From EIS usage to the From EIS usage to the employability agenda and employability agenda and

some of the houses in some of the houses in betweenbetween John CrawfordJohn Crawford

Library Research OfficerLibrary Research Officer

Glasgow Caledonian Glasgow Caledonian UniversityUniversity

Four Projects based on GCUFour Projects based on GCU

• Usage of electronic information services

• Drumchapel Project

• LIRG/SCONUL Value and Impact Project

• Information literacy work - ongoing

Usage of Electronic Information Usage of Electronic Information Services (EIS)Services (EIS)

• Preliminary focus groups November 2001 – March 2002

• Surveys - Spring 2002 and Oct 2002 – Feb 2003• Hierarchy of usage by subject• Link between EIS usage and student

progression and retention• Link between EIS usage and an innovative

learning and teaching agenda • Growth in off campus use – home and work

Drumchapel ProjectDrumchapel Project

An exploratory project – initially ICT skills orientated Community ICT facilities little used - Library and

Cybercafés School and School Library are main focus for IT use in

deprived areas Little integration of information literacy into the

curriculum Levels of ICT ‘deprivation’ did not seem to be high Basic IT skills exist- WP, email, Internet Pupil evaluation of websites poor School disproportionately important in deprived areas

LIRG/SCONUL Value and Impact LIRG/SCONUL Value and Impact Project 1Project 1

• Electronic questionnaire to current students Feb 2004• Confirms EIS usage view of steady if uneven progress• Link between IL and the employability agenda• IT so pervasive in the tertiary sector it can be difficult to

disentangle the role of the library • Attendance at University has greatly improved

information literacy skills• Students using a very wide range of websites• First year students slightly more IL aware than other

levels

LIRG/SCONUL Value and Impact LIRG/SCONUL Value and Impact Project 2Project 2

• Questionnaire to alumni – administered by post Spring 2004• Respondents included middle/senior management • Considerable change in attitude/usage between university and work • Strong link between IL and employability • Scholarly methods spreading in the workplace• Work greatly sharpens perceptions about value of IL• Good match between databases introduced at University and used

at work • Information literacy linked with the exercise of initiative in the

workplace and ‘getting on’• Varied attitude to IL among employers• Sparse replies from the unemployed

A few quotesA few quotes

• ‘[information] literacy skills [are] of about 20-30% importance in my job’

• ‘I have been dragged, if not kicking and screaming, at least wincing, into EIS’

• ‘Young people should be leaving school with the basic skills to find employment or further their studies, whilst universities should not have to make up for this failure’

• ‘If you can’t do this you can’t do anything’

• ‘because for a start you need to be information literate to find a job in the first place’.

Where do we go from here?Where do we go from here?

• From all three studies an information literacy agenda emerged

• Need for a strategy which links the secondary and the tertiary sectors

• The tertiary sector is not an independent unit but a stage along the way – avoid fixating on the undergraduate

• Need to focus on employability

Information Literacy – the link between Information Literacy – the link between secondary and tertiary educationsecondary and tertiary education

• innovative one year national pilot project which will develop curriculum based IL frameworks with secondary and tertiary partners which, at the end of the project, can be rolled out to other participants.

• to produce secondary school leavers with a skill set which further and higher education can recognise and develop or which can be applied to the world of work directly.

Project objectivesProject objectives

• Identify student information literacy skills they bring to university

• IL skills mapping exercise 5 -14, 14 -17, HE

• Convert identified IL skills into an IL framework extending from secondary into higher education

• pilot and test developed framework

• Identify barriers to and constraints on the development of a national IL framework

• Test the link between IL, progression, and retention and the employability agenda

A few pointsA few points

• In Scotland there a number of initiatives in the secondary sector but they are uncoordinated

• Contacts between schools and universities are limited

• There is very little perception in HE about what skills new students bring with them

• Partners recruited from both the secondary and tertiary sectors but…..

And soAnd so

• There should be a seamless progression from school to work (via HE)

• The employability agenda is the only show in town – or is it instrumentalism?

• We need to know more about how the skills we impart extend to the workplace

• We need to know more about the workplace and attitudes of employers

• Does IL have a direct value which can be calculated?• Where is the dosh coming from?• Making the case

Some references Some references

• Crawford, John et al (2004) Use and awareness of electronic information services by students at Glasgow Caledonian University: a longitudinal study, Journal of librarianship and information science, vol. 36, no.3, pp. 101-117.

• McLelland, Dorothy and Crawford, John (2004) The Drumchapel Project: a study of ICT usage by school pupils and teachers in a secondary school in a deprived area of Glasgow, Journal of librarianship and information science, 36, (2), pp. 55-67.

• Crawford, John & Irving, Christine (2005) The research agenda. Library + Information Update, 4(1-2), pp. 48-49

Contact detailsContact details

• Dr. John Crawford,• Library Research Officer, • Glasgow Caledonian University,• Room 302, (3rd floor)• 6 Rose Street,• Glasgow,• G3 6RB• Tel: 0141-270-1360• Email jcr@gcal. ac.uk