Presented at LILAC 2009

1. Newcastle University
Integrating information literacy
as a habit of learning
Assessing the impact of a golden
thread of IL in the curriculum
Moira Bent and Elizabeth Stockdale
Faculty Liaison Librarian/National Teaching Fellow
Lecturer – Environmental Science

2. Newcastle University
Information Literacy – yet another
definition
 Information literacy can be thought of as
individuals building an awareness of how
they “use, manage, synthesise and
create information, in a wise and ethical
manner, to the benefit of society”, as part
of their learning life. Information literacy is
central to learning and essentially
involves changing learning attitudes and
habits so that people understand how
information fits into their learning”.

3. Newcastle University
Information Literacy at Newcastle
 Patchy approach
 Information Skills or Information Literacy?
 Individual champions
 CASAP course
 Module Outline Forms
 IL Project
 IL Toolkit
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/library/staff/infolit/toolkit/

4. Newcastle University
Pockets of good practice
 Postgraduate programmes in all Faculties
 Chemistry
 Masters programme
 Computing Science
 First year curriculum
 Medical School
 Environmental Science
 And more….

5. Newcastle University
Integrated or stand-alone approach
Stand alone advantages
 Easier for library staff to offer discrete
workshops
 Online IL packages mean students can
learn at their own pace
 Academic staff can pass responsibility ( and
contact time) to library staff
 Library staff can develop programmes
independently of academic staff
 Library profile – can be seen to be
contributing

6. Newcastle University
Integrated or stand-alone approach
Stand alone disadvantages
 Often concentrate on specific skills, rather than
broader IL issues
 Students don’t perceive the session to be
essential/ relevant
 Students may not carry knowledge across to
other areas of learning
 Academic staff are less aware of content

7. Newcastle University
Integrated or stand-alone approach
Integrated approach advantages
 Immediately relevant for students
 Learned as part of subject content (thinking
about intertwining threads)
 Possible to address more abstract IL issues
 Academic staff ownership of IL content
 Easy to plan development/ incremental
learning

8. Newcastle University
Integrated or stand-alone approach
Integrated approach disadvantages
 Library staff lose control of IL
 Talking ourselves out of a job?
 Will the academic staff do it right?
 It can be difficult to work with someone else in
this way
 Library staff need to know more about
pedagogy
 It can be time consuming to develop
 Convincing academic/library staff it’s worth it

9. Newcastle University
Environmental Science
The programme context - 2004
 Even in Stage 2 assignments you still mostly
find websites quoted as references
 I think that we have probably failed to
encourage the students to find and make
sense of scientific rather than popular literature
 I do think that most are woefully trained in
dealing with writing reports and undertaking
original work … The students are not given
time to learn really useful skills for the outside
world (like thinking, for one).

10. Newcastle University
 Students tend to search in unsophisticated ways,
often not really understanding what to look for, nor
how to go about a search (Peters et al 2003).
 In most subjects students are expect to become
independent learners and critical thinkers, but the
way this is to be achieved is expressed only in
very general terms
 Most academics “assume that students are
somehow, albeit haphazardly developing
information skills” (McGuiness, 2003)
 Osmosis – not fostered, supported encouraged

11. Newcastle University
Environmental Science
Programme specification
 Cognitive skills (C3) – critically appraise data,
information and viewpoints and produce a
reasoned argument
 Key skills (D1, D2) – summarise and
communicate in writing and orally in a manner
appropriate to the target audience ; use
information sources effectively
 Library workshops develop information
searching skills

12. Newcastle University
The golden thread
 Environmental Science Issues (Stage 1, study
skills in context)
 Environmental Practice (Stage 2, what do
environmental professional do?)
 Environmental Science Project (Stage 3, all
our own work)
 IL is developed in collaboration with library
staff.
 Golden thread gives the opportunity to practice
IL skills in a range of contexts

13. Newcastle University
Introduced, practiced, assessed
 Learning logs and search strategies submitted
as part of credit bearing assessments
provided relevant information on both the use
of the skills introduced and students’
perceptions of the processes.
 Additional questions were included in end of
Module questionnaires.
 Informal review of the approaches was also
made through conversations with staff and
students.

14. Newcastle University
Does it work?
 Difficult to wean off a “Google habit”.
 If it’s not electronic, it doesn’t exist
 One size doesn’t fit all. Highly individual and
situated practice

15. Newcastle University
Learning log - end of Stage 1
“I felt that I have achieved quite a lot. I actively
used journals in my research for the first time in a
project, and indeed used a range of journals. I
also reduced my dependence on books quite a
lot. Many of the statistics in the presentation were
taken from websites – government departments
and agencies. The use of these websites means
that my information and figures were reliable and
more current. I also used portals and gateways
on the Internet following the library exercise and
a very good book on sources of information in
environmental science in the library reference
section”.

16. Newcastle University
Learning log – mid Stage 2
“There is a large amount of information available on this
subject, but a lot of it is very subjective to the views of the
campaign groups and not all is based on actual fact. For
example the facts I found on the Environment Agency’s
website were quite different to the information that I found
on the website for the local campaign groups. … Although
there is a lot of information available on the negative
impacts of incinerators I have tried not to get carried away
with them because they are very subjective. I started by
looking on the internet but found that the vast amount of
information was too much to look through, so I started
using books and journals for relevant information. I also
feel better about using them as they are more reliable.”

17. Newcastle University
Reflecting on the whole thing - Stage 3
“It was good having the sessions integrated into
Modules throughout the year, we paid much
more attention and they seemed much more
relevant. The sessions this year really set us on
the right track. After them we were better
equipped to search for the most appropriate
journals, to identify other sources of information
and to reference the range of sources of material
we have found. Without those sessions I would
have really struggled with my research project.”

18. Newcastle University
For study – not for life?
 “I think everyone’s initial approach is Google,
but there are obviously other places to find
information (chuckle) for like essays and stuff”
 “It depends if you want academic information
or just general information like about how
much it would cost to buy something”

19. Newcastle University
What have I learned as a lectuuer?
 Direct and credit-bearing assessment
 Contextualisation and practice
 Show they are valued
 Students need encouragement to reflect on
skills development
 Continual loop of learning, reflection for those
who lead
 Let other module leaders know so they can
challenge/ develop

20. Newcastle University
What have I learned as a librarian?
 Students benefit from reflecting about their
information literacy abilities
 IL should be an integral part of all subject
teaching
 IL isn’t just for librarians
 Students ask me different kinds of questions
 It’s very satisfying when it works
 It’s easier to do the second time around

21. Newcastle University
Collecting more evidence of impact
 Current research to assess impact
 Information Literacy criteria
 Mirrored assessments
 Seminar discussions
 Reflective learning logs

22. Newcastle University
Contacts
 moira.bent@ncl.ac.uk
 e.a.stockdale@ncl.ac.uk
 Pre refereed copy of paper at:
http://eprints.ncl.ac.uk/deposit_details.php?
deposit_id=6164
 More info at : http://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/moira.bent