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Information literacy instruction in higher education tends to focus on a relatively small slice of the information literacy landscape: academic research skills. Students often fail to see the relevance of these sessions beyond the direct application to their assignments. In addition, while this type of instruction helps students succeed academically, it does not necessarily prepare them for their future careers, which can lead to a lapse in student engagement. A prior exploratory survey study among alumni of four bachelor of nursing programs provided insight into current information practices of professional nurses and how librarians could have better prepared them for their eventual workplace. This chapter outlines how this evidence informed a change in information instruction, now preparing nursing students for professional as well as academic success. This evidence-based approach has the potential benefit of making instruction more relevant and engaging to students, while at the same time expanding their information literacy skills. Teaching nursing students professional information literacy skills, in addition to academic information literacy skills, leads to better-prepared nurses which ultimately benefits their patients. The chapter provides several implementation examples but also addresses the challenges that librarians face when pursuing evidence-based practice to increase student engagement.

Research and writing can be challenging tasks for undergraduate students, and evaluating online sources for use in papers can be especially difficult to do well. This chapter discusses a partnership between a library and a writing center to teach writing consultants the basics of the Information Literacy Framework and online source evaluation. This included providing additional education for peer writing consultants. Consultants became more fluent in the aspects of evaluation and provided perspective on how and why undergraduate students struggle with this in the research and writing process, establishing the value of assembling networked pedagogical models for teaching information literacy.

Information literacy education plays a vital role in developing students’ information capabilities in higher education. Curriculum integration of information literacy is advocated by ACRL (2000) in the United States and ANZIIL (Bundy, 2004) in Australia and New Zealand. Research (Derakhshan & Singh, 2011; Dixon-Thomas, 2012) suggests that the most effective way to provide information literacy education is to integrate information literacy throughout the curriculum. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss curriculum in higher education and to introduce a model of curricular integration of information literacy.

The curriculum of a university (as one form of higher education) is usually seen as an educational plan to engage learners in the acquisition of knowledge and skills leading to a degree, diploma or certificate. The curriculum can be viewed at various levels, namely: institutional, faculty, programme, course and class levels. Therefore, information literacy can be integrated at different levels: university, faculty, programme, or courses and associated classes. This chapter will explain a model of curriculum integrated information literacy developed by Wang (2010) which was based on sociocultural theories and practitioners’ experiences in information literacy curriculum integration in higher education. Explanations of how to apply it in curriculum integration and curriculum design in higher education will also be provided.

This chapter examines the efforts undertaken to restructure the legal education system in South Africa and Nigeria. It investigates the connection between contextual influences and professional development, particularly with respect to the concept of legal information literacy and the value of acquired educational skills in the context of legal practice. The chapter provides insights to the needs and challenges for graduate requirement for legal information literacy skills in the effort to ensure productivity in the legal education system in Africa. Data were obtained using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Outcomes from the study were supportive of the importance of information literacy as central to the development of professional competence. Findings also point to a need for greater collaboration between the legal education system and the legal profession in narrowing the gap between the teaching and practice of law specifically in the design and implementation of an information literacy framework for the legal education system.

In this chapter, the author examines Student2Scholar (S2S), an online e-learning resource for graduate students in the social sciences, as a case study that coalesces around effective learning design, innovation, and collaboration to meet and overcome the changes, challenges, and opportunities that have arisen in the twenty-first century. The author provides an overview of the S2S project, including an examination of the key design choices and pedagogy which were both strategic and critical in setting the foundation for effective learning in an online environment. This chapter also examines different elements of the project with a focus on the structure, purpose, and goals specific to a limited budget and a tight project timeline. A unique aspect of the project was the collaboration in and across three Canadian universities. The diverse project group of experts and important contributions by the team members played a significant role in creating a richer and more innovative product. These elements combined in such a way that led to the successful creation and launch of S2S, an award-winning e-learning resource.

While LIS scholarship emphasizes the need to be multi-literate by equipping people with critical information literacy, digital literacy, and media literacy skills to combat the phenomenon of fake news in the contemporary information society, the concept of political information literacy is still in its infancy. This chapter addresses this gap by developing an understanding of political information literacy and challenges the premise that information professionals and information organizations should remain neutral in the face of phenomena like censorship through noise and disinformation. In this endeavor, it reviews contemporary information environments vis-à-vis the growth of fake news and misinformation, and current information literacy approaches utilized by information organizations. Thereafter, it explores several cognitive barriers, such as the role of confirmation bias, information avoidance, information groupishness, and information overload, which affects people’s ability to process information. Finally, it encourages information professionals to hold regular information sessions on politically charged topics, tackle the cognitive factors increasing misinformation, and cultivate multidisciplinary approaches to confront fake news.

This chapter presents selected findings from an exploratory case study, which aimed to identify the information literacy of undergraduate students in the Faculty of Arts, Silpakorn University, Thailand. An embedded case study approach was adopted, data were gathered from academics, students, and librarians and relevant policy and curriculum documents were examined. Four departments were chosen as units of analysis within the case study to represent the different disciplines. These were Departments of Thai, Modern Eastern Languages (MEL), History and Geography. A total of 23 lecturers from these 4 departments were interviewed. A total of 35 students from the same departments and 10 librarians from the Central Library were surveyed using focus groups.

For each department, the data was analysed and triangulated and the information literacy conceptions of academics and students were mapped and compared, together with a picture of the department’s goals and pedagogic approach for information literacy. Finally, findings from all four departments were brought together to provide holistic insight into the information literacy of students in the faculty.

It emerged from the data that both staff and students identified a number of personal attributes that were expected of the information literate student. These were categorised into four groupings: attitude, research skills, generic skills and knowledge. The study revealed some common and distinct characteristics of different disciplines, which reflect the similarities and differences of perceptions of information literacy in this study. The key variations were: the conceptualisation and nature of ‘information’, the degree to which the outside world is of importance and the use of specialised technology.

Information literacy education is perceived as a holistic approach, integrated through courses across the curriculum through formal and informal education. Students are engaged with different aspects of information literacy through different teaching, learning and assessment methods and activities. Independent learning is emphasised as a teaching and learning strategy. Discussion-based and coursework-based instructions are identified as best methods in developing students’ information literacy. The findings also reveal that teaching and learning information literacy is deemed the responsibility of academic lecturers while librarians are not involved in information literacy education.

Purpose and Methodology – Championing a shared vision and strategy for informed learning (INFL) as an approach to information literacy (IL) education (ILE) centers on establishing a common understanding of IL/INFL that is sensitive to the variation in the ways stakeholders perceive their information context and conceptualize IL. Accordingly, the purpose of this chapter is to examine findings from a recent phenomenographic study of conceptions of IL that captures the understanding of IL held across multiple stakeholder groups in an international school community (Cunningham, 2017) and to use these findings to revisit Bruce’s (2008) RACER framework as a compass to champion INFL throughout an organization.

Findings and Originality – The phenomenographic study found that stakeholders did not hold one singular conception of IL but rather they shared a series of conceptions of IL to varying degrees, and that the variation in the ways IL was conceptualized prevailed across three continuums namely the individual-collective, affective-cognitive, and competency–personal mastery continuums. Furthermore, the comparative analysis of the series of conceptions of IL created the opportunity to develop a model of the common ground of conceptual understanding of IL thereby making an original contribution to knowledge. By undertaking a comparative analysis of this common ground model of IL with Bruce’s conceptions of IL/INFL and RACER framework for championing IL, the outcome is to present a new IL “without borders” model offering a blended strategic approach to advancing INFL/ILE based on a more representative understanding of the ways stakeholder groups perceive their information context and conceptualize IL.

Purpose – This chapter puts forth an approach for deeper understanding of the ways that information professionals learn, based on concepts and strategies that enable them to fulfill the varied roles they take on. It considers multiple facets in their experiences of using information to learn, the essence of informed learning (Bruce, 2008). The purpose of furthering this understanding is to develop approaches for designing enhanced curriculum to support transformative learning experiences.

Design & Methodology – To explore the learning experiences, roles, and strategies of information professionals, this chapter enlists two frameworks pertinent to transformative learning: first, the informed learning construct of Bruce (2008) and, second, the threshold concepts theoretical framework of Meyer and Land (2003). Both frameworks have been used to guide the design of curriculum, and this chapter discusses using them together to design higher education courses for information professionals. Learning activities from two courses in an online MLIS degree program – information retrieval system design and information architecture – are used as case illustrations for implementing a blended approach.

Findings & Discussion – The outcomes from implementing curriculum that has been designed based on informed learning principles and threshold concepts that were derived from learner experiences are discussed. A third construct, information experience (Bruce et al., 2014), which evolved in part out of informed learning, is brought into the discussion, providing an additional dimension for understanding the learner’s relationship with his/her information world.