Lesson Learnt and Prospects of Media and Information Literacy Education in Universities: An Integrative Review

List of Contributors. Editorial Advisory Board. Preface. Introduction - Information Literacy and Information Behaviour, Complementary Approaches for Building Capability. Transforming Information Literacy for Higher Education in the 21st Century: A Lifelong Learning Approach. Curriculum and Curriculum Integration of Information Literacy in Higher Education. The Construction of Information and Media Literacy in Education Policy: A Study of Singapore. Information Literacy in Higher Education: Research Students' Development in Information Search Expertise. Mediating Culture: Media Literacy and Cultural Awareness The Representation of Race and Ethnicity in Maya and Miguel. Empowering Professional Practices of a Community of e-Learners: Special Education Teachers in Alaska and their Information Literacy Conceptions. Information Literacy of Undergraduate Students in Thailand: A Case of the Faculty of Arts, Silpakorn University, Thailand. Building Partnerships for Information Literacy among HE Institutions in African Universities: Opportunities and Challenges - A Case Study. Perspectives on Legal Education and the Role of Information Literacy in Improving Qualitative Legal Practice. Information Literacy in the Business School Context: A Story of Complexity and Success. Workplace Reflections of Information Literacy Training: The Case of the Agriculture and Health Sectors in Tanzania. Workplace Information Literacy: It's Different. Diversifying Information Literacy Research: An Informed Learning Perspective. The Use of Participatory Techniques in the Communication of Information for Communities: Information Literacy and Collaborative Work for Citizenship Development. About the Authors. Developing People's Information Capabilities: Fostering Information Literacy in Educational, Workplace and Community Contexts. Library and Information Science. Developing People's Information Capabilities: Fostering Information Literacy in Educational, Workplace and Community Contexts. Copyright page. Index.

We are living in the disinformation age or in that of a revolution in propaganda, which gives rise to fragile democracies, vulnerable citizens, less capable deliberations, new forms of subversion, misuse of information by third parties etc. North Macedonia is a highly fragmented and polarized society, which gives space to the impact of malign actors for achieving their geopolitical goals such as to destabilize, weaken ties with the West or just increase their presence. Resilience, thus, has become the shield of contemporary information warfare. Media and Information Literacy education through the development of critical thinking in the young generation is a conditio sine qua non for building resilience to disinformation. This study argues that universities as agents of change have the mission to lead the process of building societal resilience through Media and Information Literacy education. In this paper the researchers from the Media Literacy and Disinformation Research Cluster at Max van der Stoel Institute (MVDSI), South East European University (SEEU) through a mixed-method–approach based on both qualitative and quantitative methods, examine the perceptions of SEEU academic staff members and students regarding Media and Information Literacy education at the university level. Data from the staff questionnaire (n=45) suggest that the majority of academic staff members across all SEEU faculties and institutes perceive Media and Information Literacy education as one of the ways to make youth resilient to disinformation. Moreover, the student questionnaire (n=105) revealed similar results. SEEU students stated their desire for the introduction of Media and Information Literacy as an elective course in their curricula, as one of the best ways to become resilient to disinformation on the internet. Ways and modalities of implementation and course content remain objects of exploration.

This article analyzes the influence of information technologies on education. Different viewpoints on information literacy education, which is often assimilated to media literacy education, are presented in the paper. The article investigates both advantages of media literacy, which involve its positive influence on education, and disadvantages, which encompass dishonest ideological purposes of media literacy that are hidden behind the notion of efficient teaching. This work defends the idea that media literacy education is inevitable in modern schooling and that it is step by step replacing traditional ways of learning. Several media education paradigms are discussed: protectionist, media arts education, media literacy education and critical media literacy education. Some of them teach how to utilize modern technologies and develop creativity, whereas others educate how to recognize ideologies and be publicly engaged. The paper evaluates media literacy in Lithuania by exploring the context of media education, i.e. by analyzing Wiki culture, didactic approach of media literacy, relationships among participants of learning process, and influence of information technologies on the development of educational techniques. Prominent questions about Lithuanian readiness for changes in schooling methods are asked. It is argued if the country has a clear and coherent media literacy education philosophy. Answers are found by investigating information literacy programs and media literacy projects in Lithuanian secondary schools. The article arrives to a conclusion that in Lithuania media literacy education is only at the early stage of development, but its progress is quite rapid and omits several stages which were underwent in Western countries. Nevertheless, the work determines that Lithuania lacks new and brave mindset which should be spread together with critical pedagogy and critical media literacy (i.e. transforming) education.

PurposeThis paper aims to measure the perceptions of librarians about information literacy (IL) instruction, their current IL practices and the problems they face while offering IL instructional programs in public and private sector university libraries in Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative research design was adopted, and a survey was carried out for this study to collect the data through an online questionnaire for the university librarians. All librarians (a total of 120) were approached to collect the data, of whom 92 (76.6%) responded to the survey.FindingsThe findings reveal that the librarians working in the university libraries of Islamabad are aware of the significance of IL instruction to fulfil the information needs of their library users. A majority of the librarians indicated having adequate skills to offer IL instruction. Moreover, the majority of the librarians are offering IL instruction to users at their respective universities. However, some of the barriers affecting IL instruction programs were also reported including the absence of IL instruction courses in the library and information science (LIS) curriculum, a shortage of trained library professional staff to provide IL instruction, a lack of commitment among librarians for IL instruction, a lack of training opportunities for librarians and a lack of interest from library users. These obstacles have a negative effect on IL instruction in the university libraries of Islamabad. Therefore, this study suggests that librarians are needed to take several necessary steps to overcome these obstacles to achieve the best results in IL instruction programs.Originality/valueThis study presents a picture of the status of IL skills, current practices and barriers to offering IL instruction in the university libraries of Islamabad. This research bridges the gap in the existing literature and will help to create awareness about the importance of IL skills among LIS professionals in Pakistan. Moreover, the findings of this study will help encourage librarians for the enhancement of IL instruction services in university libraries of Islamabad in particular and Pakistan in general.

A Review of:
 Bury, S. (2011). Faculty attitudes, perceptions and experiences of information literacy: A study across multiple disciplines at York University, Canada. Journal of Information Literacy, 5(1). Retrieved from http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/JIL/article/view/PRA-V5-I1-2011-1
 
 Objective – To explore faculty attitudes towards information literacy (IL); in particular, faculty perception of student IL competencies, importance of IL skills and instruction, and ideal means of planning and delivering IL instruction.
 
 Design – Online survey questionnaire. 
 
 Setting – Large public research university located in Toronto, Canada. 
 
 Subjects – 221 full-time faculty. 
 
 Methods – The author designed and distributed an online survey to all full-time York University faculty (n=1,451) in March 2007 using Zoomerang software. The survey consisted of between 26 and 36 questions depending on responses selected by respondents, and included both open- and closed-ended questions. The author hand coded the qualitative data and used SPSS to analyze the quantitative data. The survey had 221 usable responses giving a response rate of 15.2%.
 
 Main Results – The study revealed a high degree of concern among survey respondents regarding undergraduate students’ information literacy skills, accompanied by a perceived gradual increase in IL abilities corresponding to student year. Faculty ranked each of the Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL) Information Literacy Standards for Higher Education as being extremely important. No ACRL standard ranked below 6 on a scale of 1 to 7, suggesting full agreement with the value of IL proficiency. Of the faculty 78.7% felt that IL education should be a joint collaboration between faculty and librarians. A considerable majority of respondents (81.7%) answered that IL instruction should be required for all students. Far fewer faculty incorporated IL teaching in practice, with 52.9% engaging in IL instruction and 47.1% not incorporating IL instruction at all. Of the faculty who incorporated librarian-led IL sessions into their courses, 85% of faculty perceived a “substantial impact” or “some impact” on their students’ IL competencies.
 
 Conclusions – The author concludes that this study adds evidence to the claim that a disconnect exists between faculty beliefs about the importance of IL and their teaching practices. Faculty consistently express concern regarding student IL abilities and support collaborative IL instruction, yet the rate of IL integration within their classes remains low. The results corroborate that faculty perceptions and attitudes towards IL remain relatively consistent when compared with other studies. The author recommends that librarians be flexible regarding IL instruction models and encourage further investigation of faculty development models to achieve wider IL integration. A stronger advocacy role is also advised to increase instruction opportunities and the promotion of information literacy at the institutional level. The author identifies four areas for future research, including examining why faculty do not incorporate IL instruction into their classes, disciplinary differences in IL attitudes and adoption, which IL instruction models faculty view as most effective, and replication of this study to test generalizability. As of the study’s publication, the author was conducting a qualitative follow-up study in the form of semi-structured interviews with faculty.

Chapter 1 - Convergences of and for Media and Information Literacy Instruction in Higher Education

This paper examines the main challenges facing the integration of media culture education in higher education in Bulgaria. The authors argue for the choice of "media culture" as a course name with the provision of theoretical and practical-applied knowledge for the perception and analysis of the impact of various media forms, public communications and types of content in a cultural, social, educational, technological, and economic context. The undergraduate course was introduced during the academic year 2023/24 for the first time in the curriculum of several majors in the field of social sciences to second-year students of the majors "Media and Journalism", "Media Economics", "Sociology", "Political Science", "International Relations" and "European Politics and Economics" at the University of National and World Economy. The effectiveness of the course in terms of acquired knowledge and skills for critical participation in media processes was assessed through an anonymous survey in Microsoft Forms. 76 respondents answered 12 questions – 10 with option choice and 2 with text input. The results reveal that students felt more adapted to the media world and better prepared to distinguish between different types of information, including disinformation and propaganda. The course also increased their confidence in evaluation and usage of media sources, while developing their critical thinking regarding social processes. Students identified topics that should be separately identified in the curriculum. The study allows for the identification of issues for national discussion from the perspective of challenges to the integration of media literacy education in universities, overcoming key barriers to the introduction and development of media literacy-oriented courses, and the impact and effectiveness of media literacy education in higher education institutions in Bulgaria.

Information literacy (IL) education in Malaysia is officially integrated into the school curriculum. However, it seems that the development and progress of ILE implementation are slower than might be expected. Thus, the goal of this qualitative study is to determine the factors affecting the implementation of IL education in Malaysian primary schools and to explore how these factors are facilitating or hindering the process. Case studies were conducted involving two national primary schools representing one of the two public school types in Malaysia. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were held with school teachers and key stakeholders followed by documentary analysis for further understanding of the implementation issues emerging during the implementation. From the analysis of the transcripts of the interviews with teaching staff, a range of factors hindering and facilitating IL education implementation has been identified. Interview data shows that most participants had positive attitudes towards IL education. They believed that IL education was important and had the potential to make teaching and learning activities more engaging and fun. However, the participants also reported that there were problems in implementing ILE; these problems seem to be associated with the school ecology.

Information Literacy becomes one of the essential cap acities in the 21st century. This paper begins with introduction of definition, models and standards of information literacy, and then analysis the structure of information literacy education in a university, making conclusion that library is the main body in Information Literacy Education in university. Finally, how to be good librarians in information literacy education process is also discussed in this paper.

PurposeIn most higher education institutions, information literacy (IL) instruction is usually considered the purview of librarians, not disciplinary faculty. However, a small but growing body of research indicates that students learn the research process best when these skills are taught in the context of a course or a discipline. For this reason, teaching faculty should share ownership of IL instruction — but how? In this case study, community college librarians explain how they successfully trained faculty to integrate IL into their English Composition courses and teach IL independently.Design/methodology/approachUsing a multimethods approach, the investigators draw on faculty interviews, student surveys, and content analysis of student essays to evaluate the impact of faculty-led IL instruction on student learning after one semester.FindingsFaculty reported that their instruction of IL was improved, and students work better as a result of their collaboration with the librarians. Compared to previous semesters, faculty perceived gains in terms of students’ ability to synthesize and cite evidence in their writing. Student survey results indicate perceived gains in their IL skills, but an assessment of their written work reveals a discrepancy between this perception and the actual application of these skills.Research limitations/implicationsBecause there is no control group, no conclusions can be drawn as to whether faculty-led IL instruction is as effective as librarian-led IL instruction or whether students’ academic performance improves due to faculty teaching IL. However, the purpose of this study is primarily descriptive. It addresses how other libraries may create a culture of shared ownership of IL instruction on their campuses.Practical implicationsThis study offers an alternative model to library instruction and suggests ways instruction librarians can prioritize their outreach and instructional efforts to maximize impact on student learning.Originality/valueWhile much has been written about how librarians can improve IL instruction, few studies mention the role of faculty. This case study starts the conversation.

The research explored the current practices of information literacy (IL) instruction in medical libraries of Pakistan. A semi-structured questionnaire was mailed to the head librarians of all 114 academic medical libraries in Pakistan. It investigated the types of IL instruction provided, topics covered, methods of delivery and assessment, level of integration in the curriculum, and level of collaboration with teaching staff. The study revealed that 74% of the respondents had offered some types of IL instruction in their institutions during the previous year, ranging from library orientation to research-level skills. IL instruction is typically only offered to new students or first-time library users or on demand. A majority of the respondents developed IL instruction programs without faculty involvement. Librarians were primarily responsible for offering IL instruction in medical institutions. Face-to-face instruction in computer labs or lecture halls and individual instruction at reference desks were identified as the most common IL instruction delivery methods. The data indicated that oral feedback, written feedback, and searching in a computer lab were the most popular assessment methods that medical librarians used. IL instruction activities in medical libraries of Pakistan are in their infancy. Medical librarians also lack systematic approaches to IL instruction. Medical librarians need to develop educational partnerships with faculty for integrating IL instruction into the mainstream curriculum.

In the Internet + era, the wide application of various new technologies and the change of information environment have put forward new requirements for information literacy education. The article interprets the definition and connotation of Internet + and information literacy, and on this basis analyzes the shortcomings of information literacy education in universities and the impact of Internet + on information literacy education. Proposes the strategy of information literacy education in universities based on Internet +.

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the academic library’s role in supporting transfer student success, specifically by providing information literacy (IL) instruction. This paper examines whether IL instruction contributes to a transfer student’s sense of academic integration.Design/methodology/approachThe author designed and distributed a survey to incoming undergraduate transfer students at Valparaiso University, gathering information about students’ IL instruction experiences, their attitudes and their preferences for receiving information about the library at their new university. Inferential statistics were used to test correlations between IL instruction and students’ attitudes.FindingsIn all, 38 students completed the survey. The t-test results show significantly higher levels of confidence among those students who had participated in formal IL instruction. IL instruction is shown neither to contribute to transfer students’ sense of academic integration nor to benefit students during the transfer process. Respondents believed that transfer students do need information about their new library. They preferred small group settings or private communications for receiving this information, and the critical window is the period from when they arrive on campus through the second week of class.Practical implicationsThis study provides guidance into librarians’ outreach efforts to transfer students, including the desirability, format and timing of this information.Originality/valueThis paper is the first to situate IL instruction as a factor in transfer success.

College teachers' information literacy training research

With the vast amount of information available today, information literacy (IL) education is a critical component of undergraduate education necessary to prepare students for tomorrow's world. Instructors want students to demonstrate critical thinking skills and are often disappointed with student submissions resulting from undeveloped IL skills. Library Instruction programs are often tasked with addressing this educational need and often struggle to find a scalable method to provide IL instruction to the student body. The Information Literacy Education (ILE) Project is an asynchronous learning environment tailored to deliver instruction and assessment. Posited as a customizable option to present IL instruction, this flexible learning environment can be tailored to develop skills not taught in the classroom setting, but often expected of the students as they complete their research projects. Applications of ILE at a major research institution are presented demonstrating the variety of ways the Library Instruction department has integrated ILE into its curriculum.