of literacies.

This study aims at illuminating a culturally situated understanding of Information literacy (IL) contextualized by a particular landscape in terms of a specific geographic region with related socio-cultural characteristics. The understanding of IL defines the frameworks for teaching IL in academic settings and impacts pedagogy. The study embraces the constructivist worldview through the lens of a socio-cultural theoretical framework and employs instrumental (with exploratory and ethnographic elements) case study approach. The research design includes: field observations and analysis, unobtrusive data set(s) collection and examination, artifact analysis such as websites, and in-depth interviews with Bulgarian academic librarians. This study addresses the need to apply culturally grounded approaches to IL to better serve specific groups. It will add to the international pool of knowledge in the field and will benefit Bulgarian academic librarians by providing a view of their understanding of IL and possibly facilitate further inquiry into suitable framework and practices.

Information literacy has long been understood in a broad context as the ability to evaluate information and select it based on the quality and trustworthiness thereof. However, trust still seems to be an underestimated phenomenon that urgently requires more attention. Recent developments have made us realize that users may not consider information to be credible, unless it meets a theoretical set of criteria anchored in the definition of quality information. The decisive factor that leads either to the acceptance, or the rejection, of information is “trust”. If information professionals are to execute their fundamental role as information mediators successfully, they must thoroughly understand this phenomenon in order to become trusted members of the “social bubbles” of those that come from different social groups and classes. This literature review examines the extent to which trust has been researched from the perspective of information science. The prime resources were the LISA, LISTA and LISS databases used during the time period: 2007–2016.