Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

Dr Alison Hicks, the newly-appointed Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Information Literacy and CILIP ILG Library & Information Schools Representative reports on the new bilateral agreement between CILIP and the African Library and Information Association (AfLIA) and an overview of IL research in Africa.

The 30th January marked the signing of a new bilateral memorandum of agreement between CILIP and the African Library and Information Association (AfLIA). The memorandum promises an exciting new platform for the exchange of ideas as well as the establishment of partnerships targeting the development of shared research and practice.

This is the presentation that formed the introductory part of the workshop that Pamela McKinney and I gave at the European Conference on Information Literacy , in Oulu, Finland, on September 26 2018. The objectives of the workshop were:
"(1) To identify key characteristics of selected qualitative and mixed-methods research approaches, and to show what kinds of research questions and problems each approach is most suited to. The research approaches covered were: action research; case study; phenomenography; ethnography; autoethnography.
(2) To enable participants to understand the issues, advantages and disadvantages of different approaches, by looking at a practice-based information literacy problem, and asking participants to identify the implications of choosing one approach or another."

One of the greatest privileges of moving into a university lecturer position, alongside working with fabulous students, has been the opportunity (and requirement!) to keep up to date with newly-published information literacy research. When I was working as a librarian, a lack of time as well as the demands of my position meant that I tended to read exclusively for research that was directly relevant to my day-to-day subject-specialist role rather than exploring publications from across the field. Nowadays, my reading is far more eclectic, which has further enabled me to pick up on emerging themes of interest within the field. For my first blog post for the ILG, I wanted to present a small selection of new articles that may have passed you by yet which seem to signal a number of exciting directions for information literacy research and practice.

Information literacy is the set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information and is the basis for lifelong learning. It is common to all disciplines, learning environments, and education levels. It enables learners to master content, extend their investigations, become more self-directed, and to take greater control of their own learning.

The five core information literacy competencies are the ability to:

identify needed information.
access information effectively & efficiently.
evaluate information.
use information appropriately.
understand information related issues.