1.0 Introduction€¦ · Web view · 2017-09-28In order to effectively adapt to rapid changes in the various information landscapes, ... by the 1990s and it has often been associated

Ibtisam Al Siyabi | n9274162

Queensland University of TechnologyScience and Engineering Faculty

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NameAl Siyabi, Ibtisam

Student ID Number n 9 2 7 4 1 6 2

I am/We are aware of the University rule that a student must not act in a manner which constitutes a breach of the principles of academic integrity as stated and explained in the QUT's Manual of Policies and Procedures (C/5.3 Academic Integrity). I/we confirm that this work represents my individual/our team's effort and does not contain plagiarised material.

Date: 11th June, 2017

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The Development and Implementation of Information Literacy Programs in Australian

Schools

A comprehensive Literature Review

Student Name: AL. SIYABI, Ibtisam

Student Number: n9274162

Unit: IFN701

Submitted to: Dr. Andrew Demasson

School of Information Systems

Science and Engineering Faculty

Queensland University of Technology

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Abstract

Information literacy (IL) is a concern recognised globally and since 1970s, there has

been a national focus within the Commonwealth of Australia to enhance the information-

based skills for long-life learners (Australian School Library Association (ASLA) & Australian

Library and Information Association (ALIA), 2001). So that, Australia has significant initiatives

in regards to developing standards for IL education in schools. IL programs are developed for

Australian schools in order to develop contemporary learners who are able to recognise

their own information needs; use information ethically for a particular purpose by utilising

various formats; find authoritative and relevant information; choose and analyse different

types of sources; establish high quality products; and assess the success of the process or

any new understanding developed (ALIA & ASLA, 2009). This comprehensive literature

review attempts to provide an evidence of the effectiveness of these information literacy

standards recommended to schools and whether if there is successful implementation or is

not. It is clear that information literacy programs are a common service offered by school

libraries, but they are not being systematically planned, conducted and assessed and this

reflects the fact that some students still lack IL skills and cannot practise it well. This

literature review is a contribution to the existing body of literature concerning why

information literacy programs are developed for Australian schools and how they are

implemented in reality, and may be utilised to form future IL research and practice

benefiting school context.

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Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction.................................................................................................................12.0 Purpose........................................................................................................................3

2.1 Purpose of the project...............................................................................................32.2 Scope of the study....................................................................................................32.3 Research question....................................................................................................52.4 Project aims..............................................................................................................5

3.0 Literature review..........................................................................................................53.1 Background...............................................................................................................5

3.1.1 Information literacy in schools: Definition and model.........................................53.1.2 Information Literacy in Research........................................................................6

3.2 The development of IL programs..............................................................................73.2.1 Australia.............................................................................................................7

3.3 The implementation of IL programs..........................................................................93.3.1 Australia.............................................................................................................93.4 Whose responsibility in school community..........................................................11

3.5 Barriers to effective implementing of IL programs..................................................133.6 IL in schools in the USA and the UK........................................................................14

3.6.1 The USA............................................................................................................143.6.2 The United Kingdom.........................................................................................15

4.0 Research method.......................................................................................................174.1 The Search strategy................................................................................................174.2 Data analysis..........................................................................................................19

5.0 Results.......................................................................................................................206.0 Discussion..................................................................................................................217.0 Limitations.................................................................................................................238.0 Recommendations.....................................................................................................249.0 Conclusion.................................................................................................................2910.0 References...............................................................................................................30

Table of tables

Table 1: Scope of the study...................................................................................................................7Table 2: The criteria used to include sources along with their rationale.............................................23

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1.0 Introduction

Information literacy (IL) is one of the critical library field concepts that is a relatively

new field of research although it has been studied since 1970s. In order to effectively adapt

to rapid changes in the various information landscapes, the importance of being information

literate and long-life learner has been raised by librarians, educators and researchers in the

Library and Information Science field. Practicing information literacy skills has been required

in three main contexts; education, workplace and community; however, it has been mainly

studied in the library and educational contexts as this area of research is particularly

relevant to the Library and Information Science educators and practising librarians.

Nevertheless, there is no unified definition of IL in the education context whether nationally

or internationally. The most used definition of IL in education context is what American

Library Association Presidential Committee on Information Literacy (1989) has developed

when it stated that “To be information literate an individual must recognise when

information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate and effectively use the

information needed … Ultimately information literate people are those who have learned

how to learn …” (The Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL), 1989, para.3).

Additionally, it is clearly seen that a research into the development and implementation of

information literacy programs in Australian schools of any type, has not been conducted in

depth.

Thus, this report discusses the findings of a comprehensive literature review project

undertaken to explore why information literacy programs are developed for schools and

how they are implemented in Australian schools. Most importantly, although this project

will examine the literature written about the Australian context, it is intended to compare

the findings with UK and US contexts to provide valuable recommendations. Consequently,

this project will make a contribution to the field of information literacy programs in

Australian school libraries.

To that end, this report provides a review of the literature composed to identify the

concept of information literacy implemented in Australian schools. First, the purpose and

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the scope of the project are identified, followed by a section that describe the current and

prior information literacy research in relation to its definition; model and research in the

Australian school context, the development of IL programs for Australian schools; the actual

application of IL in Australian schools; barriers to effective implementation; and IL in US and

UK schools. Then, the search strategy adopted to choose the relevant literature and the

processes used for data collection and analysis are included. Next, the key findings emerged

from your critical analysis of the literature are discussed. The discussion section then links

the identified key findings to the existing literature themes discussed before, followed by a

discussion of the limitations of the project. The last section proposes recommendations to

support the future development of the application of information literacy in Australian

schools of any type.

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2.0 Purpose

2.1 Purpose of the project

The purpose of this project is to be one of the influential literature review projects

that will help ALIA, ASLA, each school library association in Australian States, the

departments of education, education policy makers, teacher librarians, teachers and

principals to effectively develop and implement information literacy programs in Australian

schools. This project will not be exclusive to any specific type of Australian schools as

information literacy programs are similar in all school types.

2.2 Scope of the study

The table below outlines what is in and out of scope.

Table 1: Scope of the study

No. In-scope Out-scope

1 Information literacy definition in the school context

Date range

2 Information literacy model in the

school context

Discussion from the international context

3 Information literacy in research Resources like newspaper, magazines,

blogs.

4 The development of IL programs A specific type of school

5 The implementation of IL programs IL programs in higher education,

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universities and colleges

6 Whose responsibility in school

community

IL programs in workplace settings

7 Barriers to effective implementation

of IL programs

IL programs in the community settings

8 A specific geographical area: Australia

9 Comparison with other specific

geographic areas: US and UK

10 Sources types are limited to printed

books, e-books, journal articles,

government documents, in-house

reports and guidelines, websites

11 Searching tools are limited to QUT

library catalogues, Google Scholar and

Google search engine

12 Specific databases: Library Science

Database, the Library and Information

Science Abstract (LISA), Science Direct

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2.3 Research question

This project aims to address the following research question:

Why are information literacy programs developed for schools and how are they implemented in Australian schools?

2.4 Project aims

This project seeks to examine the existing research related to the information literacy that has already been conducted about the Australian school context in order to:

1. Determine the reasons beyond developing information literacy programs for

Australian schools.

2. Represent the actual implementation of information literacy programs in Australian

schools.

3. Compare the development and implementation of information literacy programs in

Australian schools with other contexts, such as the United States and the United

Kingdom.

3.0 Literature review

3.1 Background

3.1.1 Information literacy in schools: Definition and model

Information literacy was admitted as the term to be utilised in schools by the 1990s

and it has often been associated with the word ‘skills’ (Herring, 2011); however, some

authors prefer using the word ‘practice’ as Lloyd (2010) believes that IL should be

considered as a practice to be opposite to a set of skills. In the school context, the term

practice, indicates that students involve in a variety of information-based activities where

these students can obtain new knowledge and be reflective practitioners, thus they do not

only use a group of skills, such as information retrieval or evaluation (Herring, 2011). Most

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interestingly, in the existing literature, there is no unified and accepted definition of IL in

schools (Herring, 2011). In the Australian context, an information literate student is

considered as contemporary learner who is able to “critically analyse own information

needs; identify appropriate sources; and synthesise and curate and re-imagine the

information to construct personal knowledge” (ASLA & ALIA, 2009, para.5).

In addition, the information literacy model adopted by the most of Australian

schools is the New South Wales, Department of Education and Training model, which is The

Information Process (ISP) model (ASLA & ALIA, 2001; Herring & Bush, 2011). This model,

generated by Kuhlthau, who is one of the influencers of IL education in schools, in 1993

(Beheshti, 2012) and adapted by ASLA to be used in Australian schools in 1997 (Ryan &

Capra, 2001; Todd, 2003). It consists of six stages of the information process which include

defining, locating, selecting, organising, presenting and assessing (NSW Department of

Education and Training, 2007).

3.1.2 Information Literacy in Research

Australia is one of the key countries that have significant initiatives in the

information literacy research and movement and it has done valuable research related to IL

(Bishop, 2003; Virkus, 2003). However, while the literature written on IL in schools is

expanding, a great deal of this literature, although helpful in school context, is still not based

on empirical research (Herring, 2011). This is while the necessity of applying evidence based

practice in education sector has been emphasised globally (Hay, 2005). According to

Lonsdale (2003), there is a need for local empirical studies to be conducted instead of

relying only on US-based research outcomes. Obviously, there is a significant gap between

recommended Australian standards and guidelines and realities (Hughes, 2014) because of

the limited empirical evidence published by teacher librarians about their school library

programs. However, (Hay, 2005; Todd, 2003) believed that teacher librarians in Australia

have recognised the significance of adopting evidence-based approaches to document the

work they achieve in schools. Foggett (2003); Lonsdale (2003); Hay (2005; 2006); (Dearden,

Gordon and Wilson, 2007); (Williamson, Archibald & McGregor, 2010); (Herring, 2011);

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(Herring & Bush, 2011); (Power, 2011); (Gillespie, 2013) form the start of the empirical

research conducted in Australian context and related to IL teaching, the role of a school

library and teacher librarians on a student achievement and the transfer of IL skills.

3.2 The development of IL programs

3.2.1 Australia

The Commonwealth of Australia has been committed to developing the citizens’

levels of information literacy (Foggett, 2003). Australian and New Zealand Information

Literacy Framework (ANZIIL) has been developed for all educational sectors, with an

emphasis on the tertiary education (Whitworth, 2011), in order to provide core standards

that highlight the effective understanding, acquisition and application of IL by any individual

which include determining the need for information and identifying its nature and extent;

locating needed information efficiently; critically evaluating information and seeking

process; managing information gathered; creating new understandings or constructing new

concepts throughout applying prior and new information; using information obtained with

understanding and recognising economic, ethical, social, cultural and legal issues

surrounding the use of information (Bundy, 2004).

At some point in the 1990s, a national focus identified information-based skills for

lifelong learners and the use of the whole school approach to teach these skills and ensure

the effective development of the information and ICT skills, which support the effective

learning (ASLA & ALIA, 2001). Obviously, there has been considerable changes not only in

the amount and quality of information accessible to school students, but also in the

technological ways of accessing this information (Lonsdale, 2003). However, the most

substantial change for school libraries in relation to the educational practice is the

transference from a content-based education to an outcomes-based education (Lonsdale,

2003), which is related to resources-based learning and supported by the use of

constructivist learning theory as an approach that need to be used when integrating IL and

ICT in learning process (ASLA & ALIA, 2001). Due to the fact that constructivist approach

emphases on “students engaging with information to solve a problem and thereby creating

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new understanding through active investigation and thought” (Lau, 2006), it has been

required to develop students’ information skills to engage them actively in the learning

process and this has been mainly done by school libraries.

School libraries add value to their learning communities and this value is added

throughout providing a range of vital services and programs such as information literacy

(ALIA & ASLA, 2009), and these libraries also have the responsibility to represent the

information skills and digital tools needed for learning system related to the Australian

National Curriculum (Bonanno, Wall & Clarke, 2010). In Hay’s (2005) study, students found

an apparent association between the effort and help of the school library and the marks

they were given on assignment work. While more than 90% of the students stated that the

library had helped them complete their assignments better, 84.1% showed that it had

helped them learn how to be independent learners. Most importantly, ‘Learning for the

future: developing information services in schools’ (ASLA & ALIA, 2001) is one of the most

influencing publication related to the Australian schools’ context, which presents the

Standards and benchmarks that can be used by schools to measure their current facilities

for developing IL. It offers a main point for all Australian states, territories and schools to

create more specific guidelines, and for each school to develop programs to implement IL in

accordance to its resources and needs.

ALIA and ASLA (2009) have published the ‘Statement on Information Literacy’ in

order to define what is IL in the information literate school community context in 1994

although IL initiatives in Australia began in the school library context during the 1970s

(Bundy, 2004). In general, IL programs have been formed to develop “highly competent,

confident information users and creators” (ALIA & ASLA, 2009, para.4). To be more specific,

IL programs are developed for Australian schools in order to develop contemporary learners

who are able to recognise their own information needs; use information ethically for a

particular purpose by utilising various formats; find authoritative and relevant information;

choose and analyse different types of sources; establish high quality products; assess the

success of the process or any new understanding developed (ALIA & ASLA, 2009).

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3.3 The implementation of IL programs

3.3.1 Australia

In Australian schools, information literacy skills are taught for both school students

and teachers including; skills related to verifying reliable information sources, citing

electronic

sources and considering important issues such as plagiarism and copyright (Rishworth &

Standing Committee on Education and Employment, 2011). The traditional implementation

of IL in schools is throughout weekly visits of all school classes to the library and develop, for

example note taking activities and prepare bibliographies for senior students or teaching

younger students the features of non-fiction books (Torrens Primary School, n.d.), which are

basic library skills. However, IL skills are mainly integrated within the Australian National

Curriculum, contextualised in a variety of learning areas and guided by a framework used to

create IL programs which are managed by teacher librarians (ALIA & ASLA, 2009). The

implementation of IL programs ensures that IL skills are clearly taught within teaching and

learning activities and programs; evidence can be obtained to explain the accomplishment

of these skills; skills are included in sequence across school curriculum; teacher librarian’s

teaching role is recognised (ALIA & ASLA, 2009). Furthermore, integrating IL into the

curriculum can lead to high levels of both content and information skills of school students

(Powling, 2010). Most importantly, embedding digital literacy and IL skills in the curriculum

leads to develop students who are ethical users of information, and able to develop array of

sophisticated skills in relation to information and communication technology and IL (ALIA &

ASLA, 2009). According to Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority

(ACARA) (n.d.), IL is considered as a general capability within the curriculum which is merged

with ICT and implemented throughout the application of several activities including;

- Defining and planning information searches

- Locating, generating and accessing data and information

- Selecting and evaluating data and information

- Generating ideas, plans and processes

- Generating solutions to challenges and learning area tasks

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- Collaborating, sharing and exchanging information

Information literacy programs are not only implemented throughout the integration

into the curriculum, but also throughout a collaboration between higher education sectors

and schools in order to enable an easy transition from senior secondary to university in

regards to their IL competencies. In a pilot IL program done by Dearden, Gordon and Wilson

(2007) as a partnership between the University of Tasmania (UTAS) and Hutchins School, a

workshop-based activity was conducted for senior secondary students in order to examine

their IL skills and enhance them for university study. Additionally, in the Queensland

University of Technology Information Literacy Framework & Syllabus, Peacock (2002)

explicitly says that schools are one of their intended audience for their IL programs offered

by QUT Library.

In regards to evaluating the outcome of IL programs implemented in Australian

schools, some teacher librarians use the School Library Impact Measure (SLIM) toolkit, a tool

created to assess changes that appear in students’ levels of knowledge and IL competences

(Todd, Kuhlthau & Heinstom, 2005). Power (2012) used SLIM to examine grade eight science

class students’ levels of IL over Information Learning Activity course. Information Literacy

Planning Overview (ILPO) materials designed by Capra and Ryan have been also used as a

means of evaluating achievements in IL (Foggett, 2003). Additionally, the ASLA CD-ROM

Teaching Information Skills (1997) have been used as a benchmark to measure the

appropriateness of the information skills needed to be added in the information processes

designed for students (Ryan & Capra, 2001).

However, evidence from the literature shows that some students are still lacking IL

skills in many Australian schools. A study conducted by Power (2012) to examine the levels

of information literacy demonstrated by students in a grade eight science class engaged in

inquiry-based learning, which applied in high school education in Australia, found that due

to poor IL skill, some students experienced difficulty with some of the requirements of the

task students and had difficulty in building effective searching strategies. She suggested

using inquiry-based learning approach, as NSW Department of Education (2007) and ASLA

and ALIA (2001) have also recommended, to improve students’ learning and IL skills by

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increasing the cognitive challenge, which means focusing more on the use of information

and employing higher order thinking skills, rather than the retrieval of information. This is

also emphasised by the Australian Curriculum and the Victorian Essential Learning Standards

(VELS) which shift the focus of IL from searching and retrieving information to transferring

these information into knowledge (Powling, 2010). Another study undertaken by Herring

(2011) to examine IL levels of grade seven students in three state secondary schools in rural

New South Wales, Australia. The findings reveal that a small percentage of these students

did not understand the concepts behind IL and made little use of its practices. He argues

that when teacher librarians and teachers consider using a more student-centred approach

to assignments, students will be more likely to engage, and this engagement will be

improved when these students are taught IL practices. Foggett (2003) has also examined the

level of a primary school students’ conceptual understandings of IL, particularly in relation

to the terms locating and selecting as well as their real employment of these skills. She

found that these students had a very basic understanding about these two skills and a small

minority of them put thoughts into action. Moreover, according to Herring’s (2010) study,

the majority of students and teachers considered question formulation as a valuable IL skill;

however, their value of question formulation seemed as limited in scope, for instance only

with regard to information retrieval. Another research done by Combes (2008) revealed that

students are confident in using the Internet for finding information and study, but there had

been found that their skills significantly dropped when they started to evaluate, organise

and use the information.

3.4 Whose responsibility in school community

There has been an emphasis on the considerable significance of having guidelines

regarding the role of the information specialists in schools as teacher-librarians have been

shown to be very valuable for developing IL into curriculum (Bruce, 2004). Teacher

librarian’s positive reaction and flexibility to change precisely affects the success of IL

programs (School Library Association of South Australia, 2015). They are responsible for

providing activities and programs with a focus on digital and information literacy and

leading programs and services formed collaboratively with principals, teaching colleagues

and curriculum leaders (ALIA & ASLA, 2003) in order to support the application of IL

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programs. They need to be proficient and work with students to develop their challenging

learning goals incorporating skills such as IL, and efficiently integrate the elements of IL with

learning and teaching programs (ASLA, 2014). More specifically, excellent Australian teacher

librarians should be well-informed and educated about the theory and practice of IL,

comprehensively familiar with the IL and learners’ information needs and skills, able to work

in partnership with teachers to plan and implement IL programs that lead to positive

learning outcomes, able to assess student’s learning in order to give evidence of progress in

IL, and capable to enhance a ‘whole school focus’ on IL development and implementation

(ALIA & ASLA, n.d.). As an evidence, it has been found that the teacher librarian was helpful

in teaching students how to develop search strategies, select relevant information,

synthesise information sources and develop more advanced skills to gain deeper

understanding of curriculum topics (Hay, 2006).

Recently, there has been an emphasis on establishing a culture of transfer related to

students’ abilities to transfer information literacy practices across time and subjects and this

culture should be built by teacher librarians. Herring and Bush (2011) recommended that

the active role of teacher librarians in developing this culture is to provide in-service training

for all teaching staff to ensure their understanding about the culture of transfer, frequently

gain support from school principals, ensure having a consistent approach to IL throughout

using shared terminology, use visual reminders of IL in every classroom, and develop the

application of IL in a virtual environment. Herring (2010) says that it was clear that there

was no culture of transfer in the schools he had examined, however he found little evidence

of transfer since some students employed what they had been taught in terms of question

formulation in a previous semester to a new subject project, nonetheless other students did

not transfer this IL skill. This is either because they did not have a clear understanding of the

concept of transfer or they were not motivated to transfer this skill (Herring, 2010). A

culture of collaboration between teacher librarians and teachers has been also emphasised

as in their three-phase Australian study designed to help students learn to avoid plagiarism,

Williamson, Archibald and McGregor (2010) have risen some interesting and useful findings

about highly successful collaborations between teachers and teacher librarians when

enhancing students’ IL skills.

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3.5 Barriers to effective implementing of IL programs

There are many barriers that hinder school libraries from having an effective

implementation of information literacy programs in Australian schools. In the first place,

there is no doubt that IL is embedded into the Australian curriculum, nonetheless there is a

lack of encouragement to develop formal IL programs. This is suggested by Australian

teacher librarians in the 2014 Australian School Library Survey, which found that 81% of

these teacher librarians said that this was important (36%) and very important (45%) to

them (Soft Link, 2014). The second barrier is that teacher librarians have lack of time

because they need to balance between library management and teaching requirements,

and mainly they need “to concentrate on their teaching role in information literacy”

(Rishworth & Standing Committee on Education and Employment, 2011, p.107). This

prevents them from building collaborative relationships with teachers in order to document

the outcomes of IL activities (Hay & Todd, 2010). Further barrier is that there is a decrease in

library staffing, or lack of support staff who is needed to help teacher librarian in library

technician duties (Hay & Todd, 2010). In 2014, 25% of Australian schools stated that they

had a decrease in library staffing (Soft Link, 2014) and this high percentage may lead to have

less implementation of IL programs in Australian schools. In other cases, “not every school

library is staffed by a qualified teacher librarian” (Bonanno, Wall & Clarke 2010, p. 2), so that

some school leaders face difficulty recruiting qualified teacher librarians, so they recruit any

of their staff (ACT Government, n.d.), therefore there is a qualification matter as these staff

have only the interest but they are not well-informed about IL theory and practice. Combes

(2008) found that there is limited professional staff in the school libraries surveyed as over

50% of them have no teacher librarian or less than one FTE.

Additionally, Hay and Todd (2010) found that some Australian teacher librarians had

inadequate identification of approaches that can be used to measure and collect evidence

of students’ outcomes as a result of library initiatives and programs, particularly those

focused on the mastery of IL competencies. Thus, there is a limited empirical evidence

published by these teacher librarians about their IL programs which means that they do not

document students’ outcomes that can be used by others to increase the effectiveness of IL

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programs. Budget cutbacks is also another factor that lead to less effective implementation

of school library programs in Australian schools (Hughes, 2014). The reason beyond this is

that budget cutbacks has resulted in lacking of school library staffing and resources, and as a

result, school libraries and ICT infrastructure investments will not efficiently reach the

objectives of school libraries programs (Powling, 2010). She also argues that staffing and

budget cutbacks have hindered the take-up of teacher-librarianship courses, and

subsequently, there is a skills deficiency in schools. Moreover, being encouraged to

professional development by school administrations is crucial because being ready to

develop and deliver IL programs, teacher librarians firstly need to professionally develop

their skills in relation to IL, and they should be well-informed and educated about the theory

and practice of IL (ALIA & ASLA, n.d.); however, 6% of Australian school librarians informed

that their schools principles did not encourage professional development (Soft Link, 2014).

Finally, it has been found that some Australian school librarians think and work

operationally instead of strategically and without long-term and evidence plan, vision and

strategic thinking, these operational actions cannot be successful (Hay & Todd, 2010). IL

programs are one of the practices affected by this lack of strategic planning as this leads to

use less evidence-based practice.

3.6 IL in schools in the USA and the UK

3.6.1 The USA

American Library Association Presidential Committee on Information Literacy (1989)

states that “To be information literate an individual must recognise when information is

needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate and use effectively the information needed

… Ultimately information literate people are those who have learned how to learn …”. From

here, Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning has been developed by ALA and

Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) for schools to reflect

the importance of IL to independent learning and social responsibility (ALA & AECT, 1998).

These standards have been written at a general level; thus, library media specialists can fit

them to meet their local school needs (ALA & AECT, 1998). Recently, American Association

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of School Librarians (AASL) has put emphasis on the inquiry-based learning because it has

great potential (Farmer, 2014) and improves students’ learning and IL skills (Power, 2012).

Therefore, the AASL has updated the previous standards and established AASL 2007

Standards for the 21st Century Learner (Herring, 2011). It does not clearly define the

concept of IL in school context and says that “multiple literacies, including digital, visual,

textual, and technological, have now joined information literacy as crucial skills for this

century”. Farmer (2014) argues that these standards “cleverly sidestepped the problematic

term “information literacy” when it used learners as its linchpin” (p. 2). However, according

to Lau (2006), despite IL is related to other types of literacies, it must be distinguished from

them. In terms of IL model, the Big6 model, which is generated by Eisenberg and Berkovitz

in 1990, is the most common IL model adopted by the schools in the USA for IL education

(Herring, 2011).

In the USA context, being ready to develop and deliver information literacy

programs, teacher librarians firstly need to professionally develop their skills in relation to

IL. Therefore, one of most beneficial IL initiatives in USA is the Information Literacy

Immersion program which was established by the Association of College and Research

Libraries' (ACRL) Institute for the purpose of developing IL programs in all educational

sectors (ACRL, n.d.). This program offers instruction librarians, from USA and worldwide, the

opportunity to be trained intensively on all aspects of information literacy (ACRL, n.d.). This

establishment was a result of graduating librarians who did not have the knowledge and

skills to proficiently implement their educative role (Doskatsch, 2002). Similar to Australia,

there is an emphasis on the programs used to enable easy transition for school students to

higher education, as the AASL and the ACRL support this by their standards such as “align

well” and “demonstrate that academic and school libraries have very similar instructional

objectives” (Dearden, Gordon & Wilson, 2007).

3.6.2 The United Kingdom

In the UK’s context, Chartered Institute of Library Information Professionals (CILIP)

defines information literacy as “knowing when and why you need information, where to find

it, and how to evaluate it, use and communicate it in an ethical manner” and this definition

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suggests several competencies in relation to the understanding of a need for

information, the resources available, how to find information, the need to evaluate results,

how to exploit results, ethics and responsibility of information use, how to share your

findings, and how to manage findings (2012). However, in the UK’s context, they have not

defined IL in the information literate school community context and have not published any

specific guideline or standard related specifically to the application of IL in UK’s schools. In

the UK’s National Curriculum, there has been an increase in project-based work, which

changed the approaches used to learning in the UK and led to more student-centred and

resource-based learning (Virkus, 2003), and obviously led to the integration of IL into this

curriculum. However, according to Jones (2016), despite school librarians have an interest in

IL, in general, the term itself is not used in the educational language used by teachers,

curricula or examination system and this has led librarians to use the term information

literacy as opposed to teaching staff. Therefore, it seems there is no formal implementation

of IL in schools, which only exists within some subject areas throughout applying elements

of the skills that cover IL because the current curriculum does not specifically link IL in its

subject specifications (Jones, 2016). Policies and standards are needed to support IL

education which will enable a flow into curriculum initiatives and staff development, thus

this will lead institutions to create their own IL statements to reflect the institutional context

(Bruce, 2004). In regards to IL models used by these schools, because of not having one

dominant approach, the PLUS generated by Herring in 1996 and the Big6 have been

developed to enhance the teaching of IL (Herring, 2011; Jones, 2016). PLUS model

categorises information skills into four interrelated stages which are Purpose, Location, Use

and Self-Evaluation (Herring, 1996) as cited in (Virkus, 2003).

However, due to the poor development and implementation of IL in some UK’s

schools, Ofsted (2006) recommended schools to effectively integrate IL within subject tasks,

follow a systematic focus on developing IL skills, and broaden the relationships between all

types of schools so they will have transition projects in IL that connect work in primary

schools to the secondary schools. In a report written by Williams and Wavell (2001), it was

indicated that there was reluctance to engage in the delivery of IL by some teacher

librarians in UK. Ofsted (2006) noted that when delivering IL skills, there was limited

collaborative work between teachers and teacher librarians. Furthermore, as in Australia

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and USA, there is also an emphasis on preparing secondary school students to tertiary

education in the UK. This is supported by several higher education institutions which offer

training for improving the information and research skills of teachers and librarians in order

to successfully provide similar education on these skills to their senior students (Jones, n.d.).

These institutions also provide online tutorials, free MOOCs, skills hubs, PowerPoints, and

general free resources related to referencing, avoiding plagiarism and actual workshops to

enhance IL skills of these students (Jones, n.d.).

4.0 Research methodA literature review has been elected as it is the most appropriate approach to do this

project and undertaken over a 14 weeks period. The reason to use this approach is that it

provides a structured method to the type of information collected, ensures a

comprehensive identification of what has been already written and enables the researcher

to identify the gaps, relationships or variances in regards to the development and

implementation of IL programs in Australian schools.

4.1 The Search strategy

The search strategy adopted for gathering the information sources, which used to

address the question ‘Why are information literacy programs developed for schools and

how are they implemented in Australian schools?’, used an initial keyword search. This

includes the terms information literacy, Australia, United states, United Kingdome, school,

standard, program, development, implementation and barriers. Then, QUT’s online library

catalogue and Google Scholar were used to examine whether the selected terms were

sufficient. Since this initial search strategy brought lots of irrelevant results, an alternative

search strategy has been adopted and other keywords were included such as definition,

model, integration, curriculum, ALIA, ASLA, ALA, teacher librarians. After that, Boolean

operators and wildcards have been intensively utilised to find relevant materials within

specific databases related to the library and information sciences, particularly, Library

Science Database, the Library and Information Science Abstract (LISA), and also using

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Science Direct since these are the most relevant specialised search tools available for the

researcher in the QUT library webpage. However, the websites of relevant bodies which are

supplemented by Google Search Engine were checked in order to locate school libraries in

Australia offering IL programs, determine their initiatives and locate their in-house reports.

This is because there is lack of scholarly sources and empirical research conducted by

Australian researchers and practitioners about the implementation of information literacy in

schools. Google search engine will be also utilised to locate the standards, guidelines and

reports published by Australian library associations and also the USA and the UK

associations. Moreover, reference lists of relevant sources were examined to find additional

sources that had not been found when searching in the chosen search tools.

Retrieved materials were evaluated against pre-determined criteria applied for

including and excluding the sources found to address the central research question, which is

“Why are information literacy programs developed for schools and how are they

implemented in Australian schools?”. The rationale for including these materials is also

mentioned.

Table 2: The criteria used to include sources along with their rationale

Priority Criterion Rationale

1

Relevancy - The materials selected will not be valuable if their main

topic is not related to the research topic. Due to the lack of sources, it was very essential for the researcher to check if a source is relevant or not, researcher read abstract and check the subject headings used to describe sources. Thus, irrelevant sources will be excluded.

2

Type of source

- Journals articles, books (printed and e-books), thesis and conference papers are used as the authors of these sources are experts and sources are always cited, present recent research and give a comprehensive background about the topic.

- Credible websites, government reports and standards are also used since they are important to discuss who have develop information literacy standards and why.

- Sources like newspapers, blogs and trade magazines will be excluded as their authors are usually not experts, credibility cannot always be assured and sources are not always cited.

3

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Peer-reviewed - It is essential to ensure the accuracy and quality of the information. As the researcher was mainly focus to search for peer-reviewed sources, this will ensure the academic credibility which these sources have. However, a lot of in-house reports have been used and they are not peer-reviewed.

4

Date range - It is crucial to ensure the currency of the information and whether the information remains valid over time. However due to the lack of sources and the topic is already narrow, it was difficult to use a specific time range. However, most of the material included are from 2000 to present. Original sources related to the theory, definitions, standards and models are old but they have been used for its originality and value.

5

Search tools - QUT library catalogue and Google Scholar will be used as these tools have the needed materials which the researcher prefers such as peer-reviewed. The QUT library catalogue provides free access to full-text and from the most authoritative sources.

- Google search engine will also be used to locate school libraries in Australia offering IL programs, determine their initiatives and locate their in-house reports. It was also used to find credible websites; government reports; standards since they are important to discuss who have developed information literacy standards and why.

- Databases such as Library Science Database, the Library and Information Science Abstract and using Science Direct have been also used as they are specialised in IL.

6 Language (English)

- This research will be written in English as this topic is mainly published in English.

4.2 Data analysis

A thematic Analysis (TA) has been elected as the most proper approach to organise

and analyse the data collected to conduct this comprehensive literature review project. TA

“is a method for identifying, analysing, and reporting patterns (themes) within data. It

minimally organises and describes your data set in (rich) detail” (Braun & Clarke, 2006, p.6).

It is a common qualitative data analysis method used to find patterns within a collected

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dataset that present an answer to a research question and this can be done throughout “a

process of data familiarisation, data coding, and theme development and revision” (The

University of Auckland, n.d.). One of the advantages of TA is its flexibility (Braun & Clarke,

2006; The University of Auckland, n.d.) so that it can be utilised within various frameworks

in order to answer various types of research questions (The University of Auckland, n.d.).

5.0 Results

There are several key findings which have emerged from the critical analysis of this

thematic review of the literature. In the first place, it seems that one accepted definition of

information literacy in school context has not been admitted yet, whether nationally or

internationally. This may be because each guideline or standard attempts to define IL in a

way that fits with its context, institution or country. Whereas Australia and the US have their

own definitions, the UK has not defined IL in its school context. However, the US definition

became unclear in their 2007 updated standards. Secondly, in Australia and the US, there

has been considerable change in schools in relation to application of inquiry-based learning

and the transition from a content-based education to an outcomes-based education. This is

due to the large amount of information that students need to deal with in their study, and

because of this, the need for IL programs has been raised by Australian and the US

educators and teacher librarians to enable school students to use information effectively.

Another finding is that Australia and the US have established their own specific standards

for implementing IL in schools, so their development and implementation of information

literacy are very distinct. However, in the UK context, IL development and application are

not clear. This may because they have not established a specific statement on IL for the UK

schools to be as a guideline to be followed by school librarians. In relation to these

standards, it is obvious that Australian and the US standards describe information literacy as

a set of abilities and personal attributes related only to library skills and education contexts.

Further finding is that the Information literacy model used in Australian schools is

the Information Process model. Whereas the US schools use the Big6 model, the PLUS and

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the Big6 have been used in UK. However, these models do not necessarily meet the learning

style of all school students and this may illustrate why some students cannot benefit from

information literacy programs and have poor IL skills despite of the effective application and

integration of IL into school curriculum. Additionally, when searching in the Australian

curriculum about the application of IL, the term ‘information literacy’ itself has not been

mentioned directly in the ACARA documents although the concept of information literacy is

used in details. Not only this, but also this has been merged with the ‘information and

communication technology’ concept. The forth finding is that there is a lack of empirical

research or studies based on evaluation methods used to assess the application of

information literacy programs and their effectiveness in Australian schools. This is despite of

providing these schools guidelines and benchmarks in the standards published by (ASLA &

ALIA, 2001) that would help them documenting their programs implemented in schools. This

may reflect the lack of experience that Australian teacher librarians may have in relation to

measuring students’ outcomes associated with these programs. Furthermore, in Australian

schools, information literacy programs are implemented throughout the integration of IL

into the curriculum and also throughout a collaboration between higher education

institutions and schools in order to enable easy transition between senior secondary to

university in regards to their IL competencies. This implementation is very similar to the US

and the UK contexts. However, a lot of school students have very basic understanding of IL

concept and it seems that there is a lack of formal information literacy programs conducted

in Australian schools. This may be caused by lacking of school library staffing or lack of

professional development recommended for teacher librarians, so they do not have skills to

effectively do their educative roles. Finally, implementing information literacy programs in

schools cannot be done by only teacher librarians. It is a responsibility of a wide range of

authorities in the education sector, particularly those working in schools, to build strategic

partnerships.

6.0 Discussion

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Not having one accepted definition of information literacy in schools, either

nationally or internationally, exposes evidence of some inconsistent perceptions of what

comprises information literacy and what traits an information-literate student may have

(Herring, 2011). In regards to the information literacy model adopted by the most of

Australian schools is the Information Process (Herring & Bush, 2011). However, using a

specific model may not meet the learning style of all school students as Green (2004), as

cited in Herring and Bush (2011), has criticised the use of models because of the lacking of

individuality and each model cannot gather the learning style of all students; however, the

authors of these models have argued that their models need to be implemented in schools

as this can lead students to develop their own IL models according to their own learning

style (Herring & Bush, 2011). In addition, while the literature on IL in schools is growing,

there is still a lack of empirical research (Herring, 2011). In the Australian context, despite

some teacher librarians start to adopt evidence based practice (Hay, 2005; Todd, 2003),

others still have an inadequate identification of approaches that can be used to measure

and collect evidence of students’ outcomes as a result of library initiatives and programs,

particularly those focused on the mastery of IL competencies since some of them were

seeking to measure unrealistic outcomes of IL (Hay and Todd, 2010). This caused a big gap

between recommended Australian standards and realities (Hughes, 2014).

When searching in the Australian curriculum, it has been found that the concept of IL

has been merged with the ‘information and communication technology’ term and the term

‘information literacy’ itself has not been mentioned directly in the ACARA documents (n.d.).

Thus, in order to prevent any misunderstanding, shared terminology should be used by

teacher librarians, principals and teachers within schools, so the concept will be well-

understood (Herring & Bush, 2011) and then well-implemented. Moreover, the

effectiveness of IL programs is not always achieved because of many barriers such as, lack of

formal information literacy programs (Soft Link, 2014), the decrease in library staffing (Soft

Link, 2014), the lack of required evaluation to assess the success of IL outcomes due to the

inadequate identification of approaches that can be used to measure and collect evidence

of students’ outcomes (Hay and Todd, 2010), budget cutbacks which has resulted in lacking

of school library staffing (Powling, 2010), and lack of encouragement for professional

development (Soft Link, 2014). Besides this, despite teacher librarians have the main

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responsibility to implement IL programs and build partnerships and collaborative

relationships between them, teachers and students to have effective IL programs (Bruce,

2002), putting life-long learning program, such as IL, in place cannot be implemented solely

by librarians (Lau, 2006). Thus, IL is a responsibility that need to “be shared within strategic

partnerships operating at various levels, including curriculum design, policy development,

staff development, research and classroom teaching; and be supported by educational

leaders such as principals” (Bruce, 2004).

Recently, in Australian and the US context, there has been an emphasis on the

inquiry-based learning, “which does not always align well with notions of high-stakes

testing, although it has great potential since it typically involves students reading novel (as

in new to them) informational text” (Farmer, 2014). Finally, Australia and the US have

established their own specific standards and guidelines (ALA & AECT, 1998; ALIA & ASLA,

2009) for implementing IL in schools. However, in the UK context, they have not defined IL

in the information literate school community context and have not published specific

standards for the application of IL in schools (Jones, 2016), so it is believed that IL is less

clearly described in the skills debate in the UK than in Australia (Johnston & Webber, 2006).

However, because of characterising information literacy as personal attributes related only

to the educational contexts and library skills, Australian and the US standards of IL were

criticised by Johnston and Webber (2006), who proposed IL as a soft applied discipline for

the whole information society, and change IL from a set of personal attributes “to the

information literate person, situated in a range of dynamic, social, and personal contexts”

(p. 111).

7.0 Limitations

There were several limitations associated with this project. In the first place, the

researcher’s inexperience was the main limitation of this project. Despite of being a school

librarian, the researcher has not had enough experience in regards to information literacy

concept. This researcher originally came from a middle eastern country which does not

develop and implement IL programs clearly. Thus, studying IL programs in a country like

Australia, which is one of the leaders in IL research and practice, was challenging. The

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second limitation was the researcher’s language. English is the researcher’s second language

and although having 6.5 as a score in the IELTS exam, it was difficult to fully and

comprehensively understand every source used in the project. Another limitation associated

with this project was the time as this project was conducted during only one semester, so it

was clearly that the 13 weeks were not enough for the researcher to efficiently conduct this

literature review. As known that every project requires a great deal of time and effort to be

learnt in more depth, thus it was challenging to perfectly analyse the gathered data in short

period. Additionally, the researcher faced difficulty to have empirical studies to examine the

real implementation of IL in Australian schools. Thus, it was challenging when the research

attempted to describe the implementation in reality. Another limitation was there is not too

much scholarly articles published in Australian context. Researchers and practitioners need

to study the development and application of IL in depth in order to enrich Australian

literature.

8.0 Recommendations

In order to support the future development of the application of information literacy

in Australian schools of any type, a consideration of the below recommendations will

probably make the concept of IL more well-understood and fully implemented in school

context across Australia. Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), ALIA, ASLA,

each school library association in Australian States, the departments of education,

education policy makers, teacher librarians, teachers and principals need to consider these

recommendations for future development as they are the main stakeholders of this project.

The recommendations of this project are as follows:

1. It is recommended that one accepted and unified definition of IL in the school context

needs to be considered by ALIA, ASLA, each school library association in Australian

States, the departments of education and teacher librarians. This unified definition is

required in order to be used at the national level in all information literacy standards

and guidelines.

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2. It is recommended that a completion of a course for pre-service teachers related to the

application of information literacy in schools (Rishworth & Standing Committee on

Education and Employment, 2011) is needed to provide these teachers opportunity to

gain general background in how to enhance students’ IL skills. This course can be offered

by ALIA, ASLA or any school library association in Australian States.

3. It is recommended that teacher librarians need to use research-based practice in order

to measure and collect evidence of their IL programs and activities. In addition, this

causes a significant gap between recommended Australian standards and what happen

in schools in reality (Hughes, 2014). Some teacher librarians do not have the ability and

experience to use data collection methods even at a simplistic level, and incapable to

make convincing claims based on systematically data about the outcomes gained from

their activities (Hay & Todd, 2010). This would support their future improvements in the

way that teacher librarians are using to apply the concept of information literacy in

schools. It is also beneficial for ALA and ASLA to develop their IL standards in accordance

to teacher librarians’ researches which reflect the reality. Reliable and detailed evidence

is required in order to help teacher-librarians to prove their influence on students’

learning outcomes and direct their professional practice and to support education policy

makers, principals to make decisions about school library staffing and resourcing

(Gillespie, 2013; Hughes, 2014), and advocate for the role of teacher librarian (Lonsdale,

2003).

4. It is recommended that each school library in Australian schools need to be provided

with a qualified teacher librarian as they are well-informed about information literacy

theory and practice. The Departments of Education in each Australian States have this

responsibility. this ensures that IL will be well-implemented.

5. It is recommended that the Commonwealth Government should work widely with the

states and territories to form a distinct national policy statement that describes the

great significance of IL for the education in the 21st century, which will be utilised as a

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unified standard by teacher librarians, teachers and principals (Rishworth & Standing

Committee on Education and Employment, 2011).

6. It is recommended that an extensive body of research is needed to be undertaken in

order to examine the impact of teacher librarians on the information skills acquisition of

school students and teaching staff (Lonsdale, 2003). This will draw attention to the

potential leadership role that can school librarians play in order to ensure that teaching

staff and students will be information literate.

7. It is recommended that a research into finding an evidence if students are able to

transfer information literacy practices and skills across time and subjects or not, needs

to be undertaken. Herring (2011) argues that this is a gap in the information literacy

literature. Since the literature related to IL teaching, IL models, and students’ attitudes

to IL teaching, has assumed that students will surely transfer IL practices, there is lack of

evidence to approve this assumption (Herring, 2011). Not only this, but it would also be

great to study whether school students can apply information literacy skills learnt in a

specific situation to all other situations (Foggett, 2003). A culture of transfer needs to be

applied in schools.

8. It is recommended to apply a program such as ‘Information Literacy Immersion’ which

was established by the Association of College and Research Libraries' (ACRL) Institute in

the US. This program can be implemented in order to provide teacher librarians in all

Australian schools the opportunity to be trained intensively in all aspects of information

literacy. This can be applied in the Australian context by the Australian and New Zealand

Institute for Information Literacy (ANZIIL) as it has the role in facilitating Immersion style

programs in the Australian context (Doskatsch, 2002).

9. It is recommended that in order to provide teacher librarians opportunity to effectively

implement information literacy in their schools, there needs to be a collaboration

between these teacher librarians and public libraries. Normally, teacher librarians have

lack of time because they need to balance between library management and teaching

requirements. Thus, these public libraries can help by offering some of teacher

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librarians’ activities in order to provide them some free time to successfully plan and

apply formal information literacy programs. Rishworth and Standing Committee on

Education and Employment (2011) stated that “if there were closer relationships

between schools and council libraries, teacher librarians could hand over class

borrowing sessions to council staff. This would enable teacher librarians to concentrate

on their teaching role in information literacy” and build collaborative relationships with

teachers in order to document the outcomes of information literacy activities.

10. It is recommended that student-centred learning needs to be implemented in all

Australian schools of any type in order to provide effective IL programs. Since this type

of leaning enables students to be actively involved in the learning process, teacher

librarians are more likely to effectively implement IL than instruction, where teachers

are the centre of the learning process (NSW Department of Education, 2007).

11. It is recommended that attracting considerable research funding is needed to develop a

national research program to explore the relationship between the implemented IL

activities and the outcomes of students learning. This would be beneficial to document

excellent case studies to be used as models for Australian school libraries. ALIA and ASLA

can take a lead in looking for partners at the national level. Such partners could be ACER.

12. It is recommended that significant professional development programs need to be

implemented regularly to support teacher librarians in improving the expertise required

to effectively using emerging technologies used to support inquiry learning and the

application of information literacy programs. Not only this, but they should be also

encouraged to professional development by principles to be well-informed and

educated about the theory and practice of IL. Therefore, they will be ready to develop

and deliver IL programs in their schools. Teacher librarians need to have a set of skills so

they can participate in implementing a successful information literacy continuum

connected to the Australian national curriculum.

13. It is recommended that the departments of education in all states need to consider the

use of a specific model for information literacy learning. Since using one model may not

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be able to meet students’ learning styles of all students. Thus, further investigation is

required to ensure that all students can benefit from information literacy activities and

use of learnt skills in their studies.

14. It is recommended that in order to prevent any misunderstanding about the concept of

IL, shared terminology should be used by teacher librarians, principals and teachers

within schools, so the concept of IL will be well-understood (Herring & Bush, 2011) and

then well-implemented. This is because the concept of IL has been merged with the

‘information and communication technology’ term and the term ‘information literacy’

itself has not been mentioned directly in the ACARA documents (n.d.).

15. It is recommended that issues such as budget cutbacks, the decrease in library staffing

and lack of support staff in Australian school libraries need to be taken into account. This

surely affects the quality of the effective implementation of information literacy

programs and it seems that a lot of school students still have very basic understanding of

IL concept.

16. It is recommended that Australian teacher librarians should think and work strategically

instead of operationally. According to Hay and Todd (2010), teacher librarians need to

have long-term and evidence plan, vision and strategic thinking to lead the operational

actions in their school libraries to success. IL is one of the concepts affected by this lack

of strategic planning as this leads to use less evidence-based practice.

17. It is recommended that a culture of collaboration in Australian schools should be

considered by teacher librarians. Despite teacher librarians have the main responsibility

to implement IL programs and build partnerships and collaborative relationships with

teachers, putting life-long learning program, such as IL, in place cannot be implemented

solely by librarians (Lau, 2006). Thus, IL is a responsibility that needs to “be shared

within strategic partnerships operating at various levels, including curriculum design,

policy development, staff development, research and classroom teaching; and be

supported by educational leaders such as principals” (Bruce, 2004).

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9.0 Conclusion

In brief, this review has shown several crucial themes that have been discussed in

the literature regarding information literacy definition, models and research in Australian

school context, the development of IL programs for Australian schools, the actual

application of IL in Australian schools, barriers to effective implementation, and IL in the US

and the UK schools. The literature confirms that there is no single and distinct definition for

IL in school context, so that there is a need to form a distinct national policy statement to

define IL and describe its significance for better implementation of IL in schools. In addition,

while it is widely accepted that information literacy programs and activities are effective in

school context, the review of the current and prior researches on why these IL programs are

developed and how they are implemented in Australian schools has identified little evidence

to confirm this claim. Thus, teacher librarians need to use research-based practice in order

to measure and collect evidence of their application of IL, so that this would contribute to

the field of information literacy programs in Australia. This is also very crucial to fill the gap

between the recommended Australian standards and the reality of the application of these

standards in schools.

Barriers, for example budget cutback, not recruiting qualified teacher librarians and

decreasing library staff have negative impact in the implementation of IL. An extensive body

of research is needed to be undertaken in order to examine the impact of teacher librarians

on the information skills acquisition of school students and teaching staff. Not only this, but

there is also a need to conduct a research into finding an evidence if Australian students are

able to transfer information literacy practices and skills across time and subjects or not. A

culture of transfer IL skills should be existed in schools. Furthermore, the literature analysis

also revealed that professional developments programs should be offered frequently in

order to provide teacher librarians in all Australian schools the opportunity to be trained

intensively on all aspects of information literacy. Further investigation is required to ensure

that information literacy model used in Australian schools are able to meet the learning

style of all students. It is clear that filling these gaps would help teacher librarians in

implementing successful IL programs and collecting outcomes for better implementation.

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10.0 References

ACT Government. (n.d.). School Libraries: The Heart of 21st Century Learning. Retrieved from http://www.education.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/916301/School-Libraries-21st-Century.pdf

American Library Association (ALA) and Association of Educational Communications and Technology (AECT). (1998). Information Power: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs. Retrieved from https://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslproftools/informationpower/InformationLiteracyStandards_final.pdf

Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). (n.d.). Information Literacy Immersion Program. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/acrl/immersion

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (n.d.). Information and Communication Technology Capability learning continuum. Retrieved from https://acaraweb.blob.core.windows.net/resources/General_capabilities_-_ICT_-_learning_continuum.pdf

Australian Library and Information Association, & Australian School Library Association. (2001). Learning for the future: Developing information services in schools (2nd ed.). Carlton, Vic: Curriculum Corporation.

Australian Library and Information Association, & Australian School Library Association. (2003). Statement in Teacher Librarian in Australia. Retrieved from http://www.asla.org.au/site/DefaultSite/filesystem/documents/policy_tls_in_australia.pdf

Australian Library and Information Association, & Australian School Library Association. (2009). Statement in Information Literacy. Retrieved from http://www.asla.org.au/site/DefaultSite/filesystem/documents/policy_Information_Literacy.pdf

Australian Library and Information Association, & Australian School Library Association. (2009). Statement on Library and Information Services in Schools. Retrieved from https://www.alia.org.au/sites/default/files/Statement%20on%20Library%20and%20Information%20Services.pdf

Australian Library and Information Association, & Australian School Library Association. (n.d.). Standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians. Retrieved from http://www.alia.org.au/sites/default/files/documents/ASLA%20PDF%20statement.pdf

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http://www.alia.org.au/sites/default/files/documents/ASLA%20PDF%20statement.pdf

https://www.alia.org.au/sites/default/files/Statement%20on%20Library%20and%20Information%20Services.pdf

https://www.alia.org.au/sites/default/files/Statement%20on%20Library%20and%20Information%20Services.pdf

http://www.asla.org.au/site/DefaultSite/filesystem/documents/policy_Information_Literacy.pdf

http://www.asla.org.au/site/DefaultSite/filesystem/documents/policy_Information_Literacy.pdf

http://www.asla.org.au/site/DefaultSite/filesystem/documents/policy_tls_in_australia.pdf

https://acaraweb.blob.core.windows.net/resources/General_capabilities_-_ICT_-_learning_continuum.pdf

https://acaraweb.blob.core.windows.net/resources/General_capabilities_-_ICT_-_learning_continuum.pdf

http://www.ala.org/acrl/immersion

https://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslproftools/informationpower/InformationLiteracyStandards_final.pdf

https://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslproftools/informationpower/InformationLiteracyStandards_final.pdf

http://www.education.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/916301/School-Libraries-21st-Century.pdf

http://www.education.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/916301/School-Libraries-21st-Century.pdf


Australian School Library Association. (2014). Evidence guide for teacher librarians in the proficient career stage: Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. Retrieved from http://www.asla.org.au/site/DefaultSite/filesystem/documents/evidence_guide_prof.pdf

Beheshti, J. (2012). Teens, virtual environments and information literacy. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (Online), 38(3), 54. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/933226070?pq-origsite=summon

Bishop, K. (2003). What in the world is happening with information literacy? Knowledge Quest, 31(5), 14. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/194726687/fulltextPDF/F4EB6DC0C1FF470CPQ/1?accountid=13380

Bonanno, K., Wall, J., & Clarke, M. (2010). Submission from the Australian School Library Association Inc. to the Joint Select Committee on Cyber-Safety. Retrieved from http://www.asla.org.au/site/DefaultSite/filesystem/documents/ASLAsubmissionJune2010.pdf

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101. doi:10.1191/1478088706qp063oa

Bruce, C. S. (2004, June). Information literacy as a catalyst for educational change. A background Paper. Paper presented at the “Lifelong Learning: Whose responsibility and what is your contribution?”, the 3rd International Lifelong Learning Conference. Retrieved from http://eprints.qut.edu.au.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/4977/

Bundy, A. (2004). Australian and New Zealand information literacy framework. Principles, standards and practice, 2. Retrieved from http://www.libnet.sh.cn/upload/htmleditor/File/130620025617.pdf

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