This document discusses helping citizens develop their own information literacy over their lifetime through self-reflection and personal curriculum development. It proposes that individuals identify their own IL strengths, gaps, and priorities given their stage of life. LIS professionals and educators could support this process by involving citizens in curriculum design and providing lifelong learning initiatives, open educational resources, and apps to address gaps. The goal is for citizens to become more situationally aware of how their IL needs change over their lifetime in different contexts and environments.

1. Helping
citizens
develop their
own
information
literacy
curriculum for
lifelong
learning
Sheila Webber and
Bill Johnston
Umbrella, July 2013

2. Curriculum for an information literate
lifecourse
• Individual reflecting on his/her information literacy
contexts
• Identifying IL strengths, gaps & priorities for his/her
stage in life - forming his/her own personal
“curriculum” for development
• Being able to audit his/her context at these different
stages of life
• Role of LIS professionals and educators in
supporting this process
Sheila Webber / Bill Johnston, 2013
See: Webber and Johnston (2013)

3. Schuller and Watson (2009) life stages
• Up to 25
• 25-50
• 50-75
• Over 75
– Ageing society
– Changing patterns of paid/unpaid activity
– Current imbalance in spending on education (& in
researchers’ & librarians’ attention?)
– They advocate constructing“a curriculum framework for
citizens’ capabilities”
Sheila Webber / Bill Johnston, 2013

4. Need for self-awareness
• Individuals accumulating far more information themselves
– Information Management not just an organisational
matter
• Unexpected/ expected life changes
• Having underlying IL and self-awareness to identify
occasions when need to audit situation and bring IL to fore
• Examples: Brian Kelly’s (2013) reflections on problems
associated with redundancy; escaping from Syria;
adjusting to new workplace in China
• Self-awareness in context …
Sheila Webber / Bill Johnston, 2013

5. Contextual & Varying views of IL
Australia
Thailand
Syria
Work context
Disciplinary
Country
Marketing academics
At the heart of things: the person in context
Sheila Webber / Bill Johnston, 2013

6. Information literate
person
Information economy:
•Law
•Changes in media
•Pricing etc
Organisational culture:
•Mission; Values; Norms
•Management style; ways of working
•Information strategy
Personal goals,
relationships, habits,
special needs
Local & national
culture & society
Technical changes
The information literate person in a changing
information culture and society
Personal
context
Johnston & Webber 2013
Based on Webber and Johnston, 2000

7. Examples
Personal goals:
Qualification through
Part-time study
Organisational culture:
•Group work collaboration
•Coursework requirements

8. Information economy:
Personal goals, habits,
special needs
Local & national culture &
society
Technical changes
Sheila in a changing information culture and
society
Family member has Age-Related
Macular Degeneration (AMD)
and has become physically frail
Organisational
cultureUniversity of Sheffield Organisations I need
to know more about
New Roles - e.g. Head of
research group
New Systems - e.g. Pebblepad
New processes - e.g. Doctoral
Development Programme
- Move to online provision
of Government information
- Cuts in social services
Open access - Open Educational
Resources; MOOCs (Massive Open
Online Courses)
- New systems
- Corporate/Individual options with
Google services
Sheila
Local authorities -
Care service
companies - COLRIC
IFLA – project on the
Profile of the information
literacy professional
Sheila Webber / Bill Johnston, 2013

9. Some questions
• What information / information literacy needs arise?
• Do I need to develop my own information literacy to deal
with these new / changed needs?
• What do I need to do to meet these needs?
• Are there things that I need to get/help others to do?
– Intrapersonal and interpersonal information literacy
• How information literate are the people/ organisations
I’m dealing with?
• Who is impacted if I do or don’t address these
information literacy needs? Me? Other people?
Sheila Webber / Bill Johnston, 2013

10. Example from my map
• AMD
– Information to do with the medical condition
– Information to do with care and support for family
member (local and national agencies)
– Information on companies/charities that sell/provide
products & services for the partially sighted
• Development needs include
– Finding out about new organisations - How do they
disseminate information? What’s the best way to
communicate with them? How “information literate” are
they? Do I know people who have connections with
them? Development implications not just for me
Sheila Webber / Bill Johnston, 2013

11. Activity with librarians
1. Create your own map of changes, using the elements
in the diagram "The information literate person in a
changing information culture and society“
2. Share it with your group: are your maps similar or
different? can you help each other identify ways of
meeting IL needs?
3. Identify ways in which you might address your needs
e.g. in terms of development or training
4. Draw out training and development implications that
you feel your university should be addressing
5. Summarise needs/proposals on a slide
Sheila Webber / Bill Johnston, 2013

12. Activity with students
1. Create your own map of changes, using the elements in the
diagram "The information literate person in a changing
information culture and society”
2. Share it with your team: are your maps similar or different?
can you help each other identify ways of meeting IL needs?
3. Write a team blog post about a factor/ Information Literacy
need that you are willing to share on the blog
4. Individually, note down a plan to address some of your
Information Literacy development needs. Please finish this
after the class, if you do not complete it in class
Sheila Webber / Bill Johnston, 2013

13. Curriculum perspectives
Holistic institutional view
– Course design
– Pedagogy
– Content
– Processes
– Interactions
– Connections to wider
social, economic and
cultural influences
Personal view
– Lifecourse design
– Self-awareness
– Personal choice to engage
with organisation/
community/ person to
enable your personal
curriculum for IL
– Powerful tradition of people
teaching themselves
Goal: Situational awareness rather than “transfer of skills”
Sheila Webber / Bill Johnston, 2013

14. Ways forward
• If mission to help people become more information
literate citizens (which may be a perspective shift for
librarians /educators) what do we need to do
differently?
• Does it involve librarians repositioning themselves –
e.g. involvement in redundancy/retirement process
– Consulting/counselling relationship
– All librarians with lifelong learning role
– Opportunity spotting
• Looking at life-stages – where are the support gaps?
Sheila Webber / Bill Johnston, 2013

15. • Lifelong Learning
initiatives
• OERs
• Apps
• MOOCs
Possible enablers

16. Sheila Webber
Information School
University of Sheffield
s.webber@shef.ac.uk
Twitter: @sheilayoshikawa
http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/
http://www.slideshare.net/sheilawebber/
Bill Johnston
Honorary Research Fellow
University of Strathclyde
b.johnston@strath.ac.uk
Photos
and
graphics:
Sheila
Webber

17. References
• Kelly, B. (2013) When Staff and Researchers Leave Their
Host Institution. UK Web focus, 22 March.
http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/when-staff-and-
researchers-leave-their-host-institution/
• Johnston, B. (2010) The first year at university: teaching students in
transition. Open University Press.
• Schuller, T. & Watson, D. (2009) Learning Through Life: Inquiry into the
Future for Lifelong Learning (IFLL). Leicester: National Institute of Adult
Continuing Education (NIACE).
• Webber, S. and Johnston, B. (2000) Conceptions of information literacy:
new perspectives and implications. Journal of information science, 26
(6), 381-397
• Webber, S. and Johnston, B. (2013) Transforming IL for HE in the 21st
century: a Lifelong Learning approach. in Hepworth, M. and Walton, G.
(Eds.) Developing people's information capabilities fostering information
literacy in educational, workplace and community contexts. Emerald. [in
press]