Impact of Information Literacy and Discourse Synthesis Strategy Use on Multimodal Information‐Based Integrated Writing Among Secondary School Students

Participation in the information society means faster communication, development of new ideas, more creative ideas and education in terms of lifelong learning. The information society is a reality and a dominant element of politics in all developed countries of the world. Information literacy deals with the human ability to work effectively in the information society. Information literacy needs to be understood in a wider context, rather than only in terms of IT skills and abilities. The article compares and defines the concept of information literacy. It compares selected information literacy models. The starting point is a survey conducted among business managers in the Slovak Republic examining the level of information literacy of managers. The findings identify factors affecting the aggregate index of information literacy of managers and the proposed quantitative and qualitative model of the information literacy of managers. Presented are the unique results of long-term research on information and digital literacy in the Slovak Republic (Central Europe, the European Union and V4-Visegrad countries). So far, no research has been conducted focusing on the level of digital literacy of business managers and an information literacy model that would contribute to raising their level.

A Review of:
 Corrall, Sheila. "Information Literacy Strategy Development in Higher Education: An Exploratory Study." International Journal of Information Management 28 (2008): 26-37.
 
 Objective – To examine the development of information literacy (IL) strategies in higher education by assessing content and presentation of IL strategy documentation, and to explore the application of corporate strategy concepts and techniques to IL strategy.
 
 Design – Comparative, multi-case study. Qualitative analysis.
 
 Setting – U.K. universities.
 
 Subjects – Twelve information literacy strategy documents from ten institutions.
 
 Methods – Google was searched for IL strategy documents (restricted to the ac.uk domain), the LISINFOLITERACY discussion list was queried, and the Web sites of all U.K. universities were searched for a total sample of 12 documents at 10 institutions. Results of the data capture were discussed in the context of the literature on strategic management.
 
 Main Results – Corporate strategy tools and techniques are extensive in the literature, trending toward an emphasis on holistic thinking and marketing concepts. Many themes identified in the documents were consistent with the literature. While the format and style varied, all documents emphasized the integration of IL into subject curricula. All stressed the need to build collaborative partnerships between library/information staff and academic staff. Significantly, many strategies aimed to reach the broader institution, although poor articulation undermined this ambitious goal. In three, IL intervention was intended for the whole university community. However, the target audience often was not well defined. Seven of the IL strategies identified additional partnerships to effect change at the policy level. Another key theme was the adoption of recognized IL standards; seven proposed the SCONUL (1999) model. All strategies recognized the importance of learning outcomes; six stated them explicitly. Prominent was the integration of e-learning resources, namely online tutorials. Many strategies recognized the need for marketing and advocacy activities. Half considered professional or staff development issues, as supported in the literature. All strategies explained in detail the context of their IL proposals, citing external challenges (growth of digital information, employer demand), external evidence (official reports, benchmarking statements, studies), and internal evidence (stakeholder concerns, institutional strategies) to support the need for IL. The documents specified a range of teaching modes from informal reference desk encounters to strategic positioning in relation to the broader community. Half defined or described IL. Seven documents were labelled strategies, but many did not comply with content elements defined in the literature. Other features of the literature poorly represented in the documents included: the need for well articulated objectives, mission and vision statements, attendance to broader strategic issues, stakeholder analysis, and the prioritizing of IL activities with portfolio development. Only two had action plans. Seven documents were in the public domain.
 
 Conclusion – Information literacy is recognized as an essential competence for participation in higher education, the workplace and society, and information professionals have long promoted IL. In response to the changing information environment they have sought to formalize policies and strategies to embed IL institutionally, working collaboratively with key stakeholders in the process. In this study of strategic documentation from 10 U.K. universities, IL objectives were consistent although the format and style of documentation varied. The author concludes that one or more strategic management models or tools available could improve IL strategy development, consistency, and coherency. Most importantly, an overarching strategic management framework should be used to resolve ambiguity and inconsistency, improve articulation, and maximize the effectiveness of strategy documents, thus avoiding weaknesses identified in the study. As noted by the author, the library literature has progressed to include strategic management concepts evidenced, in part, by the number of libraries using Kaplan and Norton’s scorecard system. But improvements can be made: conforming to strategic planning norms could strengthen IL strategy. Elements of models from the public or private sectors might be tailored to meet the specific needs of IL strategies. Further research could identify suitable strategy models for IL development. The process of implementing IL strategy should also be considered in future research. The author notes it would be interesting to explore the relationship between IL strategies and other organizational strategies and to compare IL strategies in other sectors.

Teachers and students are important stakeholders in the information literacy (IL) space. Yet, talking about IL beyond the library can be like speaking a foreign language or engaging with a narrow ‘research skills’ focus. Our project explored what the information literacy space we inhabit looks like and sought ways to develop a common language. We see this space as capturing the unique contribution libraries and librarians, disciplines and teachers, digital information ecosystems and tools, and institutional learning contexts have on creating capable, critical, information literate learners.
 As part of this project, we define IL as involving the processes, strategies, skills, competencies, expertise and ways of thinking which enable individuals to engage with information to learn across a range of platforms (both digital and traditional learning environments), to transform the known, and discover the unknown.
 In this presentation, I will share three key resources developed to extend the IL conversation into secondary school and tertiary sector classrooms and libraries within this project: 
 
 The Feekery Information Literacy Model – This model captures different literacies underpinned by IL within cross-sector learning contexts. It is designed to foster a shared understanding of IL. 
 The ‘Are You Ready’ Self-awareness Rubric - This tool enables students to self-assess their readiness for tertiary study, teachers to develop appropriate resources and curricula, and researchers to measure the success of teachers’ literacy strategies in terms of student learning.
 The Rauru Whakarare Evaluation Framework – An evaluation approach using indigenous knowledge to critique and engage deeply with information. It supports teachers, students and librarians to explore information quality and its contribution to learning. 
 
 I will share insights into the resources’ development, their use during our collaborative partnership project, and insights about how these resources supported teachers, librarians, and students to actively engage in the information literacy space.

Teachers and students are important stakeholders in the information literacy(IL) space. Yet, talking about IL beyond the library can be like speaking a foreign language or engaging with a narrow ‘research skills’ focus. Our project explored what the information literacy space we inhabit looks like and sought ways to develop a common language. We see this space as capturing the unique contribution libraries and librarians, disciplines and teachers, digital information ecosystems and tools, and institutional learning contexts have on creating capable, critical, information literate learners. As part of this project, we define IL as involving the processes, strategies, skills, competencies, expertise and ways of thinking which enable individuals to engage with information to learn across a range of platforms (both digital and traditional learning environments), to transform the known, and discover the unknown. In this presentation, I will share three key resources developed to extend the IL conversation into secondary school and tertiary sector classrooms and libraries within this project: •The Feekery Information Literacy Model – This model captures different literacies underpinned by IL within cross-sector learning contexts. It is designed to foster a shared understanding of IL. •The ‘Are You Ready’ Self-awareness Rubric - This tool enables students to self-assess their readiness for tertiary study, teachers to develop appropriate resources and curricula, and researchers to measure the success of teachers’ literacy strategies in terms of student learning. •The Rauru Whakarare Evaluation Framework – An evaluation approach using indigenous knowledge to critique and engage deeply with information. It supports teachers, students and librarians to explore information quality and its contribution to learning. I will share insights into the resources’ development, their use during our collaborative partnership project, and insights about how these resources supported teachers, librarians, and students to actively engage in the information literacy space.

In the rapidly evolving digital society, information literacy has emerged as a critical competency for primary and secondary school students, directly influencing their academic performance and future development. This study investigates the information literacy of students in grades 4 to 9 across five nine-year compulsory education schools in Zigong City, aiming to provide insights for developing scientific and effective training programs. The research combines questionnaires with interviews to collect data from 2,000 students, with statistical analysis conducted using SPSS22.0 software.Key findings indicate that students' information literacy is generally at a moderate level, with significant correlations observed among four dimensions. Students demonstrate relatively balanced performance across these dimensions, though information ethics scores are slightly lower compared to others.It means their information literacy exsits several challenges, including insufficient information awareness, gaps in information knowledge depth, uneven development of information abilities, and deficiencies in information ethics practices. To address these challenges,including optimizing information technology curricula, enhancing teacher training, improving parental involvement, and purifying the social information environment. Future research could further explore the specific mechanisms influencing students' information literacy and adapt to emerging technological trends to better support educational practices. This study contributes to the understanding of information literacy development among primary and secondary school students and offers practical recommendations for educators and policymakers to foster digital-age competencies.

This issue of Libellarium includes papers from the invited speakers who gave lectures at the Summer School in User Studies (SSUS) organized by the Department of Information Sciences and held at the University of Zadar, 11. - 14. April, 2012. The SSUS is associated with the Knowledge Society and Information Transfer PhD programme at the Department of Information Sciences at the University of Zadar. This programme is designed for Croatian and international doctoral students in the field of theories and studies of information needs and use, as well as the field of reading and learning concepts and strategies in digital environment. The main goal of the Summer School 2012 was to introduce the participants to the most recent research, the latest developments and the newly emerged concepts in the fields of users’ information behaviour, learning and education in the digital age, information literacy theories and concepts, as well as the reading paradigms. In the recent times the information society changes rapidly which influences processing and the approaches to information while it changes the existing paradigms of learning and education. New literacies emerge and reading, as the key competency necessary to access the information, changes its forms and practices. The SUSS organized the above mentioned issues in three segments: Users’ information behaviour, Literacy and reading in the digital environment, and Learning and education in the digital age. In the Users’ information behaviour segment this issue of Libellarium contains articles from two invited speakers and two doctoral students who discuss the subject from different viewpoints. Paul Sturges starts with the assumption that people are much more dependent than they realise on information and ideas that are acquired and processed by areas of the brain, not always immediately accessible to the conscious mind. Polona Vilar discusses information behaviour of scholars and scholarly practice influenced by increased accessibility of digital resources and tools. Doctoral students Dora Rubinic and Darko Lacovic base their literature reviews on the specific context of university students’ information behaviour. The former review deals with information behavior of university students in general, while the latter one deals with university students’ information behaviour in relation to the role of academic libraries. Four invited speakers discuss literacy and reading in the digital environment. Livija Knaflic presents literacy as a complex phenomenon and focuses her work toward psychological aspects of literacy. Sonja Spiranec investigates information literacy in the context of Web 2.0 which transformed information environments into complex and unstructured places so the contexts of information literacy are being re-examined and reshaped respectively. Ivanka Kuic writes about the postmodern theoretical approaches to the reader and the validity of these approaches in the digital environment while emphasizing that existing concepts of the reader and reading adapt to electronic environment, because the electronic text deconstructs the printed one and it changes the way of reading. Vita Mozuraite discusses these rapid changes in the reading paradigm in the age of e-book to which the young readers are especially susceptible considering their frequent use of the internet. The changes in information environment influence learning. This fact demands careful consideration from education experts in order to achieve the maximal degree of the rich media environment contribution to the quality of education. Hence, Milan Matijevic writes about the influence the e-environment has on the new curriculum paradigms. These papers are the starting point for the new directions of thought about the changes in the digital environment that reflect on information behaviour, learning and the related practices. The papers were received in 2012/2013 and were peer reviewed in 2013/2014. * Department of Information Sciences, University of Zadar, Croatia e-mail: istricev@unizd.hr

PurposeInformation and digital literacy have recently received much interest, and they are being viewed as critical strategic organisational resources and skills that employees need to obtain in order to function at their workplaces. Yet, the role of employees' literacy seems to be neglected in current literature. This paper aims to explore the roles that information and digital literacy play on the employees' perception in relation to usefulness and ease of use of digital technologies and consequently their intention to use technology in the practices they perform at the workplace.Design/methodology/approachThis paper builds a conceptual model with key constructs (information literacy and digital literacy) as new antecedents to the technology acceptance model and aims to establish that information literacy and digital literacy are indirect determinants of employees' intention to use digital technologies at the workplace. The data set used in this paper comprises of 121 respondents and structural equation modelling was used.FindingsThe findings reveal that both information literacy and digital literacy have a direct impact on perceived ease of use of technology but not on the perceive usefulness. The findings also show that both literacies have an indirect impact on the intention to use digital technology at work via attitude towards use.Practical implicationsManagers and decision-makers should pay close attention to the literacy levels of their staff. Because literacies are such an important skillset in the digital age, managers and chief information officers may want to start by identifying which work groups or individuals require literacy training and instruction, and then provide specific and relevant training or literacy interventions to help those who lack sufficient literacy.Originality/valueThis is one of the first studies to consider information literacy and digital literacy as new antecedents of the technology acceptance model at the workplace environment.

As we may think: Information literacy as a discipline for the information age

This feature focuses upon information literacy in health courses in Higher Education. In particular, it places emphasis on the importance of faculty-library cooperation in promoting and teaching information skills and reflects upon the time the author spent carrying out roles in each area.

Purpose In today’s information and knowledge society, it is indispensable for citizens to acquire the requisite digital and information literacy (IL) skills to search information independently to meet their multiple and diverse information needs. As a result of digitalisation in the world, development and acquisition of digital and information skills is critical even for students and learners to retrieve digitised and online information to meet or achieve their curriculum-related accomplishments. The purpose of this study is to investigate the status of the digital and information literacies in South Africa from 2016 to 2022. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative study used a scoping review approach to collect data from research articles, conference articles and textbooks on digital literacy and IL – published in the years ranging between 2016 and 2022 from Google Scholar. Findings The major findings revealed that majority of the citizens especially students and learners lack digital and IL skills to recognise when information is needed, to find, locate, evaluate and use the retrieved information to meet an information need in a particular situation or context. Practical implications of this study include the alignment of curricula towards information and communication technologies to face the everchanging digital information technologies. Originality/value The study used scoping literature review research where empirical studies were retrieved and selected to address the objectives. This study provided significant approaches regarding promoting information and digital literacies in developing countries such as South Africa.

The National Library Board (NLB) and Ministry of Education (MOE) in Singapore have collaborated to carry out a National Information Literacy (IL) Program for primary and secondary school students. The program involves developing a curriculum framework that can be introduced in specific school subjects where IL competencies can be nurtured. Surveys were developed to identify students’ IL strengths and weaknesses and guide relevant intervention planning and implementation. IL academics from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, were involved in formulating the proposed IL model for schools, curriculum framework, as well as in reviewing and assessing the findings of the surveys. At this point, the survey instrument has been formulated and a pilot test of the instrument has been administered to more than 70 primary school students and about 20 secondary school students. This paper shares the main analyses of the pilot survey, according to the proposed model for IL for Singapore schools.

Currently, due to changes in Slovak Education we increasingly often meet with the concept of competences, key competences. We tend to speak about key competences as a new phenomenon in education. The term originates from the 1970s in economics where it represented a set of specific requirements for the job seeker. It was transferred to the field of education in the late 90s where it serves as a bridge between the requirements imposed by employers in the labour market and the graduate’s profile. The term competence is used both in professional and common language; and ability, skill, capability, effectiveness, capacity, desired quality and others are used as synonyms for the group of terms. A person who has the abilities and skills, motivation, knowledge, etc., to carry out tasks well in a particular field is considered competent. Competence is usually applied to individuals, social groups and institutions in case they successfully fulfil requirements and achieve goals set by their environment. The theory of key competences has not yet been completely formulated and neither does a comprehensive and widely accepted definition exist. This paper will focus on information literacy and developing competencies in the information society as one of the necessary key competencies.

The present study aimed to determine the goodness of fit of a causal model of self-directed learning based on emotional creativity with the mediating role of knowledge sharing and information literacy among graduate students. This descriptive correlational study was conducted on 215 graduate students enrolled at the University of Ilam during the 2022–2023 academic year, who were selected through random sampling. Data collection was carried out using the Fisher et al. Standard Self-Directed Learning Questionnaire, the Averill et al. Emotional Creativity Questionnaire, the Katz and Macklin Information and Communication Technology Literacy Questionnaire, and the Van den Hooff and Van Weenen Knowledge Sharing Questionnaire. Data analysis was performed using structural equation modeling (SEM) with Smart PLS software. The results indicated a positive and significant relationship between emotional creativity and information literacy. Additionally, a relationship was found between emotional creativity and knowledge-sharing behavior. Furthermore, there was a significant causal relationship between emotional creativity and self-directed learning, as well as between information literacy and self-directed learning. Based on the SEM results, the fit indices, including R², GOF, and Q², were satisfactory. Therefore, it can be concluded that the conceptual model of self-directed learning based on emotional creativity, with the mediating role of knowledge sharing and information literacy, aligns well with the empirical model.

Information literacy has become a basic quality that every citizen in the information society must possess. Teacher information literacy is an essential basic literacy in an artificial intelligence society. In the process of education informatization, the information literacy of rural elementary and middle school teachers has received the attention of the education authorities and the majority of teachers. Improving the information literacy of rural elementary and middle school teachers has become an urgent problem to be solved. Under the epidemic of COVID-19 in 2020, the Ministry of Education required "classes suspended but learning continues", which has revealed the current situation of imperfect information literacy in rural primary and secondary schools. This paper analyzes the current situation and existing problems of rural primary and secondary school teachers' information literacy, and puts forward some strategies to improve teachers' information literacy by means of literature research method and interview method. It helps front-line teachers to have a deeper understanding of information literacy, and also provides reference for schools to conduct teacher training, so as to improve teachers' online teaching ability and teaching quality.

College teachers' information literacy training research