John Crawford’s research while affiliated with Glasgow Caledonian University and other places

his book reviews the role of information literacy (IL) in developing employability skills, personal health management and informal learning from a variety of areas including: information policy issues, information usage and training needs and skills development. Early years education, lifelong learning and the role of IL in relevant organisations, including government departments, skills agencies, and professional bodies will also be considered. With a UK focus, this book also considers the leading role of the US in the development of information literacy policy. Case studies and examples of good practise are included and discussed, drawn primarily from Europe, North America and Australasia, also identified examples from other countries. Looks at value and impact and discusses policymaking and issues for the future.

The study is an evaluation of an employability training programme provided by Inverclyde Libraries in West Central Scotland and the role of information literacy within the training programme. Inverclyde is an area with high unemployment and pockets of multiple deprivation. Modern, applicable skills are also lacking. The findings are based on interviews with five learners and also one with an adult literacies tutor. The interviews were conducted in August 2009 and a Learning Life Histories methodology was used. Interviewees had mainly previously worked in the service industries and none had post-school qualifications, despite which all the interviewees were highly motivated. Information literacy was found to between 30% and 60% of course content depending on learner needs. Family influence was found to be the main motivation to enrol on the course and the learners sought personal social development as well as employability skills. There was found to be a lack of appropriate, relevant training materials and a lack of collaboration between the LIS sector and Community Learning and Development in developing them. The article concludes with a number of recommendations including the need to improve recruitment and course scheduling and planning.

This chapter challenges the traditional view of information literacy as being centred on education, particularly higher education, and focuses on information literacy in a range of non-academic environments, such as collective decision making in the workplace and information literacy as part of the workplace learning process. Information 'outside the academy' has to be much more broadly defined than the traditional view of print and web sources. The role of information literacy in employability skills development is discussed and the problems of promoting it as part of the skills agenda, the emphasis on IT at the expense of information literacy, problems with terminology such as media and digital literacy, and the lack of an explicitly recognised locus for information literacy in workplace learning. There is a concise discussion on information policy making issues. Organisational issues are discussed including the differing problems and needs of large and small organisations (SMEs). Existing practices in the workplace, sources used, training needs and the lack of training materials are discussed. Low pre-existing skill levels are identified in the workplace. Training issues are reviewed: who should provide it and how it should be targeted together with examples of good practice. Information skills training programmes in public libraries are concisely described with examples of good practice.

Although increasingly recognized as a future skills issue, the use of information in the workplace is a little studied area within library and information research. A substantial 'pedagogic' literature of learning in the workplace exists, however, and this was critically reviewed to generate a repertoire of issues which could in turn be used to inform a research project. This repertoire was supplemented by advice from the Scottish Information Literacy Project's partners and contacts including those working in Adult Literacies. These issues were used to generate research questions for an interview-based project which, it was hoped, would generate both action points and further research questions. With the help of partners a range of interviewees was identified, mainly in the public sector. Information usage in the workplace, as the pedagogic literature predicted, proved to be a form of social interaction with people, both within and outside the organization, being generally the prime source of information. Other sources included intranets, electronic resource data management systems, a limited range of Internet sites and a small number of printed sources. Recommendations include the need to establish contacts with chambers of commerce, skills agencies and trade unions. Public libraries should explore the possibility of developing information literacy training programmes.

Reviews briefly the origins of the Scottish Information Literacy Project from its origins in 2004 as a project solely devoted to developing a National Information Literacy Framework for Scotland to the present time. The project now encompasses workplace information literacy, the skills agenda, lifeong learning and media literacy. The article concentrates on current activity: the restructuring of the first draft of the Framework to make it a genuine lifelong learning document and the pursuit of the workplace agenda, following a successful research project. This now focuses strongly on having information literacy recognised as an essential workplace skill. Work is also being undertaken with public library partners to develop information literacy training in public libraries. The policy implications of the work are reviewed.

The study reviews a research project which, inter alia, is constructing an information literacy framework linking secondary and tertiary education and arises out of research conducted in both the secondary and tertiary sectors. The Project is firmly situated in a Scottish context but draws on UK and indeed worldwide experience. It began in October 2004 and still continues. It benefits from the support and experience of project partners in both secondary and higher education. Since its beginning the Project has expanded into other areas: the role of information literacy in the workplace and work-based learning, and into advocacy for information literacy. Work undertaken includes focus groups with school pupils, university students and subject librarians, an interview-based study of the use of information literacy in the workplace, a petition to the Scottish Parliament on the subject of information literacy, and the submission of evidence to the Scottish Executive's Digital Inclusion consultation. Contacts have been established with relevant NGOs including Learning and Teaching Scotland, learndirect scotland, the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF), Ofcom Scotland (not discussed) and the Scottish Centre for Work-Based Learning. In pursuit of the core objective a framework is being constructed based on SCQF aims, structure and key features.