Presented by C.B.M. Lungu (Project Coordinator, CBU)

 In October 2007 the ACU, with support from UNESCO held an inaugural planning meeting for the creation of the ACU Libraries & Information Network.  The meeting was held at the University of Botswana, and it sought to identify priorities for the network.  The Network has since been publishing a monthly journal called “LINK”.

 This round-table brought together participants from 13 member universities in 12 countries namely; Australia, Botswana, Cameroon, Ghana, India, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the UK.

 Among the topics covered at this meeting was “Information Literacy”  Because IL was a theme which participants returned to throughout the three day workshop, this was felt to be a critical area for Libraries and Universities as a whole.  Although experiences differed among the participants, it was generally agreed that libraries faced an increasing need to provide information literacy support to students.

 Introducing IL programmes and integrating them within departmental curricula was not straightforward;  Participants noted the challenge of demonstrating the value of such skills training to both academic staff and students.  Participants however agreed that if they and their teaching colleagues can embrace this challenge, there was great potential to reframe understandings of what the library and the librarians were there to do.

 With graduate employability an increasing concern for institutions, information literacy skills add much to the perceived, and actual value of a university’s degree programme.  Libraries can improve their standing by offering new and innovative services, and by showing colleagues how they and their students would benefit from the skills not only to find information, but also to analyze and evaluate it.  Thus facilitating the development of a skill, attitude and culture central to lifelong learning.

 The round table also benefitted from the UB Vice Chancellor’s perspective. While agreeing that information literacy had much to offer institutions in their drive for excellence, Prof. Bojosi Otlhogile challenged librarians to find ways of making this engagement.

 The round table further agreed that library engagement might be effectively addressed by developing a collaborative information literacy curriculum framework, through library partnership, which could be shared across the Network, but could be tailored to fit courses and departments of individual institutions.

 Upon throwing the challenge to the participants, CBU was established to be the most suited to spearhead an externally funded project to address the issue. The forum was advised that a partnership type of application would attract sympathetic attention from DeLPHE.

 The CBU therefore teamed up with the University of Botswana (UB) Library and the University of Abertay Dundee (UAD) Library to design the project and apply for DelPHE funding.  The uniqueness of this partnership is that whereas an IL programme did not exist at CBU, UB was already in the process of fine- tuning what they had, and UAD was to be the model upon which the project would focus since it already existed there.

 After a year of negotiations, the project was finally approved for DelPHE funding to run from September 2010-August 2012.

 Project Title: “Developing an Information Literacy programme for lifelong learning in African Universities”.  The objectives of this project are “to bring lecturers and librarians closer together in curriculum design and programme implementation in the field of information literacy”, and “to help to empower libraries to fulfill their role in developing and delivering lifelong university learning strategies”.

 The project was expected to: ◦ Provide frameworks which assist librarians and lecturers to embed information literacy progammes formally into formal university mechanisms for degree approval; ◦ Utilize the Abertay Dundee model to embed mechanisms that link all institutional teaching and learning strategies with information literacy developments.

◦ Develop IL toolkits in order to help librarians and lecturers to explain the importance and value of ILS programmes to students, both for current studies, and to aid future (lifelong) learning. IL toolkits are in the main a document library which provides guidance and a set of standards to support the recognition and development of information literacy across institutions; ◦ Reinforce librarians’ pedagogic skills in facilitating IL and fluency towards lifelong learning. ◦ Develop toolkits/materials to assist academic/teaching staff to assess the quality of information which students deploy in their work.

 Following several meetings, workshops and consultancies the project has developed 4 draft toolkits.  In November 2011 the project held a successful Draft Toolkits Evaluation Workshop in Lusaka  In February 2012 a Curriculum development workshop involving academics and librarians was held at UB.  In March (13-15) 2012 a pedagogic trg and curriculum dev. Workshop, as well as the final evaluation of the draft toolkits was held in Kitwe involving participants from CBU, UNZA, UB and UAD.

 A few more consultations with stakeholders from other African Universities on the DRAFT Toolkits include involvement of participants at SCANUL- ECS held in Kenya 1-2 June  Rollout platforms are being identified and consulted. Among the most organized such platforms is the SCANUL-ECS 2012 conference.  An interactive version of key toolkits has also been planned.  August 2012: Final rollout of the Toolkits on the identified platforms, and End of project!

 University graduates have the potential to make a vastly increased contribution to the national economy, but are often prevented from doing so by the lack of skills outside their main subject areas. At a time when universities themselves have shortages of skilled lecturers, libraries are a huge untapped resource with potential to address this need.

 The Prague declaration of 2003, supported by UNESCO, endorses the development of information literacy systems, affirming that it enables “knowledge of one’s concerns and needs, and the ability to effectively create, use and communicate information to address issues or problems at hand; it is a prerequisite for participating effectively in the ‘Information Society’.”

 The declaration further states that “ILS plays a leading role in reducing the inequalities within and among countries and peoples, and in promoting tolerance and mutual understanding through information use in multicultural and multilingual contexts.  Other international drivers of the IL movement include: ◦ Professional organizations such as the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL), The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) in the USA, and the Standing Conference of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) which have developed standards for an information literate person. ◦ President Obama declared October 2009 an ‘Information Literacy month’ in the USA.  This DelPHE-IL project therefore, with endorsement from SCANUL-ECS, should be one of the most significant Drivers of the IL concept among Universities on the African continent. Copies of the toolkits will be distributed to SCANUL-ECS members for comments.

 …..and have a nice day!