Information literacy in a volunteer workplace: the case of hyperlocal

government in Scotland

Presentation by Professor Hazel Hall

Centre for Social Informatics, Edinburgh Napier University

Workshop on Workplace Information Literacy

Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

5th December 2017

http://hazelhall.org

@hazelh

Slides on SlideShare at http://slideshare.net/hazelhall

Information literacy for democratic engagement (IL-DEM)

What are the practices of elected, unpaid community councillors in

Scotland as they exploit information channels for democratic engagement

with citizens?

What are the practices of elected, unpaid community councillors in

Scotland as they exploit information channels for democratic engagement

with citizens?

IL-DEM team and funding

Hazel Hall Peter Cruickshank Bruce Ryan

Hyperlocal democracy in Scotland

Community councils

1,100 active in Scotland across 32 local authorities ‘employing’ ~10,000 community councillorsVoting members (elected, co-opted)Non-voting, ex-officio members (e.g. MPs, MSPs)

http://www.communitycouncils.scot/community-council-finder.html http://www.communitycouncils.scot/community-council-finder.html

Hyperlocal democracy in Scotland

Limited powers

Hyperlocal democracy in Scotland

‘Schemes’ specify roles and responsibilities

Community councils are NOT bodies of governmentCommunity councils DO NOT deliver servicesCommunity councils CANNOT raise taxes or make

regulations/law

http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/file/1477/scheme_for_community_councils http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/file/1477/scheme_for_community_councils

http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/file/1477/scheme_for_community_councils http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/file/1477/scheme_for_community_councils

http://www.ntbcc.org.uk/about/http://www.ntbcc.org.uk/about/

Community councillor known challenges

A volunteer unpaid ‘workforce’

Elections uncontestedVacancies unfilledInsufficient members to undertake tasksCouncillor demographics: people with time

Information sharing

No/low/outdated information skillsUnmediated and mixed channel information

interactionsAmbiguity over community councillor roles

Citizen opinion official bodies Official information citizens?

Community councillor known challenges

Primary research questions 1-3

How do community councillors…

Access and understand information on their duties and rights?

Keep up to date with local issues and developments of reference to the communities that they serve?

Disseminate information to their communities?

Supplementary research questions 4 & 5

Training

Where do future efforts need to be directed to improve the information skills and practices of community councillors?

What is the role of public library staff in the training of community councillors?

Final supplementary research question 6

Impact of community councillors’ information literacies

How do community councillors’ information literacies contribute to:Their communities?The building of social capital?Their, or others’, citizenships?

Empirical work

Semi-structured interviews19 participants in 1-hour interviews5 themes

Information literacy, behaviour and practicesLifelong learning, everyday lifeLibrariesCommunities, social capital and citizenshipBecoming information literate

Plus some desk research: audit of public library provision for community councils

SCONUL model to guide data collection

For example, data collected to address RQ1 align with pillars 3 and 4

How do you go about finding information about your duties and rights?

What sources do you use? How did you learn about them?

Activity Theory to guide data analysis

https://www.slideshare.net/HazelHall/exploring-information-literacy-through-the-lens-of-activity-theoryhttps://www.slideshare.net/HazelHall/exploring-information-literacy-through-the-lens-of-activity-theory

Main findings: RQs 1 and 2

RQ1Community councillors learn about their roles primarily

through materials supplied by local authorities

RQ2The information sharing role is bi-directionalLocal authorities are the primary information source –

although not all needs can be metPatchy use of social media to access information

Main findings: RQs 3 and 4

RQ3High attention to provenance and authority of

information to be disseminated to citizensMany channels for dissemination - both digital and non-

digital – though impact not evaluated

RQ4Information skills gaps, particularly around social media

Main findings: RQ5

RQ5Just one local authority specifies means by which the

public library service supports community councilsLack of awareness of library support amongst

interviewees

‘Libraries don’t do much for me

[because] everything is available online.’

‘Libraries don’t do much for me

[because] everything is available online.’

Main finding: RQ6

RQ6Community councillors’ information literacies contribute

to building and support of citizenship

Key issues and implications

Low social media skills and useWith associated impact on assessing information needs

of citizensExplained by demographics, emphasis on provenance

and authority, perceptions of time commitment

Low profile of librariesNot visible as strong supporters of community council

work

IL-DEM project recommendations

TrainingLobby, audit, delivery

Perception of information skillsValue to role to be emphasised by local authorities

Public librariesExtend/make more visible the support role of public

libraries

Find out more

Community, knowledge, connections web site https://community-knect.net/

Recent papers Hall, H., Cruickshank, P. & Ryan, B. (2018 in press). Practices of

community representatives in exploiting information channels for citizen democratic engagement. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science.

Hall, H., Cruickshank, P. & Ryan, B. (2017 in press). Exploring information literacy through the lens of Activity Theory. In: Proceedings of the 5th European Conference on Information Literacy (ECIL2017). New York: Springer. [Slides at https://www.slideshare.net/HazelHall/exploring-information-literacy-through-the-lens-of-activity-theory]

Information literacy in a volunteer workplace: the case of hyperlocal

government in Scotland

Presentation by Professor Hazel Hall

Centre for Social Informatics, Edinburgh Napier University

Workshop on Workplace Information Literacy

Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

5th December 2017