Debate topics: August 2002

Thank you Mandy for an excellent paper to start the discussion around the topic of information literacy assessment. Thank you also for Ralph's e-mail you posted to the list.

I was both personally and professionally pleased to see that Ralph has raised issues I also raised in my (somewhat aged) thesis of 1998 on information and library literacy, that is, this concept of assessing and measuring information literacy as a key competency.

I am very interested in more detail about the 'one assignment that is an assessment of information literacy' identified in Ralph's message. I am most interested in what is being measured and how it is being measured in terms of learning outcomes as aligned to the programs the learners are undertaking.

Is what is being measured generic enough to suit a range of AQF (Australian Qualifications Framework) levels, across a broad range of subject areas and I suspect in some way aligned to the CAUL Information Literacy Standards?

I agree that embedding information literacy into the curriculum is critical for both its success and the formal recognition of information literacy skills as generic skills and/or graduate attributes, but more importantly as workplace skills. It also becomes a joint process for course facilitators as well as library staff depending on what determines competence when measuring information literacy skills.

This clearly applies to those in the educational components of the information industry.

I am also interested in the views of colleagues in a non-educational environment who contribute towards the development of such skills outside the educational context.

Helena Zobec

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