Occurrence of the term Information literacy 1969-2006

Out of idle curiosity, I decided sometime ago that I wanted to perform

Year	Information Literacy
1969-1980	0
1980-1985	6
1985-1987	4
1988	1
1989	4
1990	10
1991	31
1992	18
1993	12
1994	25
1995	60
1996	58
1997	82
1998	108
1999	110
2000	150
2001	167
2002	181
2003	241
2004	239
2005	300
2006	252

a simple search of the Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA) similar to the ‘quick and dirty’ search performed by Bawden for his article (see - Thursday, 14 June 2007).

The aim of the search was to look at growth of literature pertaining to ‘information literacy’ over the past 35 years. Bawden states in his article, that his search (which were more comprehensive than mine) were ‘rough and ready’ and that the searches include ‘book reviews as well as original articles’, however, it does give a ‘general idea of the changing significance of concepts.’

I repeated a similar search, initialling using CSA’s LISA database (Bawden uses both LISA and Social SciSearch). My search has initially focused on the term ‘information literacy’, the results are shown below. I hope to increase this table to include synonymous terms such as media literacy etc – this will suffice for now. It is interesting to note that there are no early references indexed in LISA, and this is perhaps a reminder not to rely on a single source for our research. A great overview of the information literacy literature can be obtained from Rader, Information literacy 1973-2002: a selected literature review, Library Trends; 51 (2) Fall 2002, p.242-59

A New Paradigm over Black Sheep

Today, I spent the morning doing the usual – writing up notes from the journal articles I read yesterday, updating the bog etc.

Last night, I met up with a friend Clive, who is a Professor at a ‘rival’ University in West Yorkshire and an experienced researcher and PhD supervisor. Clive’s subject is more along the lines of ‘hard science’ and engineering, yet the opportunity to meet with someone who did not know what information literacy was provided great opportunity to bounce ideas off him. The evening finished in a traditional English manner—down the Queens Arms in Chapel Allerton for a pint (or two!) of Black Sheep—a great Northern pint.

Certainly, the evening has provided me with a lot to think about, especial with regards my research design. It always amazes me how people from different disciplines have such a different outlook on the paradigms to you hold as certainty, and even insights which I often overlook.

As a addendum, for those of you who do not know what I mean by a Pint of Black Sheep, the pint of traditionally brewed English beer comes from the village of Masham (http://www.yorkshire-dales.com/masham.html). The village has two principle breweries, one Theakstons (http://www.theakstons.co.uk ) home to my favourite ‘Old Peculier’ and the excellent ‘XP’. The Black Sheep brewery (http://www.blacksheepbrewery.com) was formed by Paul Theakston, in the early 1990s after a bitter family spilt of the direction of the Theakstons brewery.

More Grind and Harry Potter

Ok, today (and this past week), I have being intersecting my reading and work with trying to grab time to read the New Potter book – which despite Will Self’s denigration of it on the Today programme this morning it is great! Anyway back to work: I spent the morning reading three articles (and Harry potter):

For those people interested the articles were:

• O’Neil, W. (1970), Properly Literate, Harvard Educational Review, 40(2)
• Levin, K. (1982), Functional Literacy: Fond Illusions and False Economies, Harvard Educational Review, 52(3), p.249
• Wilson, T. (2000), Human Information behaviour, Informing Science, 3(2): 49-55

Oxford Internet Surveys

http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/microsites/oxis/

Here is a very interesting report that was widely covered on Radio 4, at it launch this week. It provides a very thorough survey of internet usage in the UK today. The report opens in its executive summary that two-thirds of the UK population have internet access at home other ‘snippets’ relevant to the information literacy world are:

• The number of non-users (people who have never used the Internet) has decreased to a quarter of the population in 2007.
• Ex-users and non-users have different reasons for not using the Internet. Ex-users are more likely to point to a lack of interest and access. Non-users are more likely to point to a lack of skill.
• The Internet is the first port of call for the great majority of Internet users when trying to learn about something new – more important than family members, colleagues or libraries.
• Users have changed their information search patterns. In 2007, almost two thirds of users depended primarily on search engines to find information: up from one fifth in 2005.

Historiography Research

These past two days have been spent looking for more articles and background research. My supervisor has asked me to investigate and write historiography of information seeking behaviour and information science; this will hopefully give me a bit of a historical perspective to my work. I have just spent the afternoon at the British library looking through copies of the ARIST as well as 1902 copy of the Library Journal containing an article by Charles Eliot who is often cited as one of the first to develop a system for meeting user needs. I will post more on this fascinating article later…

Looking for Information – Case, Donald

A book that I am finding very useful at the moment is:

Case, D (2002), Looking for Information : A Survey of Research on Information Seeking, Needs and Behaviour.

This book provides a very useful overview of many key areas of information behaviour research. Personally, I find that I want ‘more meat’ from the book, nevertheless it is certainly a very handy reference and should be consulted by anyone undertaking study and research in this field.

Meeting with DoS

I had my third meeting with my Director of Studies. This was a last opportunity to meet with him before the August break. The meeting went very well; we discussed and pencilled in October 2007 for my first year confirmation viva (arrrrr!). I was also set the task to research the historiography of information seeking behaviour, so anyone with any knowledge of this subject please let me know….

British Library

Today I spent much of the time at the British Library at Boston Spa near Leeds. I was able to get hold of a number of ‘shorter’ articles, on literacy as well as a couple I have been meaning to read by Foster and Arp. I will post my thoughts on these later….

Buch und Lesen: Historical Perspectives on Literacy and Schooling.

Clifford, G., J (1984). "Buch und Lesen: Historical Perspectives on Literacy and Schooling." Review of Educational Research 54(4).

Today I read this paper, I know that I have diarised this week for reading up about research methodologies; however, I have manager to find more interesting papers to read. I ordered this paper some time ago from the British Library and so when tidying up some files I found this to read.

This is a great paper that presents a critical historical overview of literacy (not information literacy!) and its affect on society. It includes arguments made against literacy itself, and examines the literacy creep – from being classed as literate when you could mark X to sign your name through to functional literacies. There are elements of the paper when looking at the developments of literacy that fit very nicely with the development of IL as a theory. This is a must for anyone looking at information literacy as it presents a definition of literacy itself, and is firmly not written form a librarian perspective.

Researching Research!

This week I need to finally review and read about basic research methodologies. This is an area that I know I am weak. I need to start thinking about how and what my research is going to look at. So, is my methodology going to be Action Research, Grounded Theory or a case study; or something else? Any suggestions appreciated – please leave a comment.

A rainy July day

Here are two pictures taken in Roundhay Park, Leeds. A typical, very rainy Sunday in July. The boy in the picture is my son, Sam age four and half!

Questions and Reading

I went into college this morning for a meeting with the faculty’s research co-ordinator. I had a few questions which being the eternal ‘mature student’ I just had to ask. The questions revolved around the Research Training Programme that I have to complete- as well as issues around ethical approval for research. That done, I decide to read whilst having a coffee. Bad idea – after spilling much of the coffee (a black Americana) on my white Fred Perry, I decide to head off home to read. From a reading angle it was very productive, the articles read (if not totally understood) were:

Kuhlthau, C. (1991) Inside the Search Process: Information Seeking from the User’s Perspective

This is a complex article which I will need time to digest – but it is an excellent start to examining user searching behaviours or as the authors call it the information search process (ISP) by an academic who has spent a great deal of time researching the subject. This is a must.

Behrens, S. (1994) A Conceptual Analysis and Historical Overview of Information Literacy

Another essential paper for anyone wanting to chart the development of information literacy. Behrens covers the 70s and 80s through to the early 1990s. No review of the subject would be complete without looking at this paper.

Snavely, L. And Cooper, N. (1997) The Information Literacy Debate

This is also, like the previous two, essential reading. This is an oft-quoted paper, giving an overview of information literacy. They discuss and present a range of alternative names for information literacy for those who are unhappy with its current nomenclature. This is an extremely easy paper to digest and well worth a look.

Conference Carnegie Research Practice Conference

The second conference of the week, this time organised by the Carnegie faculty for all PhD and research students at Leeds Met. The venue was the very impressive new ‘facility’ at the Headingly Cricket and Rugby ground (food was excellent too!) This is one of the few occasions were all of the research students get together to network and share. Again, although I am not a natural networker, I managed to find a couple of people who have similar interests to me – so from that angle the day was very useful. The day started with a lecture on critical thought, this was very useful and I need to follow up the on the notes. I then attended a seminar on ‘How to survive your viva’; this is uppermost in my mind as I have a confirmation viva soon. After lunch, Professor Tony Bryant, presented an excellent seminar on Grounded Theory; an area of research method which so far is beyond my understanding. He was excellent! The day ended with a ‘question time’, type ask the panel and then the day was brought to a close by the Vice-chancellor. Overall, a very good day.

Information Literacy: Fact or Fable?

I called my conference presentation - Information Literacy: Fact or Fable? This was my first opportunity to present my initial reading to date, and in reality my first academic conference. It was just my luck that members of the Universities senior team decided to ‘drop in’ and guess who was about to speak. Honestly, I feel the presentation went well for a first go; it is easy to beat yourself up about what you would change or even do completely differently. Many people (genuinely) said that they enjoyed it and that I had made a potentially boring subject come alive. I spent the day attending all of the presentations; it also proved to be a very useful net working opportunity -- overall a very good day.

INN Conference

Today I spent half of the day making finishing touches to my presentation for Wednesday (tomorrow); I also took time to attend some of the conference (especially the lunch – those of you thinking about coming to Leeds Met the buffet lunch is excellent – based on my previous NHS experience!)

The key note speaker was Professor Ray Paul, a very distinguished man http://people.brunel.ac.uk/~csstrjp He spoke about the inns and outs of applying for research funding, although not relevant to me now, it certainly reminded me of previous incarnations of applying for money and I am sure that it will prove to be useful in the future. Still very interesting.

Writing for Faculty Conference

Today was spent preparing by short (but well formed) paper for Wednesday’s Innovation North Faculty Conference. I have 20 minutes to present my preliminary thoughts on my work todate. I will place the paper on my website (so when it is up please feel free to comment!).

Boyce (2000) Second thoughts about information literacy

Here is another very thought provoking article, one which I recommend. I must admit it took a second read for me to get to grips with the writing; nevertheless, Boyce poses some good probing questions as she tries to grapple with the concept of information literacy for herself.

In her second paragraph she opens by stating that she questions the:

‘construction of information literacy; as it has an ‘indeterminate quality’, which seems to encompass everything from computer competence, search savvy…right through to a philosophy of learning how to learn…the strongly print, bibliocentric logic of information literacy seems to me to be inappropriate for the anarchic environment of digital information.’

Her article examines the meaning of the terms along with the context. She calls for another look at the theory, worried by the bibliocentric bias to the concept and how this fits in with the anarchic digital world. One does need to remember that that article was written seven years ago and in that time the theory has move on, yet I believe there is still an element of truth in what she says.

Again I feel myself agreeing with Boyce when she forcefully states:

‘I am troubled by the universality and totalising effects of this movement, by the impetus of the phenomenon so vastly understood, yet subject to such uncritical, fervent allegiance. ‘Against the seemingly universal endorsement of information literacy.’

Drawing to a conclusion, the discussion moves on to ask the question is IL simply a pre-occupation of the teacher/librarian? (Is it a product of a profession too close to its subject?). For Boyce its only play a part in the story it simply reflects a sectoral (i.e. library) viewpoint and that this preoccupation with their particular paradigm has distracted profession to coming to terms within a wider and broader overview of literacy in the new communications environment; ‘it has blinded us to the way in which we have been positioned materially, culturally and socially..’

Information literacy: a clarification

I decided that I would attend a conference at the University today on pedagogies. My first mistake was not realising that it was in-fact a three day event! Well, I attended the first lecture, and then decided to disappear – not very good I know. Anyway, this allowed me to start reading another article:

Langford, L. (1998). "Information literacy: a clarification." School Libraries Worldwide 4(1): 59-72.

This is another article which I liked very much; in that it set off a whole ream of writing and thoughts -- It is an article which tapped into my consciousness. Where this article is a little different is that it focuses more on literacies in general. Langford is another voice who recognised back in 1998 that there is a gap in the IL literature (Todd and also Boyce etc). Langford questions whether we need to examine ‘new literacies’ as propagated by Ross and Bailey (1994) Wanted new literacies for the information age, NASSP Bulletin 78(563):31-35 . This is another paper to add to my list to read, to see if I agree with Langford.