CHRISTINA BRAGEKAJSA GUSTAFSSON ÅMAN

IS IT POSSIBLE TO SUPPORT WORKPLACE INFORMATION LITERACY ALREADY AT UNIVERSITY?

LILAC 2013 MANCHESTER 

Background

Linköping UniversityTwo-campus26000 students100 scientific areas17 multidisciplinary departments5 branch libraries (Linköping 3,Norrköping 1, Stockholm 1)

Goal

To gain an understanding of graduate´s information world

Research questions

•What type of information do alumni use at work?

•What kind of information tools do alumni use at work?

•Has the IL training at university any impact on thegraduates academic performance and future work?

Methodology

Online survey10 different study programs12 questionsMultiple answerFree text

Analysis

Pivot charts and tables90 tables all in all visualised in charts

Able to establish different and similar relationshipsFree text answers analysed separately, visualised through word clouds

MOST USED SERVICES

Steps

Preliminary analysis = all answers for each program = an overview

Second analysis, the responses from different programs, one by one = an overview

Third step, analyse each question separately = an overview

Finally a synopsis of all overviews

Results

90% participated in the library’s formal IL sessions

63% useful for academic work

38% useful for work outside university

Information tools

Information resources such as Google 67%

Research databases 48%

Scientific journals 35%

Solving professional information needs

Talking and discussing with colleagues 92%

Learning from experience and practice in the workplace 90%

Using relevant literature 88%

Participating in courses 59%

Visiting conferences 46%

Type of literature used

Books 67%

News articles 64%

Professional webpages 63%

Barriers

Lack of time

Information overload

A need for IL curriculum changes

A stronger emphasis on:

•How to analyse and synthesise retrieved information

•How to restructure and use information in a workplace context

•How to monitor social media effectively

•How to use journal ToC:s with RSS and e-mail alerts

•How to use Open Access journals

•How to assess the quality of information found on the net

•How to render effective search strategies

Conclusions

Our IL training must mimic real-life use and application of information

Our examiniation of IL skills must be adjusted to real-work scenarios

Is it possible to support workplace information literacy already at university?

Yes we think (hope) so with our adjustments of thecurriculum and a new way of thinking aboutthese issues