TeclibForum: 2010

INCORPORATION OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION LITERACY SKILLS
IN UG & PG CURRICULUM

Project Report submitted to the UGC-Academic Staff College,
University of Calicut, in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the VIth Refresher Course in Library and Information Science from for College Librariansfrom 01.07.10 to 21.07.10

By
B.S. SHAJI
Librarian
S N M TRAINING COLLEGE
MOOTHAKUNNAM

Sponsored by
University Grants Commission

New Delhi
2010

INTRODUCTION
The higher education in the state has been changed tremendously in the recent years. It had been in its conventional rhythm for many more decades, and continued unaltered. But with the onslaught of information boom, the traditional concept of undergraduate and post graduate education have been changed. Of course these changes were in a slow phase until recently here, where as the changes were by and large rapid in other parts of the country.
These reforms are structured on a strong basement of student centered education, where the students enjoy more freedom to choose his / her interest of study according to their aptitude.
The Choice based Credit and Semester System (CBCSS) introduced the universities in Kerala in the UG education has of great importance in this regard. The PG education has already been switched over to the semester system and the curriculum has also been revised and updated considerably.
In a nutshell, it can very well say that the traditional methods of class room teaching, through lecture method will no longer survive. The fast growing quantum of knowledge and its management in an academic set-up is becoming a tedious task to the academicians.
“Right information at the right time” and that would be the order of the time. Here the information literacy skills and its application in the curriculum have of great significance.
Despite in all its plentyness, our academic community feels some sort of ‘poverty in the midst of plenty’ in their information pursuit.
By incorporating information literacy and information literacy skills, in curriculum, these hurdles can be overcome meaningfully.
The optimum use of an information centre can possible, when its clientele are well versed with the techniques, by which they can trace out the right information at the least possible time.
To equip our students to become competent in information seeking, it is essential to integrate these ICT related techniques in curriculum in a desired manner.
The information profession has to take the initiative in this regard, right from the framing up of curriculum to its application in the academic module.
1.1 Title of the study
“Incorporation of Library and Information Literacy Skills in Undergraduate and Post Graduate Curriculum”
Definition of key terms

1.1 Library

A library is a collection of sources, resources, and services, and the structure in which it is housed; it is organized for use and maintained by a public body, an institution, or a private individual. In the more traditional sense, a library is a collection of books. ...
· a room where books are kept; "they had brandy in the library"
· a collection of literary documents or records kept for reference or borrowing
· a depository built to contain books and other materials for reading and study
· (computing) a collection of standard programs and subroutines that are stored and available for immediate use
· a building that houses a collection of books and other materials
1.2 Information Literacy and Skills
Information skills and literacy have been defined as,
"the process of acquiring knowledge of attitudes towards and skills in information, as a major determinant of the way in which people exploit reality, develop, live, work and communicate in an information society"
The concept of information literacy and skills has been interpreted in various ways since the early seventies. Terms such as 'study skills', 'research skills' and 'library skills' tend to be used in the educational context. 'Lifelong learning' and 'creative thinking', imply preparation for the work environment and continued productivity. Lifelong learning, however, also has the nuance of self empowerment and is not necessarily only associated with the world of work. 'IT literate' on the other hand in the information literacy context relates to those skills associated with the use of the electronic medium of information access and delivery. The following definition encompasses the concepts above and leads to the goal of achieving a 'lifelong learner' i.e. someone who can educate themselves, (Kuhlhau, 1991; Doyle, 1992, 1994; Bruce, 1995; Eisenberg & Brown, 1992). It also extends previous definitions to encompass the gathering and use of primary data. Different contexts and situations as well as individual style will result in the choice of certain strategies. Generally, however, a student who is information literate and has information skills is expected to:
recognize that accurate and complete information (textual, numeric or graphical) is the basis for intelligent decision making. In other words they have values which promote information use and can implement information processes. This would include the confidence to tackle relatively undefined problems through the knowledge that information could be found.
determine exactly what problem or aspect of the problem they are trying to resolve. This would include skills such as brainstorming or concept mapping which would enable the individual to place the problem within a particular knowledge context.
define and determine what information is required for the task in terms of type of material, media and comprehensiveness. This requires the individual to understand what may be expected in terms of the final 'product' whether it is a final year project report or an executive summary.
formulate questions based on information needs that help to define what content is required. For example would case studies, past experiments, information on methods, regulatory information etc. be useful. What exactly do they need to know?
identify potentially relevant and valuable primary, secondary and tertiary sources of information. This implies a knowledge of the 'world of information', including journals, books, people, organisations, electronic newsgroups etc. In terms of primary data this would also imply knowledge of appropriate research techniques.
develop successful search strategies in both the paper based and electronic domain for identifying secondary information. This requires knowledge of relevant paper and electronic full text and surrogate indexes as well as the principles along which such systems are organized. In the area of primary data knowledge of qualitative and quantitative research techniques is required. It also implies the use of effective scanning techniques such as the use of contents pages, headings, conclusions, summaries etc.
gather information and data through experiment or through secondary sources. This may involve the use of appropriate research methodologies such as sampling and the application of good experimental practice such as taking laboratory notes. It may involve the use of information technology such as the Internet and World Wide Web search engines or publicly available online catalogues. It would also involve effective adaptation of search strategies, browsing and recording of useful data.
Organize and store information. This requires the use of information technology to develop databases, containing for example, bibliographic citations, quantitative or qualitative data. It would also include the basic skills of note taking and organization of data and information.
interpret, analyse, synthesise, evaluate and also to critically challenge the validity of collected information. This would include recognition of the need to evaluate and corroborate before adopting information.
develop insights, judgments, and predictions. This would involve extrapolation and the application of findings to different and possible future situations.
use effective and appropriate tools and methods for the presentation and visualization of data and findings. This involves knowledge of effective presentation and communication style and format as well as an understanding of what is appropriate to the situation. It increasingly requires knowledge of presentation and data visualization software.
develop strategies and techniques for the publishing of results and reports. This requires knowledge of the avenues for publishing in that domain and increasingly the ability to distribute information using electronic formats such as hypertext mark up language (HTML) or portable document format (PDF).
adapt these cognitive and behavioural information 'strategies' to different situations and contexts.
Information Literacy and Skills in this context is therefore far more than what is generally termed 'library skills' which tends to focus on the location and access of information. It is also broader than the mechanistic skills associated with the concept 'IT literate'. It should be evident that the library can play a key role in helping to develop this knowledge and that the librarian, particularly the reference librarian, is generally well versed in the majority of these areas.
1.3 Curriculum
Information Literacy Curriculum
Perhaps a brief sketch of such a curriculum, with emphasis on what is needed in higher education, will stimulate such discussion. This prototype curriculum attempts to encompass the old concept of "computer literacy" (remember "everyone should learn to program in BASIC"?), the librarians' notion of information literacy and a broader, critical conception of a more humanistic sort. Seven dimensions of literacy can be identified:

Tool literacy, or the ability to understand and use the practical and conceptual tools of current information technology, including software, hardware and multimedia, that are relevant to education and the areas of work and professional life that the individual expects to inhabit. This can be taken to include the basics of computer and network applications as well as fundamental concepts of algorithms, data structures, and network topologies and protocols.

Resource literacy or the ability to understand the farm, format, location and access methods of information resources, especially daily expanding networked information resources. This is practically identical with librarians' conceptions of information literacy, and includes concepts of the classification and organization of such resources.
Social-structural literacy, or knowing that and how information is socially situated and produced. This means knowing about how information fits into the life of groups; about the institutions and social networks--such as the universities, libraries, researcher communities, corporations, government agencies, community groups--that create and organize information and knowledge; and the social processes through which it is generated--such as the trajectory of publication of scholarly articles (peer review, etc.), the relationship between a Listserf and a shared interest group, or the audience served by a specialized library or Web site.

Research literacy, or the ability to understand and use the IT-based tools relevant to the work of today} researcher and scholar. For those in graduate education, this would include discipline-related computer software for quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis and simulation, as well as an understanding of the conceptual and analytical limitations of such software.

Publishing literacy, or the ability to format and publish research and ideas electronically, in textual and multimedia forms (including via World Wide Web, electronic mail and distribution lists, and CD-ROMs), to introduce them into the electronic public realm and the electronic community of scholars. Writing is always shaped by its tools and its audience. Computer tools and network audiences represent genuine changes in writing itself.

Emerging technology literacy, or the ability to ongoingly adapt to, understand, evaluate and make use of the continually emerging innovations in information technology so as not to be a prisoner of prior tools and resources, and to make intelligent decisions about the adoption of new ones. Clearly this includes understanding of the human, organizational and social context of technologies as well as criteria for their evaluation.
Critical literacy or the ability to evaluate critically the intellectual, human and social strengths and weaknesses, potentials and limits, benefits and costs of information technologies. This would need to include a historical perspective (e.g. the connection between algorithmic thinking, formalization in mathematics, and the development of Western science and rationality and their limits); a philosophical perspective (current debates in the philosophy of technology, the critique of instrumental reason, the possibility and nature of artificial intelligence); a sociopolitical perspective (e.g. the impact of information technology on work, public policy issues in the development of a global information infrastructure); and a cultural perspective (e.g. current discussions of the virtual body and of the definition of human being as an information-processing machine).

Objective of the study
a. To understand whether the Library and Information Literacy Skills accelerate the classroom activities of UG & PG students.
b. To understand whether the Library and Information Literacy Skills helps the teaching learning process more effective.
c. To evaluate whether the library professionals in Colleges are capable of serving Library and Information Literacy skills.

Hypothesis
a. The Library and Information Literacy skills accelerate UG & PG student’s classroom activities like assignments, projects, dissertations, seminars etc.

b. The Library and Information Literacy skills maximize the effectiveness of teaching and learning process by using modern technologies like ICT.
c. The Library and Information professionals in Colleges of Kerala are capable of serving the Library and Information Literacy skills.
Methodology
Interview method is used for the study. Interview took place among the under gradate, post graduate students, teachers and few research scholars. The interview made possible through telephone, in personal contacts, e-mails, through letters etc. Librarian aided colleges in Kerala for their qualification experience.The major limitation of the study is that, it is a topic of vast area. Here the investigator included only limited sample for the study.

.
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE

1. Mark Hepworth Presented a paper on A study of undergraduate information literacy and skills This paper concerns the inclusion of information literacy and skills training in the undergraduate curriculum. Students were studied to determine their strengths and weaknesses in terms of their information literacy and skills. The methods used to study the students included a number of qualitative techniques and were applied while students conducted a research project. In general it was found that students had limited skills in the area of information literacy. Based on these findings recommendations were proposed to help develop information literacy and skills and incorporate their delivery in the university curriculum. The paper argues that incorporation in the curriculum is a necessity for their successful delivery. This is in contrast to treating these areas as a separate subject. In addition the implications of these changes for faculty staff and librarians were defined. The initiative took place at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore and involved the NTU Library and the Division of Information Studies.
2.Cecelia Brown and Lee R. Krumholz conducted a study about Integrating Information Literacy into the Science Curriculum. A science librarian and a microbiology professor collaborated to assess information-seeking, evaluating, and usage abilities before, during, and at the end of a senior-level geomicrobiology course. ACRL’s Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education was used as a guide in designing a survey and checklists to measure literacy levels. Following an initial survey of the students’ information literacy level, two instruction sessions were provided in the use of bibliographic finding tools available from the University of Oklahoma Libraries. During each subsequent class meeting, students presented, critiqued, and discussed a referred article. The cycle was repeated, and the survey was administered again at the end of the semester. The survey results indicated an 11 percent increase in information literacy, but no significant improvement in the students’ ability to present, critique, and discuss information. A model for incorporating information literacy into upper-level undergraduate science courses and an instrument for measuring information literacy are proposed.
3. Ian J Colea, Amenda Kesyb analyzed the Computer and information literacy in post-qualifying education Computer literacy and information retrieval techniques are both skills that are required to undertake further educational study effectively. In the summer of 2000, a group of post-registered nurses and midwives on undergraduate courses in one university department completed a self-assessment questionnaire to examine their knowledge and competence of computer and information literacy. This paper describes the method and results of this study with the results indicating that these students had deficits in both computer and information literacy. The study also outlines the structural and functional difficulties that need to be resolved around the area of using computers in education for nurses and midwifes.
ANALYSIS
Objective 1&2:
i. The major objective of the study is to analyze whether the Students and teachers are aware about information sources and ICT applications in their respective fields to accelerate the class room activities and teaching-learning process effectively. Our present system of education adopts the knowledge based approach as major criteria. In this context, library is the best means for education to the students as well as teachers and researchers. Majority of the population, about 98%, agrees that the knowledge about the library and information literacy accelerates their classroom activities and teaching-learning activities. But how to use the library and sources of information is the major problem that they face. Another problem they face is the ICT application and its skills. At the outset of research, researchers spend most of their time for literature search and review of literature. This hurdle can be solved by adding topics like library and information literacy skills in their course of study.
Again in our K12 education system in government sector, there are no libraries. UG and PG system of education which starts from the present non-library based system of education is also criticized here. This problem can be solved by adopting Library and Information Literacy mandatory in BEd curriculum.
Objective 3
The third objective of the study is to evaluate Library professionals in colleges by their qualification and experience.

Library professionals working in aided colleges in Kerala are taken as sample. In Kerala there are 165 aided colleges of which 24 post of librarians are vacant. The vacant posts shall be filled up by the UGC qualified hands. The existing posts are140 in number, of which 60% having PG and higher qualifications. 16.14 % having BLISc, 22.14% having CLISc and 1.42% having other degrees. Experience is reckoned as additional qualification for job opportunities. While considering the period of experience, 54.47% comes under the working experience between 8 to 15 years, 16.41% with experience of 16 to 20 years and 15.67% between 21 to 25 years. A very few have experience above 25 years. In the light of qualification and experience, government has given relaxation to the working librarians in U G C qualifications. At present librarians are fit enough to serve the Library and Information literary skills to the UG and PG Class.
FINDINGS
1. Incorporation of Library and Information Literacy skills in UG & PG Curriculum is necessary for the delivery of the class room activities as well as the teaching learning process
2. Students, teachers and research scholars had limited skills in library and information literacy.
3. They had poor understanding of the information landscape.
4. Most of the sample had no idea about the role of OPAC
5. The majority were unaware that the index to the articles could be found in the CD ROMs that related to their discipline.
6. They generally had little idea of the production of knowledge or related merits of different sources of information.
7. Most of the UG and PG students does not know about the sources of information
8. Students are not aware about the library and its collection.
9. Students do not know how to use the library and its collections properly
SUGGESTIONS
1 . Undergraduate and post graduate curriculum shuld be revised accordingly and include library and information skills as a compulsory paper of two credit at the beginning of first semester of each course.
2 Sources of information, organization of information sources, Open access, Web searching, Web evaluation, Network resources, Digital Library, OPAC, Web2.0 Etc should be included in the syllabus.
3 Librarians should be given academic status to avoid additional financial burden to the government while adding library and information literacy skills mandatory in UG & PG curriculum.
CONCLUSION
In this information age, we browse and query the world’s repositories with out ever having to leave work place and communities. Thus it is not surprising that the traditional sense of a library as a confined space with local dimensions has introduced ambiguities to the way people interpret library collections and uses. As a result the value of a library as a store house has been questioned and the library’s role as services is largely misunderstood.
Another concern is the ease with which untrained users can directly search sources, resulting in their continued difficulty with utilizing information retrieval systems. Further more, definitions of access and information are not agreed universally.
All these changes have created the need to rethink information literacy and to educate students in the life long quest for knowledge.

REFERENCES
Academic Senate for California Community Colleges. (1996, Spring). Library Faculty in California Community College Libraries: Qualifications, Roles & Responsibilities. Sacramento, CA: Academic Senate for California Community Colleges. (ED 395 630)
American Library Association. (1998). New Visions: Beyond ALA Goal 2000. Planning document. Chicago: American Library Association.
1. Department of Education. (1996). Getting America's Students Ready for the 21st Century: Meeting the Technology Literacy Challenge. A Report to the Nation on Technology and Education. Washington, DC: Department of Education. (ED 398 899)
2. Eisenberg, M.B. & Johnson, D. (1996). "Computer Skills for Information Problem-Solving: Learning and Teaching Technology in Context." ERIC Digest ED-IR-96-04. Syracuse, NY: ERIC Clearinghouse on Information and Technology. (ED 392 463)
3. Ercegovac, Z. (1995) "Information access instruction (IAI4): Design principles." College & Research Libraries, 56 (3), 249-257. (EJ 510 313)
4. Ercegovac, Z. (1997a). Information Literacy: Search Strategies, Tools & Resources. Los Angeles: InfoEN Associates. (ED # forthcoming)

Appendix II
COURSE PROPOSALS SUBMITTED TO THE KERALA HIGHER EDUCATION COUNCIL

LIBRARY AND INFORMATICS
(Foundation Course)
Subject: Applicable to all subjects
Objectives: To introduce the basics of Knowledge Resource System and facilities and to impart the required skills and techniques to the students so as to equip them to build up capacity for effectively using the general and domain-specific data/information/literature relevant to their Academic Courses.
Syllabus:
Information: Context, Relevance, Information Literacy Skills – Needs: Information transfer chain from generator to end user.
Source: Type of resources-Primary, Secondary and Tertiary, Print and Non-Print Media, Physical and Virtual Resource Facilities/Libraries and Information System.
Bibliographic, Full Text and Numeric databases:- Access to e-Resources including – Journals, Digital Libraries, Open Access Journals, Institutional Repositories, Internet, web, deep web, Wikipedia etc. Information surrogates including WEBOPAC. Document supply service. Systems and Networks.
Internet facilities – e-mail; group mailing, International and national discipline oriented net enabled information Systems and Services.
e-Learning: Content development-e-Publishing-List-Service/ Discussion Forums; Blogs; Web-enabled Tutorials etc.
Scheme
Course Title
Instructional hours/week
Credits
Uni.Exam Duration
Evaluation
Total Credits

L
P

Internal
University Exam

Information Literacy (Complementary Course)
1
50% of the total hours
1
3 hours
25%
75%
1

Appendix II

LIBRARY AND INFORMATION LITERACY
(Complementary Course)
Subject: Applicable to all subjects
Objectives: The Course will enable the students:
i. To gain an understanding of how information is organized.
ii. To learn to use methods and techniques of information gathering.
iii. To analyze and access its worth:
iv. To use information effectively in studies and
v. To develop skills necessary for life-long study.
Syllabus:
Unit 1: Introduction to Information Literacy. What is information? Characteristics of information. Types of information. Need for Information Literacy. Dimensions of Information Literacy.
Unit 2. Sources of Information (with emphasis on the print and electronic sources in the Core Courses) Documentary and non-documentary sources. Taxonomy of bibliographies – National, Trade, Subject Bibliographies. Indexing and Abstracting Periodicals and databases in Science, Social Science and Humanities: Citation indexes: Open access.
Unit 3: Ready Reference Source: (with emphasis on the print and electronic sources in the core courses). Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Yearbooks, Directories, Handbooks, Manuals, Geographic sources, Statistical sources, Current information sources.
Unit 4: Retrieval of Information: Major library classification schemes with emphasis on DDC. Bibliographic Record-library catalogues, indexes, OPACs. Access Points: Search Strategy, Use of Boolean Logic.
Unit 5. Internet as a source of information: Search Engines and Directories. Techniques of retrieving relevant information from the Net. Invisible web; Virtual libraries, Institutional repositories. Evaluation of information from the Net.
Scheme
Course Title
Instructional hours/week
Credits
Uni.Exam Duration
Evaluation
Total Credits

L
P

Internal
University Exam

Informatics (Foundation Course)
1
50% of the total hours
1
3 hours
25%
75%
1

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