Evaluating information literacy educators’ practices before and after the course facilitating information literacy education: from tutor to learner‐centred

Abstract

The article gives an account of a study on the impact of facilitating information literacy education (FILE) on its participants, health librarians who have attended this course between 2007 and 2010. The analysis presented here is based on the first stage of the research, funded by the Higher Education Academy Information and Computer Sciences and consisting of an online survey. This survey was conducted in Autumn 2010 and examined the respondents' examples of information literacy practice before and after FILE. Two main outcomes can be drawn from the data. First, that overall the respondents' provision of information literacy education has shifted from a tutor-centred approach (where the trainer decides what the learner needs) to a learner-centred approach (where the learner decides what he/she needs). And secondly, that the impact of FILE should be seen in terms of a self-perpetuating professional development, rather than measured in terms of specific changes that occur at set times (e.g., at the end of the course or 6 months after completion). As one FILE participant puts it: 'When FILE ends your career as an information literacy professional starts.'