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New information literacy horizons:�Making the case for career information literacy�

Marina Milosheva

PhD student, Edinburgh Napier University

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A few words about me

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The literature review

Explores extant research of information literacy and work
Completed between January and April 2021
Three focal areas

Workplace information literacy

Employability information literacy

Career information literacy

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Methodology

Interdisciplinary – Library and Information Science (LIS) and Career Studies both considered
Time range 2000-2021, with one exception!
Keywords such as career, decision making, education, employability, everyday life, information behaviour, information literacy, information, learning, lifelong learning, library and workplace

106 items total:

92 filed as ‘workplace’, 11 as ‘employability’, and 3 as ‘career’

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Findings

Workplace information literacy has received the most research attention

Workplace information literacy = organisational settings
Employability information literacy = graduate employability
Career information literacy = the same as graduate employability?

What is missing?

Lifelong employability and long-term career planning
Career learning beyond a single ‘profession’
Meaning, agency, empowerment

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Workplace information literacy

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Workplace information literacy

Growth of WIL between 2000-2021 (N=92)
2000-2008	Establishing the need for workplace information literacy “Information literacy or death?” (Forster, 2017, pp.85-96)
2008-2021	Socio-cultural IL (Annemaree Lloyd) “Trapped between a rock and a hard place” (Lloyd, 2011, p. 297).
2021 and beyond	We need more research! IL as a situated, lived experience IL links with organisational strategy

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Employability information literacy

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Employability information literacy

Lens	Main tenets
Community and library	A set of generic or subject-specific competencies that prepare individuals to commence employment in a specific sector Libraries help individuals use social media and ICT for job searching e.g. Oakley (2013), Fiegen (2011)
Higher education	EIL provision is a university-wide responsibility Collaborative efforts between university libraries, student support services and career centres e.g. Mawson and Haworth (2018)
Employer	Employer needs and preferences for IL competencies are inferred on the basis of interviews with employers and content analyses of job adverts e.g. Gilbert (2017)

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Career information literacy

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Career information literacy

Where did this idea of an individual employability lens come from?

Career Studies! In particular, career construction (Savickas, 2013)

Empowerment: Self-management, Lifelong career planning, Meaning-making, Agency
Managing transitions: Career development learning, Career decision-making, Transformative education

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New information literacy horizons:�Making the case for career information literacy�

Marina Milosheva

PhD student, Edinburgh Napier University

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References

Fiegen, A. M. (2011). Business Information Literacy: A Synthesis for Best Practices. Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship, 16(4), 267–288.

Forster, M. (Ed.). (2017). Information literacy in the workplace. Facet Publishing.

Gilbert, S. (2017). Information literacy skills in the workplace: Examining early career advertising professionals. Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship, 22(2), 111–134.

Lloyd, A. (2011). Trapped between a rock and a hard place: what counts as information literacy in the workplace and how is it conceptualized?. Library Trends, 60(2), 277-296.

Mawson, M., & Haworth, A. C. (2018). Supporting the employability agenda in university libraries: A case study from the University of Sheffield. Information and Learning Science, 119(1/2), 101–108.

Oakley, S. (2013). Information literacy meets employability. SCONUL Focus, 58, 25-26.

Savickas, M. L. (2013). Career construction theory and practice. Career Development and Counselling: Putting Theory and Research to Work, 2, 144–180.