By Muhammad Farooq and Aisha Shafi A framework for implementing
Information Literacy program: A case of Riphah International
University
Slide 2
Outline Introduction Need and Importance Information Literacy
in Higher Education Information Literacy Program Impact on Services
Future horizons Findings References
Slide 3
Introduction Due to information explosion and ICT advancements,
the flood of information is on the move in diverse formats.
Obtaining basic information is much easy at present but getting
required and authentic information from this flood is a challenging
task. Information literacy skills are essential for an individual
to get required information from authentic resources within minimum
time limit. Information literacy skills help an individual prepares
to become independent lifelong learners.
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Need and Importance Development of Information Literacy
competencies among the society has become a vital requirement for
transforming the culture in knowledge based society. Information
literacy is the only way to move forward and accept the challenges
of the 21st century. Information literacy skills and knowledge are
essential in current global information environment where
technology and innovation make drastic changes and the information
is available in huge amounts and in variety of formats.
"Information literacy forms the basis for lifelong learning. It is
common to all disciplines, to all learning environments, and to all
levels of education. It enables learners to master content and
extend their investigations, become more self-directed, and assume
greater control over their own learning."
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Information Literacy in Higher Education In the era of
information overload, developing information literacy skills in
students is a vital component of higher education. Students at all
levels of education need to possess information literacy skills;
however, for those students leaving high school, IL skills may be a
critical component of their education and one that may affect their
success in higher education or the workplace. (2) Educationalists
face difficulties in preparing students for higher education,
especially for conducting research activities. Collaboration
between librarians, faculty members and administration is important
for implementing information literacy program for students. Role of
librarians is vital at this stage. They should come forward to
launch effective Information literacy programs to make their users
lifelong learners and critical thinkers. However its important that
these programs become successful only if the library staff succeed
in gaining the co-operation of the faculty and administration.
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Information Literacy Program Information Literacy Programs of
the department aim to equip the Riphah community with the skills
and knowledge needed to effectively identify, find, evaluate and
ethically use information to support academic excellence and
lifelong learning. The goal of the Information Literacy Program is
to help students/faculty members in mastering information skills
that will enrich their academic and personal lives and enable them
to become independent lifelong learners.
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The practice of conducting library orientation for new students
was observed in the beginning. Workshops and training sessions were
also conducted for faculty members and students infrequently.
However, the journey towards information literacy begins with the
series of library orientation sessions and training sessions of
online databases were conducted in year 2009, for students and
faculty members. The department already planned and implemented
number of ICT based services including Riphah Information Portal.
The ICT based services enhanced the image of the department but
still observed under the boundaries of library. Further the image
of the department enhanced through celebrating Information Week
during April 5-9, 2010 to enhance information literacy and virtual
learning environment among the students, faculty and knowledge
seekers. It was a unique activity comprising series of events
including Information Expo, National Essay Writing Competition,
Renewable Energy Conference and Lecture on "Role of Information in
Public Police relationship" etc. (4) The event changed the whole
scenario and the department came out of the library box. The
department gained very much reputation in university through this
exceptional event. Background
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The department is working since 1996 under the title of
Department of Libraries and Learning Resource Centres. The
department strived hard for the excellence and improved its
resources and services through effective use of ICT. Riphah
International University has multiple campuses and each campus
library was working under the local administrative control. In
2010, it was restructured as Information Services Department to
enhance its scope and services. In Information Services Department
the library is only one element in a dynamic totality. The
restructuring not only raised the status of library professionals
as well as distributed administrative control of the campus
libraries were transferred to the centralized control of the
Information Services Department. (5) Following are the major
outcomes of the restructuring: Information Services Department
became the part of academia and independent Strategic Unit (SU) in
the University. Position profiles/Designations of staff members
were also changed. Local campus authorities used to control all
campus libraries and now the centralized administrative control has
been shifted to Information Services Department. The department is
working under direct supervision of the Vice Chancellor.
Restructuring of the Department
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Preparations for Information Literacy Because of restructuring
the department became the part of academia and LIS professionals
achieved the status of faculty but the most important thing is to
prove this status and sustain the achievement. For this purpose the
department started work on preparing framework of an information
literacy program. The design of the program was developed in the
semester Spring-2011. During the first year of IL-Program, a lot of
planning took place. 4.3.1 Training of Faculty and Researchers:
Information Services Department, Riphah International University
conducted series of workshops on Bibliography and Referencing Made
Easy: Hands on Practical Workshop for Library Professionals and
Researchers (End-Note Software) during March-April 2011. More than
189 professors, associate professors, assistant professors,
lecturers and researchers participated in these sessions. (4) The
series of these workshops enhanced the role of the library
professionals as teacher of the teachers.
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Cont 4.3.2 Capacity Building of Staff Members: Number of
departmental training workshops on various topics were conducted
for Information Services team to enhance their competencies and
they were also encouraged to participate in workshops/trainings
organized by other departments of the university and other
organizations/institutions. 4.3.3 Nomination of Information
Advisors: The most important aspect of information literacy program
is nomination of departments team members as Information Advisors.
Dedicated team members have been nominated as Information Advisors
for all faculties. The Information Advisor serves as a bridge
between ISD and the relevant faculty. He/she has the responsibility
to conduct information literacy sessions in the relevant faculty
and to fulfill all requirements of the students, faculty members
and researchers.
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4.3.4 Duties of Information Advisors: The first task of
Information Advisors was to collect complete information about
relevant faculty so that they can effectively serve the
responsibility. At this stage they have to gain knowledge of the
relevant faculty and create expertise in the relevant field. Some
of the prominent tasks are mentioned below: Information about
faculty members and their research areas Information about programs
offered by the faculty and detail of courses being offered in each
program Information about course contents and reading material i.e.
recommended text books, reference books, journals etc. Information
about accreditation bodies and their requirements i.e. HEC (Higher
Education Commission), PEC (Pakistan Engineering Council), PMDC
(Pakistan Medical and Dental Council) Information about reading
material available in print and electronic format to serve the
requirements of the users i.e. print books, online databases, free
resources etc. Cont.
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Development & Circulation of the informative material User
statistics and faculty need assessment Recommendation for
improvement of ISD website and Information Portal Establish and
develop subjects guides in print and electronic format Awareness
about the subject terminologies & synonyms / antonyms Meetings
with faculty members to create contacts especially with program
coordinators 4.3.5 Training of Information Advisors: Training of
the Information Advisors prior to launching the program is the key
for success of the program. The department focused on team members
training so that they may conduct the literacy sessions confidently
and face all the challenges. Numbers of training workshops for
Information Advisors were conducted including the demonstration
sessions where ISD team members were the speakers and participants
as well so that they can learn from each other and know about the
mistakes they made in demo session. Cont.
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Information Services Department started information literacy
program from Semester Fall-2011. In this phase two information
literacy classes were conducted in each month at each campus. The
overall responsibility was assigned to campus incharges to make
sure the implementation of information literacy program in
collaboration with information advisors and relevant Deans/Program
Coordinators. To keep an eye on the ground situation and remove
shortcomings/difficulties, 02 training sessions for Information
Advisors were organized. Further training sessions were conducted
for Information Advisers to overcome their deficiencies. Meetings
of Director-ISD and Deans were also arranged to fill communication
gaps and to remove hurdles faced by the Information Advisors.
Following is the detail of workshops/sessions conducted for the
training of information Training Sessions for Information Advisors
S.NoDateDescriptionParticipantsLocation 1Oct 18, 2011 Training
Workshop for Information Advisors (All IOs & Above) 13Mian
Campus 2Dec 01, 2011 Training Workshop for Information Advisors
(All IOs & Above) 12Main Campus Program (Phase-1)
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4.4.1 Summary of IL-Sessions: Information Advisors conducted
information literacy sessions for the students and faculty members
to enhance information literacy and virtual learning environment.
The summary is as under: 21 information literacy sessions were
conducted during September- December2011. 378 students and faculty
members attended the sessions during September- December2011. 4.4.2
Feedback of IL-Sessions: Feedback of the participants regarding
effectiveness of the information literacy session was collected by
all Information Advisors through Participants Feedback Form and
feedback reports were compiled. Overall feedback of the
participants was very encouraging and motivational that provides
basis for continuity and further enhancement of the program. Cont
.
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4.4.3 Query Management System: The department recorded user
queries to study the information seeking behavior of the students.
The objectives of the query management are: To find out the
information seeking patterns of patrons. To understand problems
faced by the patrons in seeking information. To determine the use
of information resources and services. This system is helpful to
reshuffle the resources keeping in view the utility and
effectiveness. Cont.
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From semester Spring-2012 the numbers of sessions were further
increased from two sessions per month per campus to two sessions
per month for each faculty. Details of sessions and participants
are as under: 66 Information Literacy Sessions were conducted
during January- December 2012. 1567 students and faculty members
attended the sessions during January- December 2012. Following is
the detail of workshops/sessions conducted for the training of
information advisors during 2012: Training Sessions for Information
Advisors S.NoDateDescriptionParticipantsLocation 1.Mar 15,
2012Training Workshop for Information Advisors (All IOs &
Above) 14Main Campus 2.Jun 28, 2012Training Workshop for
Information Advisors on citations management and EndNote software
(All IOs and Above) 14Main Campus IL-Program (Phase-2)
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Numbers of basic and advanced level topics are added in the
list of information literacy program to strengthen the program. As
much of the students and faculty members already attended literacy
sessions on general topics so at this phase the focus is to avoid
duplication of session topics so that no participant get bored and
learn something new every time. Currently 40 information literacy
topics are available on the list that is divided in following 05
major categories:Information portal 1.Online resources 2.Online
databases 3.Information literacy skills 4.Citation tools and
indexes 28 Information Literacy Sessions are conducted during
January-June 2013 in which 573 students and faculty members
participated. Three training workshops have also been conducted for
training of Information Advisors. Details are as under: IL-Program
(Phase-3)
Slide 18
Training Sessions for Information Advisors
S.NoDateDescriptionParticipantsLocation 1.Jul 02, 2013 Training
Workshop for Information Advisors (All IOs & Above) 14Main
Campus 2.Sep 05, 2013 Training Workshop for Information Advisors
(All IOs & Above) 15Main Campus 3.Nov 27, 2013 Training
Workshop for Information Advisors (All IOs & Above) 12Main
Campus Cont.
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Statistical summary of the program is as under: Fig-1. Summary
of Sessions IL-Program (at a glance)
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Fig-2. Summary of Participants Cont.
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Information Literacy Program puts very positive impact on
services of the department. The confidence of users has been
achieved by the department and patrons not only more willing to get
benefit from the resources and services as well as show keen
interest to participate in the sessions/events organized by the
department. Following is the statistical summary and charts of some
of the services to show the impact of IL-Program (6, 7, 8, 9):
Services2010201120122013 Books Issued to Patrons82868571102825397
Research Papers Provided to Researchers1610151833621939 Reference
Queries by Patrons687096642361241520 Collection Development
(Books)1069119213881557 Impacts on Services
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Fig-3. Books Issued to Patrons Cont.
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Fig-4. Research Papers Provided to Researchers Cont.
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Fig-5. Reference Queries Asked by Patrons Cont.
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Fig-6. Collection Development of Library Books Cont.
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Findings All services have been improved. The role of
librarians as teaches has enhanced. Profile of information
professionals have been strengthen & accredited. Scope and use
of library resources have been maximized. Information queries,
library visits, article requests, circulation of library material
have increased gradually since 2010 2013. University libraries
should adopt this model to improve their services.
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Recommendations LIS Professionals at university level must
enhance their capabilities and they must be confident enough to
conduct IL-Sessions for faculty members and research scholars. User
Education is a vital component of higher education and without
information literacy skills students and researchers remain just
like blind in the treasure of information. LIS professionals should
create opportunities for students and researchers to develop
information literacy competencies for learning and research.
Information literacy courses need continual improvement.
Innovations in user education and diversity in topics make
IL-Program attractive for the users. Use of technologies that
support students' research and collaboration skills, Internet
Search Engines, Online Tools for Evaluating, Web-Based Information,
Web Sites That offer collaborative activities are useful.
Slide 28
1.The Association of College and Research Libraries (2000).
Information literacy competency standards for higher education.
Chicago, IL: The Association of College and Research Libraries.
Retrieved November 30, 2013, from
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/standards.pdf
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/standards.pdf
2.Burhanna, Kenneth J., and Mary Lee Jensen. (2006). Collaborations
for Success: High School to College Transitions. Reference Services
Review 34 (4): 50919. 3.Information Services Department (2012).
Information Literacy Report Oct. 2011 - Jun. 2012. Riphah
International University. Islamabad. 4.Farooq M. (2012), From
library to information services: A model of restructuring National
Conference on Career Development of LIS Professional and Overall
Improvement of Libraries in Pakistan; November 12-14, 2012;
Islamabad. 5.Information Services Department (2010). Structure,
Information Services Department. Riphah International University,
Islamabad. 6.Information Services Department (2010). Annual Report;
Information Services Department 2010. Riphah International
University. Islamabad. 7.Information Services Department (2011).
Annual Report; Information Services Department 2011. Riphah
International University. Islamabad. Information Services
Department (2012). Annual Report Information Services Department
2012. Riphah International University. Islamabad. 8.Information
Services Department (2013). Semester Report; Information Services
Department 2013 Riphah International University. Islamabad.
References