Information literacy: marketing and educational views … and some research
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Transcript of Information literacy: marketing and educational views … and some research
Sheila Webber, June 2007
Information literacy: marketing and educational views … and some research
Sheila WebberUniversity of Sheffield Department of Information StudiesJune 2007
Photographs and text copyright Sheila Webber, 2007, [email protected]
Sheila Webber, June 2007
Outline• Marketing and Education?
Tensions• Different ideas of information
literacy• Application to law• Research into research priorities in
IL
Sheila Webber, June 2007
“Information literacy is the adoption of appropriate information behaviour to identify, through whatever channel or medium, information well fitted to information needs, leading to wise and ethical use of information in society.”
Johnston & Webber
Sheila Webber, June 2007
Marketing and Education
Sheila Webber, June 2007
Tension
L/IM as: • Consultant• Mentor• Fee-earner• Educator • Change agent
Expert judgementRobust opinions
Body of knowledge, commanding respect
L/IMService role
Customer always rightDemystifying, downplaying expertise
Need to justify & benchmark what you do
L/IM= library, information or knowledge manager
Sheila Webber, June 2007
• Identifying customer needs and wants
• Tailoring products and services to needs and wants
• Don’t try to educate the user about "needs" they don't "want" (costly waste of time)
• "Helpful" "Supportive"
Colleagues as clients
Colleagues as fellow professionals • Collaborating on creating
knowledge base• Partners in meeting client
needs• Expert contribution
valued• “Challenging" “Creating"
Sheila Webber, June 2007
“A CKO needs to have the charisma to carry any
sceptics and to have the personal authority to leave colleagues in no doubt that
as the CKO s/he means business.”
Webb (2006)
Note: removed in this version: screenshot of article
Sheila Webber, June 2007
Relationship Marketing
“Relationship marketing is marketing based on interaction within networks of relationships”
Gummesson (2002) p3
Sheila Webber, June 2007
".. Relationship marketing has been practised for centuries by professional bodies such as accountants and lawyers by the very nature of the services they provide."
Harris, M. and Cohen, G. (2003) “Marketing in the Internet age: what can we learn from the past?”Management Decision, 41 (9), 944 – 956
And librarians!!
Sheila Webber, June 2007
RM : suitable for KM, Web 2.0 environment?
• Creation & recognition of mutual value (win-win for client and supplier)
• Everyone is active (client is not passive e.g. may be helping to "create" products/services)
• Planned, managed relationships through their life cycles (inc. deciding which relationships you won't spend time on)
• Managing your "relationship portfolio"
Sheila Webber, June 2007
• Analysing your colleagues’ approaches to information literacy as part of marketing and education strategy
• Will describe what we discovered …. one thing was: you can learn a lot by letting someone chunter on about information, just saying “great” now & then to keep then going
Sheila Webber, June 2007
The project
Sheila Webber, June 2007
• Three-year Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) - funded project (Nov 2002- Nov 2005)To explore UK academics’ conceptions of, and pedagogy for, information literacy
• Sheila Webber; Bill Johnston; Stuart Boon (Research Assistant: now lecturing at Strathclyde)
Sheila Webber, June 2007
Key research questions1. What conceptions of information literacy do
UK academics have?2. What do academics say they are doing, and
what are their aims, as regards students and information literacy?
3. Are there differences between disciplines?
Chemistry, Marketing, Civil Engineering, English
Sheila Webber, June 2007
"Phenomenography is the empirical study of the differing ways in which people experience, perceive, apprehend, understand, conceptualise various phenomena in and aspects of the world around us.”
Qualitative research aiming for insights
Marton (1994)
Sheila Webber, June 2007
Insights
Information Literacy
?
IntervieweeUs What is key focus of IL for the interviewee?
20 x 4 interviewees from26 different universities
Sheila Webber, June 2007
Identify “categories” for different ways of thinking about information literacy
Identifying what people keep coming back to as the central focus
Sheila Webber, June 2007
Disciplines most like law???I thought …..
Sheila Webber, June 2007
Marketing: Information literacy as…1. Accessing information quickly and easily to be aware of what’s
going on2. Using IT to work with information efficiently and effectively3. Possessing a set of information skills and applying them to the
task in hand4. Using information literacy to solve real-world problems5. Becoming critical thinkers6. Becoming a confident, independent practitioner
Sheila Webber, June 2007
Chemistry: Information literacy as…
1. Accessing and searching chemical information
2. Mastering a chemist's information skill set3. Communicating scientific information4. An essential part of the constitution/
construction/ creation of knowledge
Sheila Webber, June 2007
Relating it to legal context• Perhaps can “diagnose” or “segment” people in
your workplace• This includes library and information
professionals, professional support lawyers etc• Gives a clue about how to work with them and
“push their buttons”• Seemed to me that chemistry categories might
work well…. (but could mix and match even if not v. “scientific” ;-)
Sheila Webber, June 2007
Chemistry Law, IL as….
1. Accessing and searching legal information• Handling information is part of legal practice• IL relates to searching formal legal sources• So this might be the only aspect where librarians
would be seen to have a role
Sheila Webber, June 2007
2. Mastering a legal practitioner’s information skill set
• Handling information is part of legal practice• IL is acknowledged as a separate skill area (not
just “part of law”), so librarians have a more expert role in developing the skills
• Information includes a wider range of material including case notes, internal reports etc.
Chemistry Law, IL as….
Sheila Webber, June 2007
3. Communicating legal information• Handling information is part of legal practice• IL is acknowledged as a separate skill area (not
just “part of law”), so librarians have a more expert role in developing the skills
• Information includes a wider range of material including case notes, internal reports etc.
• IL includes communicating and sharing information, so IL experts (librarians) could have a bigger role there too
Chemistry Law, IL as….
Sheila Webber, June 2007
4. An essential part of the constitution/ construction/ creation of knowledge
• Handling information is part of legal practice• IL is acknowledged as a separate skill/knowledge area
(not just “part of law”) (etc)• Information includes a wider range of material including
case notes, internal reports etc. and tacit knowledge• Knowledge is at the heart of what the legal profession
is about, and there is an identifiable set of information skills (IL) to do with creating, innovating & communicating: IL experts (librarians) could have a big role in this process
Chemistry Law, IL as….
Sheila Webber, June 2007
Find out through…• What you know already• Asking what they think are priorities, what should
new entrants learn about, what causes most problems, what should we spend more money on, what should the librarians be doing (etc etc) i.e. “let them chunter on” strategy
• What is in HRM strategies, strategic documents etc.: Could identify what category the organisationfalls into and where you would like to be
Sheila Webber, June 2007
Creating relationships
• Different strategies appeal to different categories • People can be put off by strategies that push an
approach to IL that isn’t theirs • Could build a training programme round the
different categories• Ideally – people extend their ideas about IL
through learning about other ways of seeing it
Sheila Webber, June 2007
Part 2!Research priorities for IL: What are the
really important questions and topics that should be researched?
Sheila Webber, June 2007
Research project• Researchers:
James O’Brien and Christopher Rhodes• Delphi technique
– Experts rate (in this case) IL research topics/ questions: are they important?
– Use statements from literature and participants– Aims to get agreement on what is important
• 1st round: 20 people; 2nd round 18• Info pros from legal firms & law Departments
Thank you!
Note: photo not copyright of SW
Sheila Webber, June 2007
• 35 items, including 9 added by participants• Looking for:
– High rating (4 or 5 out of 5)– High level of agreement about whether it was important
• The winners were……
Sheila Webber, June 2007
Highest priority (5)• How much time do legal workers spend searching
for legal information?• How much money could professional information
literacy training save legal firms by improving workers legal information searching skills and therefore saving them?
• Why do trainee solicitors find it hard to transfer legal research and information literacy skills from the LPC course into practice within their firm?
Sheila Webber, June 2007
Highest level of agreement• How much time do legal workers spend searching
for legal information? (priority 5 – the winner!)• What are effective information literacy training
methods in the legal workplace? (4)• Are the skills of legal practitioners transferable to
new IL problems involved with database/web searching? (4)
• To what extent does IL enhance productivity in the legal workplace? (4)
Sheila Webber, June 2007
Most focus on
• Workplace efficiency• Training issues
Are they by any chance related?I noticed this quote (Gray et al, 2007) “Obviously, training is a way of encouraging the efficient use of resources, and to justify expenditure on these expensive materials.”
Note: removed in this version: screenshot of article
Sheila Webber, June 2007
Sheila Webber [email protected] http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/
http://adventuresofyoshikawa.blogspot.com/
Sheila Yoshikawa
Sheila Webber, June 2007
References• Gray, K. et al. (2007) “Training the Trainer.” Legal
information management, 7 (1), 20-22.• O’Sullivan, C. (2006) “Is information literacy a basis for life-
long learning? Observations from the workplace.” Paper presented at the 6th ANZIIL Symposium. http://www.anziil.org/events_meetings/2006/events/symposium-series-six/overview.htm
• Webb, J. (2006) “Leadership in KM and the role of the CKO.” Legal information management, 6 (4), 267-270.