THE FUTURE OF INFORMATION
LITERACY
Laura Saunders
NELIG 2013
Philips Andover Academy
IL: WHAT & WHY?
WHO IS INTERESTED?
THE CURRENT PICTURE
Opportunities & Challenges
AREAS OF CONVERGENCE: OPPORTUNITIES
Wide recognition of importance of IL
 Relevance
 Collaboration
 Integration
 Mission alignment

WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY
Collaboration is key
 Move past search and retrieval
 Define and demonstrate relevance
 Importance of assessment

WHAT ARE THE BARRIERS?
Commonly identified: resources, faculty reticence/attitude, lack of
common vocabulary, lack of role definitions…
WHAT COMES NEXT?
Charting the Future
FACULTY PERSPECTIVES
Common Concersn
Searching
Sources
Evaluation
Disciplinary Divergences
Plagiarism/Academic
integrity/citing sources
Evaluating
information
Finding/using original
data or statistics
Finding/using nonpeer reviewed
literature (opinion
pieces, blogs,…
Finding/using peerreviewed sources
Finding/using primary
sources
Specific Search Tools
(library catalog,
databases, Google, etc)
General Search
Strategies (Boolean,
Proximity, Subject vs.
keyword, etc)
Finding/Refining a
topic
FOCAL POINTS OF INSTRUCTION
9
8
7
6
5
Humanities
(Literature,
Languages, Art,
Music, etc.)
Social Science
(History,
Political Science,
Psychology, etc.)
Health Science
4
3
2
Natural/Physical
Sciences
1
0
Business/MBA
Rating Average
HOW DO WE ACCESS OUR OPPORTUNITIES…
…WHAT ARE THE SOLUTIONS?
AREAS OF OPPORTUNITY

Communication:

The language of
faculty
Il in the disciplines
 Beyond retrieval to
evaluation
 Assessment as
opportunity

TRENDS: INSTRUCTION

Threshold concepts: transformative &
troublesome!






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
Metadata & findability
Good searches use database structure
Format as process
Authority is constructed & contextual
‘Primary source’ is an exact and conditional category
Information as commodity
Research solves problems
Evaluation & Skepticism
TRENDS: OUTREACH & INTEGRATION
Embedding
 Research Consultations
 Focus on faculty

TAKING THE LEAD