Seven key skills in information literacy - and SkillClouds project

Back in 1999, SCONUL (the Society for College, National and University Libraries) proposed and have subsequently refined a set of seven key skills (described as pillars) in information literacy.

Here at the JISC Innovation Forum 2008 in the theme on How to Meet the Changing Student Experience there was a discussion today on the "Google Generation" and on information seeking behaviour. Maggie Fieldhouse discussed the report "Information behaviour of the researcher of the future" commissioned by the British Library and JISC and conducted by the Centre for Information Behaviour and the Evaluation of Research (CIBER) at UCL. The SCONUL pillars were discussed, as one of the key findings of the report is that all of us - students, researchers and professors alike - appear to be increasingly adopting shallow search strategies:

CIBER deep log studies show that, from undergraduates to professors, people exhibit a strong tendency towards shallow, horizontal, `flicking’ behaviour in digital libraries. Power browsing and viewing appear to be the norm for all.
Information behaviour of the researcher of the future, p.19

SCONUL's seven key skills in information literacy:

1. the ability to recognise a need for information
2. the ability to recognise different ways in which the information 'gap' may be addressed
3. the ability to construct strategies for locating information
4. the ability to locate and access information
5. the ability to compare and evaluate information obtained from different sources
6. the ability to organise, apply and communicate information to others in appropriate ways
7. the ability to synthesise and build on existing information, contributing to the creation of new knowledge

This strikes a chord with me in relation to the SkillClouds project. The seven key skills describe a journey through information skill space that seems similar to the kind of user journey that Stuart has started to articulate within the project.

The journey starts when someone becomes aware that they need information about their skills, and starts to look at possible ways of addressing that gap. Part of our work in the SkillClouds project is to explore some of the ways to 'mind the gap', and to support students as they explore the different strategies they can adopt.

Image from Flickr by Forzagaribaldi licensed under Creative Commons