This presentation was given by Sheila Webber at the Oeiras a Ler conference held at Oeiras Municipal Library, Portugal, on 20 May 2010 ( http://oeiras-a-ler.blogspot.com/search/label/Encontro%20Oeiras%20a%20Ler). I identify some of the different ways in which various groups of people experience information and information literacy (IL) in the 21st Century, with reference to 21st Century research. I go on to discuss some of the key aspects of IL that need more attention. I see these elements as evolutionary development of IL as a 21st Century concept, not as something completely new and different.

1. Information
Literacy for 21st
Century life
Sheila Webber,
Department of Information
Studies: the iSchool
University of Sheffield, UK
Oeiras a Ler conference
May 2010
Pictures &and photo copyright Sheila Webber un otherwise stated
Pictures photos copyright Sheila Webber unless

2. Information
Literacy for
21st Century
life
Sheila Webber, May 2010

3. Information
Literacy for
21st
Century
life
Sheila Webber, May 2010

4. “Information literacy is the
adoption of appropriate
information behaviour to
identify, through whatever
Definition by: channel or medium, information
Johnston & well fitted to information needs,
Webber leading to wise and ethical use
of information in society.”
International Information
Literacy logo:
http://infolitglobal.info/logo/en/home
Sheila Webber, May 2010

5. browsing
wise and
searching encountering ethical use of
information information
behaviour
linking creating fun
information
needs education
people web citizen
whatever spiritual
work
sound channel or family
medium in society
journals pictures
text
Sheila Webber, May 2010

6. Behaving with information in an
information literate manner….
But what is information?
Sheila Webber, May 2010

7. school , bus, shopping mall, sports fields, parks, home, churches , libraries , restaurants, shops
Other young Instant Message
people Email
Adults Telephone
“in nineteen of twenty-
five [searches] …
tweens used another
person as the primary
Information: preteens
or secondary source of
information” (p317) Television “a tween might
consult a peer, who
Radio
recommends a
Meyers, E. Fisher, K. and Books Web site, which is
Marcoux, E. (2009) “Making Magazines vetted by a parent,
sense of an information
worlds: the everyday life Websites and ultimately they
information behaviour of Search engines together consult a
preteens.” Library
Quarterly, 79 (3), 301– Organisations store professional.”
341 (p317)

8. • training manuals
Text
• books,
• written rules
• protocols
Pics: Microsoft clip art
Information: ambulancemen
Bodies/ people/ environment
• Sound
• Speech
• Touch
Lloyd, A. (2009) “Informing
practice: information • Appearance •Colleagues
Patients • Movement •Trainers
experiences of ambulance
officers in training and on-
road practice.” Journal of
Documentation, 65 (3), “you don’t really know what’s happening until you get
396-419 your hands on the patient and can see breathing, feel a
pulse, what’s the blood pressure, are they pale?” (p409)

9. "An information literate person has a deep
awareness, connection, and fluency with the
information environment. Information literate people
are engaged, enabled, enriched and embodied by
social, procedural and physical information that
constitutes an information universe. Information
literacy is a way of knowing that universe."
Lloyd (2004: 223)
Sheila Webber, May 2010

10. Virtual World (Second Life (SL):
My students have researched
people’s information behaviour in SL
Information: SL
• Sound
• Speech
• Appearance
• Movement
See: Webber, 2010

11. “Much of my
information came
Instant Message
from talking to Discussion list
people, asking
questions, finding Face to face in SL
what they had People Face to face outside
• Books done” (I3 07/08)
Email
• Journals Twitter
• Websites Facebook
• Wikis
• Blogs
• Search
Information: SL
engines in SL “a wiki might give an
example of a piece of code,
•Search engines but a blog may tell us a
outside SL story of how the author
came up with it”
• Your own files (Interviewee3 08/09)
• SL Shops

12. Information literacy … and graphic novels
“The text is a lot easier, simpler, short,
snappy, but you are looking at the
pictures and making sense of them,
applying the language to them. It sets
you thinking a bit more. “ (Interviewee 9)
Another Masters
student (Caddy,
Neill, M. (2008) Graphic
2009) found that
novels: a young man’s
most UK public
superhero or the library’s
libraries arranged
contemporary villain. MA
graphic novels and
thesis. Sheffield: UoS.
comics in no
particular order!
Sheila Webber, May 2010

13. Information Literacy … and computer games
Browsing, searching, • Text boxes
evaluating, applying “ye I go back and
• Game start the level again
environment to see if I missed
“I learned all about • Non player anything then I
camping, how to characters read it is it says
light a fire. “ • Game booklet anything for help. “
& box
(Interviewee IIb12) (Interviewee
• Friends and XIIg12)
family
Gumulak, S. (2009) Video • Walkthru sites Players try hard to
games: the way to attract (last resort) work out the
teenagers into the library.
MA thesis. Sheffield: UoS.
•Review sites answer without
•Search engines googling for a
•Forums walkthru
•Websites Sheila Webber, May 2010

14. Information literacy … and schoolchildren
“The pupils became aware of the
importance of developing effective
research skills and evaluating both
information and their completed
piece of work.
The pupils learned about a world
religion.
They were sensitive to the religious
and moral issues of a religion.
They were also aware of the various
religions within the class and used
their peers as educators.”
Source: Learning and Teaching Scotland. (2009) Craigholme
Primary - Researching world religions. Glasgow.
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/informationliteracy/
sharingpractice/index.asp Sheila Webber, May 2010

15. Information literacy … and schoolchildren
Information literacy for children who
cannot yet read e.g.
• Told they must answer a question
“why is dark necessary”
• Told a story about an owl (which
contains the answer)
• Children draw pictures to answer
the question
• Choose an animal that comes out
at night
• Teacher reads out information
about chosen animal
• Children decide which fact is most Source: Irving, C. (2010) Begin at the
interesting beginning - Information and Critical Literacy in
Curriculum for Excellence Early & First Level
(Nursery & Primary Schools).
http://www.slideshare.net/cirving/begin-at-the-
beginning-information-and-critical-literacy-in-
curriculum-for-excellence-early-first-level-
nursery-primary-schools
Sheila Webber, May 2010

16. Information literacy … and school librarians
• Shahd Salha’s
PhD research
• Syrian school
librarians’
conceptions of
IL
• Life & spiritual
conception for
some
Sheila Webber, May 2010

17. Information Literacy … with and for other people
• Lay Information Mediary Behavior (LIMB) (Abrahamson ,
2008) “those who seek information in a non-professional or lay
capacity on behalf or because of others, without necessarily
being asked to do so, or engaging in follow-up.”
• People work in teams in their jobs and in education;
+++ therefore +++
• Library patrons need to develop skills for their everyday lives:
– Being good at identifying, and articulating, information needs
– Collaborating without cheating (for school/ university work)
– Managing information flows between themselves and others
– Creating shared documents and shared information spaces
Sheila Webber, May 2010

18. Not just technology
I’m not sure
It appears that all my
that I am “millennial”
“millennial” students are
http://pewresearch.org/ millennial …
millennials/quiz/intro.php
High use of
facebook,
low use of
blogs, online
gaming

19. Example 1: Man sacked for
sending tweet saying he
would blow up an airport
(when angry and stranded at
an airport) But
technology
Wilson, C. (2010) “Top ten twitter disasters: a lot can go wrong in 140
chaarcters as this lot found out.” Mirror . 10 May.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-10s/2010/05/10/top-10-twitter-disasters-a-
can grab
lot-can-go-wrong-in-140-characters-as-this-lot-found-out-115875-22248690/
people’s
Example 2: Facebook users
could see the chat sessions of attention
their friends through a
facebook error.
Perez, J. (2010) “Facebook blunder lets friends get too close: IM service taken down
before bug is patched.” Computer world UK. 6 May.
http://www.computerworlduk.com/management/online/new-
media/news/index.cfm?newsid=20145

20. Summary: Key themes
• Importance of people sources: knowing how to be
information literate with people
– When to trust people as information sources
– Good ways to “search” and “browse” different kinds of
people (e.g. teacher, friend, employer, unknown expert)
– Comparing people sources with other sources
– Working with people to share and create information
Sheila Webber, May 2010

21. • Web 2.0 may be “hook” to attract, but people
need “old-fashioned” face-to-face skills too
• More education for collaborative information
literacy e.g. co-creating documents and
websites; working on
information tasks together;
“family” information literacy
sessions
Sheila Webber, May 2010

22. Pics: Microsoft clip art
Key themes
• People are following complex paths to find their
answers
– Moving between people, websites, print media, physical
spaces (shops or libraries), broadcast media etc.
– Includes using technology to ask questions and contribute
opinions
– Are there good paths for particular kinds of
information need?
– Path includes steps where people create as well as
consume
Sheila Webber, May 2010

23. Key themes
• Helping people see the information literacy in
everyday situations
• Drawing out and developing skills in gaming & in
reading “visual” texts
• “Learners do not separate out vocational learning from
personal social development” (Scottish public library
study, Crawford 2010)
• Learning to “read” information through all the
senses (like an ambulance worker, or a person in a
virtual world, or a child who cannot read …)
Sheila Webber, May 2010

24. Not just employability and literacy
• Information literacy
for having a good life
(whatever that means
to you)
• More than
empowering
people to be “good
citizens”
Quotation from interview for research
by Webber, BoonSheila Webber, May 2010
& Johnston

25. Quotation from interview for research by Webber, Boon & Johnston
Sheila Webber, May 2010

26. Quotation from interview for research by Shahd Salha Sheila Webber, May 2010

27. Sheila Webber
s.webber@shef.ac.uk
http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/
http://www.slideshare.net/sheilawebber/
Sheila Yoshikawa
http://adventuresofyoshikawa.blogspot.com/
Sheila Webber, May 2010

28. References
• Abrahamson, J. et al. (2008). “Lay information mediary behavior uncovered: exploring
how nonprofessionals seek health information for themselves and others online.”
Journal of the Medical Library Association, 96(4), 310-323. See also
http://ibec.ischool.washington.edu/limb/
• Caddy, E. (2009) An investigation into the opinions of public library staff on how and
where a graphic, comic, and cartoon collection should be shelved. MA thesis. Sheffield:
University of Sheffield
• Crawford, J. (2010) Information literacy in employability training: the experience of
Inverclyde Libraries: evaluating a training programme. Presentation from LILAC
conference. http://www.slideshare.net/cirving/information-literacy-in-employability-
training-the-experience-of-inverclyde-libraries-evaluating-a-training-programme
• Erdelez, S. (1999) “Information encountering: it's more than just bumping into
information.” Bulletin of the American Association for Information Science [Online], 25
(3), 25-29. http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Feb-99/erdelez.html
• Gumulak, S. (2009) Video games: the way to attract teenagers into the library. MA
thesis. Sheffield: University of Sheffield
• Learning and Teaching Scotland. (2009) Information Literacy: sharing practice.
Glasgow. http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/informationliteracy/sharingpractice/index.asp

29. References
• Lloyd, A. (2009) “Informing practice: information experiences of ambulance officers in
training and on-road practice.” Journal of Documentation, 65 (3), 396-419
• Lloyd, A (2004) “Working (in)formation: conceptualizing information literacy in the
workplace” In Proceedings of 3rd International Life Long Learning Conference, 13-16
June. Rockhampton: Central Queensland University Press. 218-224.
• Meyers, E. Fisher, K. and Marcoux, E. (2009) “Making sense of an information worlds:
the everyday life information behaviour of preteens.” Library Quarterly, 79 (3), 301–341
• Neill, M. (2008) Graphic novels: a young man’s superhero or the library’s contemporary
villain. MA thesis. Sheffield: University of Sheffield.
• Reddy, M. and Spence, P. (2008) “Collaborative information seeking: A field study of a
multidisciplinary patient care team” Information Processing & Management 44 (1), 242-
255.
• Scottish Information Literacy Project: http://www.gcu.ac.uk/ils/
• Webber, S. (2010) Information literate behaviour in Second Life.
http://www.slideshare.net/sheilawebber/information-literate-behaviour-in-second-life-
3469465