Digital and Information Literacy

Digital and information literacies support students’ transition through higher education and into the workplace, enabling them to find, organise, analyse, evaluate, communicate, present and share information effectively.

There are a range of definitions and frameworks of information and digital literacy which help us to understand the knowledge, skills and practices students need to develop to become information and digitally literate.  These include the Association of College and Research Libraries Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education, A New Curriculum for Information Literacy, JISC’s Digital Capability Framework and the Digidol Learning Literacies Framework.

Our library service has drawn from some of these to develop a bespoke information literacy framework which guides subject librarians’ thinking and teaching around the concept.

Information and digital literacies are important to employability, and they underpin critical thinking and research-led learning and teaching. They enable us to:

• meet the challenges arising from the proliferation of information.
• reap the benefits of technology in our everyday working life.
• understand how information is produced, shared and communicated and to make appropriate selections to suit the context in which it is to be used
• use information in a way which gives due recognition to its owner through appropriate acknowledgement and respect of copyright.

Information and digital literacy are important in all disciplines and at all levels of study. This topic explores how they might be developed within the context of the academic curriculum, affiliated with their own subject, and included in assessment.

For example, subject librarians in our library service collaborate with academic colleagues in the Schools to integrate information literacy into programmes of study and tailor methods of delivery to suit the requirements of each discipline. They also provide instruction embedded within courses such as hands-on workshops for large and small groups, demonstrations, lectures and tutorials.