The learning continuum: economical best practices for implementing and achieving a community’s information literacy goals

Abstract

Information literacy is a driving force in the field of librarianship, however, the often underestimated complexity of the concept, the primary focus on academic libraries, the intricacies involved with transliteracies, and the obstacles associated with technology make it difficult to establish a strategy for meeting a community’s information literacy needs. Budget cuts have especially impacted public library programming, pushing information literacy goals further out of reach. Faced with this adversity, Lancashire Library Service partnered with Credo to enhance their current information literacy plan, which yielded immediate results and provides a blueprint that public libraries may follow to achieve similar goals.

How do public librarians constitute information literacy?

“…In respect to the second context, development of information literacy programmes, there are several notable contributions. Darbandi et al (2013) detailed a partnership between Credo and Lancashire Library Service (UK) to train library staff on information literacy concepts and then to promote information literacy to the public through programming and events. While there was no in-depth examination of the librarians' pre-existing information literacy understanding, their study did highlight the conceptual difficulties inherent in information literacy and the lack of prior studies within the public library domain.…”