Everything you need to know about standards and are glad you never asked

Larraine Shepherd
Assistant director, NTLIS

Background

Information Literacy Standards are a fairly recent development:

2000: Information literacy standards for higher education approved by the Association of College and Research Libraries in US and subsequently endorsed by the American Association for Higher Education and US accreditation bodies.
2001: CAUL (Council of Australian University Librarians) approved the revision of the US standards as Information Literacy Standards. Intended primarily for higher education, but suitable for other educational sectors.
2001: CASL (Council of Australian State Libraries) endorsed a modified version of the CAUL standards for use by public libraries. In the CASL version, the standards are identical, but alternate outcomes have been developed to reflect the broader role of public libraries in supporting lifelong learning and community development.

Why have standards:

Intellectual framework for the development and delivery of information literacy programs.
To raise awareness of the value of information in the community, in partnership with the education sector.
To benchmark progress over a number of years, towards the broader goal of becoming an information society.

A brief Introduction

There are seven standards, and each standard has a number of outcomes, which are designed to facilitate the assessment of skills or competencies. (Display CASL standards on overhead)

Awareness of information needs
The information literate person recognises the need for information and determines the nature and extent of the information needed.
Search strategies for information
The information literate person accesses needed information effectively and efficiently.
Evaluation of information and its sources
The information literate person evaluates information and its sources critically and incorporates selected information into their knowledge base and value system.
Storage and retrieval of information
The information literate person classifies, stores, manipulates and redrafts information collected or generated.
Use of information
The information literate person expands, reframes or creates new knowledge by integrating prior knowledge and new understanding individually or as a member of a group.
Socio-cultural, ethical and legal information practice
The information literate person understands cultural, economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information and access, and uses information ethically, legally and respectfully.
Lifelong learning context of information literacy practice
The information literate person recognises that lifelong learning and participative citizenship requires information literacy.

The outcomes are designed to be measured but the standards do not provide any methods of assessment.

It is anticipted that the standards will be revised over time, as issues of clarification and ambiguity surface. Indeed the CAUL standards include a feedback form inviting suggestions for a planned revision in 2003.

A view from the trenches (NTL)

Over the past 18 months staff at NTL have tried to use the standards in their information literacy programs, but it is has not been easy, or entirely successful.

Basically the approach was to identify the appropriate standard, and outcome, and build that into the lesson plan or outline. In reality, we probably should have been working the other way around. Looking at the standards and using them as framework to develop our information literacy program.

The other major problem was how to assess the outcomes. In a public library environment you can't really expect the participants to undergo a skills test at the end of the session. Basically it is left to the individual participant to do their own self assessment. Although feedback and evaluation is included as part of each session, it does not really assess the outcomes for the individual.

While some attempt has been made to use the standards in formal information literacy programs, no attempt has been made to incorporate these principles into the informal, or one on one sessions with clients. And maybe this is not necessary, or even possible.

Some issues for the future (public libraries)

We can't assume that librarians are information literate, and can teach clients these skills. In my own case, when looking at these standards, I would give myself a 3 or 4 out 7. We need to provide awareness training about information literacy and to promote the use of the endorsed standards, if we are to have credibility in the lifelong learning arena.
Similarly, as public libraries start to offer more and more formal information literacy training there will be the need to have staff that are qualified trainers (ie that undertake train the trainer, or small group training courses). This is already happening in most libraries.
It is probably time that all public libraries considered having an Information Literacy Co-ordinator in their team, in the same way they have a Childrens' Librarian or a Community Information Librarian. This is certainly the trend in academic libraries, and in the larger public libraries. It is a specialist area that needs a champion.
Although information literacy programs are a cost effective way of assisting clients, they can also be resource intensive. It takes time to plan, deliver, and assess the outcomes of an information literacy program. It strikes me that, here in the NT, we are all working in isolation, developing the same types of programs for our clients (eg. how to find information in the catalogue, in electronic databases, on the internet). Perhaps it is time to think about how we can work in partnership with other libraries or organisations to develop core curricula and resource materials that can be adapted for use with different client groups in different types of libraries. There are already some good examples of partnerships like this eg. Skills.net NSW.
Skills.net is designed to assist public libraries in country NSW deliver internet training to local communities, thanks to the generous support of Rural Link (part of the Commonwealth Government's Networking the Nation program) and BHP Billiton. Participating libraries can be trained to deliver Skills.net workshops to their clients themselves or they can ask the State Library to do so on their behalf. (Public Library News, v9 no2, July 2003 p31)
With more and more services being delivered online, a growing proportion of our clients never actually walk into the library. They want to access our services, and assistance from the comfort of their own homes, offices etc. This has implications for the development of online information literacy programs. I don't think many public libraries have moved into this arena yet.

Overview of information literacy programs at NTLIS

Although we have not had major success with the information literacy standards, I don't mean to imply that nothing is happening. Far from it. NTLIS has a very full and varied information literacy program including the following types of activities.

For library clients
- Informal and unstructured sessions eg personal assistance, familiarisation/orientation tours, exhibitions
- Formal sessions - the most successful and popular are the ones tailored to specific clients groups eg Parliamentary Clients, Adult Learners, Senior Citizens or around specific subjects eg. Business Resources, Family History, NT Heritage Resources, or types of materials, for example pictures, newspapers.
For staff working in libraries throughout the Territory
- Informal on the job support from field officers, such as Gibby Maynard and Gail Dous, who visit remote school and community libraries throughout the territory.
- Informal advice and problem solving from the Help Desk and other staff based at Winnellie
- Formal training sessions offered in Darwin and other regional centres eg. on the Virtua Library System, Kinetica, online databases.

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