Literature reviews

Reviews of literature and resources on information literacy in the workplace

In July 2014, Professor Dorothy Williams, Katie Cooper and Caroline Wavell, from Robert Gordon University Aberdeen, working in association with InformAll, produced an annotated bibliography on information literacy in the workplace. This provides a comprehensive overview of publications which, since around 2000, have looked at how information literacy is perceived and understood in employment settings. The addresses two key issues:

• How should information literacy be described within workplace settings? What are the priority / key information skills and abilities related to the effective use of information in the workplace?
• Is there any evidence of the value and / or impact of information literacy in the workplace?

The bibliography takes the form of a table which, against each of around forty publications – journal articles, book chapters, conference proceedings and reports – provides a brief description of (i) key relevant points in the material; and (ii) how information literacy in the workplace is defined. Selected quotations from the publications are provided where appropriate, and the well-structured presentation provides a convenient, pithy overview of contemporary understanding of information literacy in the workplace. The table is prefaced by a short, five page summary that picks out major issues.

The bibliography is currently in the process of being updated, which will significantly expand the range of material that it covers. The new version should be available towards the end of 2015.

Coincidentally, the summer of 2014 also saw the publication of a further literature review, Information literacy is for life, not just a good degree, produced by Dr Charles Inskip (UCL) for CILIP. This equally comprehensive piece of work addressed the identification of information literacy as an attribute of employability, as well as the concepts, policies and practices of workplace information literacy.