Embedding Information Literacy into a Politics Module: Lessons Learned from a Pilot Study at Cardiff University Steve Thornton Lecturer in Politics School of European Studies Cardiff University

Outline Background Information about the pilot study Details about information specialist/academic liaison Conclusion

Cardiff University Policy “information literacy skills should be embedded into the academic curriculum and not treated as a 'bolt- on' set of generic skills” (Jackson and Mogg 2004: 22)

IL not just IT “making people information literate is not simply a matter of providing them with better organised virtual libraries” (Johnson and Webber 2003: 340)

Wikipedia From a first year essay: “All forms of media; television, radio, press, are controlled and censored by the state (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarianism )…”

Pilot Study Aim To embed IL into a 3rd year undergraduate module Public Policy in the UK (an examination of key concepts, institutions and processes of public policy, using case studies to provide examples of policy making in practice)

General plan A diagnostic questionnaire to assess current level of IL in students 4 x 50 minute sessions of whole class (c.20)

The sessions Session 1 - Finding information Session 2 - Assessing the quality of information Session 3 - Prepare presentation Session 4 - Deliver presentation

Liaison with Information Services (INSRV) To find a suitable topic To construct a suitable questionnaire To assess which sessions would be best led by an information specialist, and which by me To design, in collaboration, those sessions

Choice of topic After consultation with information specialists, the ‘Foot and Mouth’ crisis of 2001 was chosen as an appropriate topic for study

The diagnostic questionnaire Result of: a) discussion with a number of IL specialists (particularly Cathie Jackson of INSRV); b) a questionnaire prepared for first year students in Australia (Ellis and Salisbury 2004) - suggested by Cathie; c) the ‘seven pillars’ model (Task Force on Information Skills 1999)

Before When using electronic sources do you use particular searching techniques? e.g. key words, Boolean, relevance ranking

And after... Imagine you were asked to find information on a database for a project entitled ‘What role did the core executive play in the 2001 ‘foot and mouth’ crisis?’. What words and symbols would you first type in?

The ‘finding of information’ session Workshop on researching ‘foot and mouth’ Led by the Politics Section’s dedicated information specialist, Tom Dawkes Again, a collaborative process

The ‘assessing the quality of information’ session Workshop on evaluating the quality of information Led by me, but with considerable support from INSRV, particularly in terms of resources (Ruth Thornton)

Remainder of the Pilot Study In groups of c.4 - ‘Was the Government’s policy of slaughter rather than vaccination the best policy option to take?’ Each group had to take a particular role e.g. the Government, the National Farmers Union, the Cumbrian Tourist Board, etc.

Conclusion IL can be embedded into a Politics module Success is dependent on effective liaison between information specialists and academics Despite efforts, barriers remain between the two ‘worlds’

Bibliography Ellis, J. and Salisbury, F. (2004), ‘Information literacy milestones: building upon the prior knowledge of first year students’ The Australian Library Journal, vol.53 no. 4, pp Jackson, C and Mogg, R. (2004), ‘Cardiff University’ in SCONUL, Learning Outcomes and Information Literacy, York: The Higher Education Academy. Johnson, B. and Webber, S. (2003), ‘Information Literacy in Higher Education: a review and case study’, Studies in Higher Education, vol. 28 no.3, pp