Information Skills
There have been a number of JISC supported Information Skills initiatives in recent years designed to give guidance for the effective delivery and embedding of Information Skills programmes.
There are many definitions and variations on what Information Skills actually are. CILIP’s Short Introduction to Information Literacy is a good starting point and includes the ‘Prague Definition’ as adopted by UNESCO
See also the Wikipedia entry for Information literacy
Information Skills resources
With regard to terminology, Information Literacy and Information Skills can be taken to mean the same thing.
JISC I-skills
To try and raise the importance of information skills within FE and HE organisations and to get it onto the SMT agenda, the JISC published a series of strategy guides and pointers towards staff development. The JISC i-Skills publications are available to view online, download or order in hard copy
In support of the I-Skills initiative, the RSC South East delivered a learning resources forum and series of three workshops, using i-Skills as a launchpad for colleges to share best practice and draft action plans aimed at raising the profile of Information Literacy in their workplace. To find out about some of the outputs of this event please contact Artie Vossel-Newman a.vossel-newman@kent.ac.uk.
Google it?
A common refrain when trying to sell the concept of Information Skills within your organisation is, ‘I can find what I need from Google’. Whilst it may be the case that staff and students can find something of use for their needs, it is missing out on a whole range of other, more focussed resources that a Learning Resource Centre has access to. Perhaps a useful strategy would be to highlight how Google can be used more time-effectively by employing simple techniques and strategies to refine searches. The following helpsheets provide some pointers as to how to make Google work more effectively.
