It is argued that developing digital abilities is key for today's knowledge society. They facilitate engaging with pervasive information communication technologies and manipulating information. Governments have invested vastly in formal education aimed at developing digital abilities. Policies and directives driving this venture need to be examined. Otherwise, their potential risks being thwarted. Grounded in concepts derived from Laclau and Mouffe, five public policy documents central to Chile's Secondary Vocational Education and Traning (S-TVET) system underwent a synchronic heuristic discourse analysis as understood under relational-ontology. Findings indicate that all analysed documents are articulated with a myth of an information society. Additionally, two prominent discourses were identified: an instrumentalization discourse and an empowerment discourse. When referencing S-TVET, however, the most salient discourse is that of instrumentalization. Instrumentalization discourses render digital abilities under a narrow corporate fixed set of decontextualised skills, and risk thwarting their potential.

- Despite vast amounts of existing research regarding digital ability development, there is a dearth of studies that systematize and evaluate the instructional techniques and tools reported as being used to develop them. The aim of this study is to contribute to the state of knowledge regarding the instructional techniques and tools reported as being used by teachers to develop digital abilities. To such an end, a systematized literature review was conducted. For the extraction of articles, a specific search code was used within the Web of Science All Collections, including SciELO, databases. Without setting a year-limit, and concluding the search on the 24 of April 2021, 613 articles were found. Sixty cleared selection criterion and, ultimately, 17 contributed to the purpose of the review. Findings show that a majority of articles report on classroom interventions and not on classroom observations. Additionally, they also suggest that six instructional techniques were employed by all studies: analyzing multiple perspectives of a same learning assignment, using authentic problems, collaboration, providing feedback, giving progressive autonomy to students and asking them to share their work. Regarding methodology, a preferred approach is the use of pre-post test design with a small number of cases and where non-probabilistic sampling and self-reported questionaries are favored.

There is a sedimented understanding that developing digital abilities is key for today’s knowledge society. Accordingly, governments have invested vastly in formal education aimed at developing them. Policies and directives driving this venture need to be examined. Otherwise, their potential risks being thwarted. By means of a post-foundational discourse analysis, six moments central to the political enablement of Chile’s State Technical Formation Centres underwent a synchronic heuristic discourse analysis as understood under relational-ontology. These Centres are part of Chile’s tertiary Technical and Vocational Education and Training system and were created as a means for the State to regain presence within such a system. Findings show unquestioned facts which lead to the articulation of two prominent myths. Added, two salient discourses are articulated to the myth: education is either articulated with statements that would frame education as a right or with development statements. Furthermore, despite these documents articulating today’s world as being driven by information and technological developments, there is no mention, definition or even acknowledgement of digital abilities. Accordingly, the development of these rhetorically articulated indispensable abilities, within these Centres, is left to chance. Findings shed light on how mythification of discourses can lead to hindering consequences.

Information literacy research is growing in importance, as evidenced by the steady increase in dissertations and research papers in this area. However, significant theoretical gaps remain.

Information Literacy Through Theory provides an approachable introduction to theory development and use within information literacy research. It provides a space for key theorists in the field to discuss, interrogate and reflect on the applicability of theory within information literacy research, as well as the implications for this work within a variety of contexts. Each chapter considers a particular theory as its focal point, from information literacy and the social to information literacy through an equity mindset, and unpacks what assumptions the theory makes about key concepts and the ways in which the theory enables or constrains our understanding of information literacy.

This book will provide a focal point for researchers, practitioners and students interested in the creation and advancement of conceptually rich information literacy research and practice.

Information literacy research is growing in importance but has been critiqued for remaining focused on practical topics of interest and attainment approaches to practice. Prior attempts to conceptualise information literacy have also often taken place without a comprehensive understanding of the ontological or epistemological foundations of theoretical work. The aim of this panel is to critically examine theory development and use within information literacy research through discussing the ways in which understandings of information literacy, including how it happens and how it shapes social life, are both enabled and constrained through critical, sociomaterial and discursive theoretical approaches. Providing a space to discuss and reflect on the impact of theory on information literacy scholarship, this panel creates a focal point for researchers, practitioners and students interested in the constructionand advancement of conceptually rich information literacy research and practice.

Librarians are likely to have a fairly clear view of what it means to be information literate. But what about the university faculty: what is their opinion on this subject? In this study seven professors at a small university have been interviewed: three from the department of engineering science and four from the department of nursing science. After a literature review the study's main areas of focus are presented: what does it mean to be information literate?; is there a connection between information literacy and subject content?; who is responsible for information literacy education - faculty or librarians?; should the ILeducation be separated from or integrated with other education?; do professors include information literacy issues when they create assignments for their students?; how great are the effects of specific IL-education? The qualitative study, which is based upon taped interviews, uses a scientific approach known as phenomenography; an approach with a particular view on learning. The study is concluded with suggestions on how the findings could be transformed into a diagnostic questionnaire that would stimulate awareness and could be handed out to a larger group of faculty.

Introduction. How refugees learn to reshape their fractured information landscape and re-establish ways of knowing to support their resettlement into a host society is explored. Of particular interest is how refugees access, use and share information to support information needs which emerge during the resettlement process.

Method. Face-to-face interviews were conducted in the language selected by the participant. Photo-voice technique was also employed and culminated in a focus group in which participants discussed the photos. The first phase of the qualitative analysis is reported in this paper.

Analysis. Data from interviews, focus groups and images captured by photo-voice technique were coded thematically, focusing on the similarities and differences in perspective.

Results.In the resettlement process refugees strive to regain a sense of place. Information is a critical resource for resettlement, but access to information and trust in that information pose challenges in moving from the liminal zone of marginality towards social integration. The digital environment threads through refugees’ information experiences and represents a significant social ground.

Conclusions. Findings from the first phase of this study have provided us with new concepts and ways of describing the impacts of resettlement from an information perspective. It also affords an opportunity to consider how information resilience is shaped and emerges.

Introduction. This paper presents an exploration of information sharing and trust in a geographically dispersed network of design scholars. Method. The study used a practice theory approach to identify aspects of trust in relation to information sharing. The empirical material consists of 15 in-depth interviews with design scholars from four Nordic countries and field notes from workplace visits. Analysis. The interview transcripts and field notes were categorised in accordance with three themes derived in synergy from practice theory and the empirical material. Results. A number of strategies for assessing and creating trust in relation to information sharing were identified. Depending on the dimension of practice in analytical focus, different aspects of trust emerge. Conclusions. Trust issues connected to information sharing appear in relation to the information to be shared, the people involved, the tools used for sharing, and the place where information sharing occurs. The practice-theoretical perspective has proven effective in order to identify and capture the elusive phenomenon of trust in connection to information sharing.

Purpose – The study aims to explore the interaction between the students, the material objects surrounding them, and their social site. The purpose of this paper is to identify and elucidate information literacy as it is being enacted within a complex and heterogeneous community of PhD students. Design/methodology/approach – The study is conducted from a practice-based perspective, according to which information literacy is conceived as learnt through interaction within the socio-material practice where the learner is active. In order to produce empirical material, semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten doctoral students in an interdisciplinary research network, and their workplaces were visited. Findings – The PhD students in this interdisciplinary network are more or less constantly engaged in the enactment of information literacy. It takes place in dialogue with others who can be both co-located and distantly located, and occurs through discussions about work in progress, through processes of evaluation and assessment of texts and authors, and through mundane everyday activities such as participating in meetings, which offer insights into how to navigate, in the broadest sense, the world of academia. A crucial part of the enactment of information literacy, which in practice is inseparable from interaction with others, is to pay attention to physical surroundings and material objects. Practical implications – The findings have implications for prospective PhD students in interdisciplinary fields, for their supervisors, and potentially also for librarians who are supposed to serve these groups. Originality/value – Research on the information literacies of PhD students in interdisciplinary fields is scarce. The practice-based approach applied in this study offers an extended and deepened understanding of the enactment of information literacy among PhD students in one interdisciplinary research practice.

The elusive phenomenon of information literacy (IL) is traced, narrowed down, and conceptualized in three differentways: as a “label” for a field of research, as an empirical entity; and as a theoretical notion. From a perspectivegrounded in over twenty years of teaching and research in the area, a toolbox approach to information literacy ispresented. Such an approach comprises a set of sensitizing concepts which will be introduced and discussed inrelation to various aspects of IL. Accordingly, IL will be considered from the perspectives of e.g. situatedness,discourse, genre, materiality, and distributed agency. The overall ambition is to present and discuss these aspects in amanner that make them relevant to both research and educational practices focusing on IL.

Review of: Lund, Nils Windfeld (2024). Introduction to documentation studies: complementary studies of documentation, communication and information. London: Facet Publishing, ISBN 9781783301898

The relationship between research and professional practice, often described in terms of a ‘gap’, is a topical issue involving stakeholders such as researchers, practitioners and policy-makers. Within the area of information literacy it is increasingly emphasized that practitioners make use of research and that research is conducted on problems relevant to practice. From a wide perspective, this paper discusses and identifies in the information literacy literature three different strands relating to research, practice and policy-making for information literacy. On the basis of a small-scale bibliometric investigation of samples of literature representing the identified strands, it is concluded that interconnections between the strands are weak. The results of the bibliometric study are discussed in the light of previous research on the relationship between research and practice. It is proposed that the research-based discussion on research and practice would benefit from a more nuanced terminology and by abandoning the prevailing gap-metaphor.

This thesis is about information sharing in interdisciplinary research practices. It reports one conceptual and three empirical studies. The studies have been conducted through focusing on the field of design research, and in particular on a Nordic network of design researchers. From a practice-based perspective, the exploration of the study object oscillates between three nested and interconnected frames. The main contribution of this thesis is that it illustrates how activities of information sharing not only contribute to, but actually play a central role in the shaping of the practice of design research. It is shown how information sharing works as a contributor to the development, maintenance and shaping of practices in 1) design research as it is conducted in the Nordic network; 2) in the field of design research; and 3) within interdisciplinary research. Without losing sight of the empirical material, the theoretical analysis has made it possible to illuminate the connection between activities of sharing and the enactment of a discipline. Through analysis and discussion of the four studies as a whole, the reciprocal relationship between information sharing and the area of design research is elucidated. It is shown how information sharing, as it emerges in this interdisciplinary practice, functions as a unifying force towards the probable goal of establishing a discipline.

This study aims at a theoretical discussion of what is perceived as a dominating strand in the information literacy narrative. The basis for the theoretical discussion is an empirical investigation of design engineering and nursing students’ information use in connection to Bachelor thesis writing. A critical discourse analysis is performed on student theses together with the directives that the students have followed when writing. The theses are also analysed from a sociocultural perspective, with the notion of community of practice and the concept of cognitive authority as complementary tools. An academic discourse is the most prevalent in the nursing student theses. The design engineering students write in another discourse than the expected academic discourse, which poses problems for them. The analysis based upon a sociocultural perspective indicates that information use and thesis writing are used as mediating tools as students strive to form an identity fitting for the community of practice they gradually become members of. It is, furthermore, concluded that information literacy in this setting is an embedded capacity to understand and be familiar with how information is produced, sought, used, and valued in a certain practice.

Introduction. This paper reports on an extensive research project which aimed at exploring information sharing activities in a scholarly context. The paper presents and synthesises findings from a literature review and three qualitative case studies. The empirical setting is a geographically distributed Nordic network of design scholars.Method. The project is characterised by an explorative approach encompassing semi-structured interviews, document studies, and ethnographically oriented participatory observations. Apart from addressing the empirical question of how, where, when, and why the researchers in the network share information, the paper elucidate the reciprocal relationship between information sharing and the wider practice of design research. Analysis. The research questions are addressed through close reading and interrelated analysis of four previous studies.Results. When scholarly information sharing takes place organizational structures are sometimes complemented, or substituted, by flexible communities of practice such as those in the investigated network. Information sharing appears as a means to reach collective understanding, also regarding issues that stretches beyond the immediate information practices, for instance about how to act as a design scholar.Conclusions. This research clarifies and provides examples of how information sharing is embedded in and intertwined with a range of other activities, such as writing, reading and information seeking. It also presents information sharing as a contributor to the enactment of a discipline.

Production of academic texts such as Bachelor theses is here seen as an activity embedded in the academic discipline in which the texts are produced. Bibliographic references in student theses are analysed in order to identify disciplinary differences in information seeking and use. According to an emerging socio-cultural perspective on information literacy, education in information seeking should pay careful attention to disciplinary traits. The purpose of the present study is to lay a foundation for a discussion about different student categories’ ways of using information. The questions asked are: how do reference activities vary between product design engineering students and nursing students; to what extent do the students refer to information sources; and what kind of sources do they refer to? The results show that nursing students predominantly use scientific information, such as peer-reviewed articles, whilst writing their theses. Product design engineering students, on the other hand, favour information found on the web, such as product and company-information. The article concludes by recommending that information-literacy education take disciplinary traits into careful consideration.

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to investigate and critically examine conceptualisations of information sharing activities in a selection of library and information science (LIS) literature. Design/methodology/approach – In order to explore how LIS researchers define the concept of information sharing, and how the concept is connected with theory, empirical material and other supporting concepts, a literature review and a conceptual meta-analysis was carried out on 35 papers and one monograph. The analysis was based on Waismann's concept of open texture, Wittgenstein's notion of language games and the concept of meaning holism. Findings – Six theoretical frameworks were identified. These are not found to be incommensurable, but can be used as building blocks for an integrative framework. Ambiguous conceptualisations are frequent. Different conceptualisations tend to emphasize different aspects of information sharing activities: that which is shared; those who are sharing; and the location in which the sharing activities take place. The commonalities of the people involved in information sharing activities are often seen as a ground for the development of information sharing practices. Practical implications – The findings provide a guide for future research which intends to explore activities of information sharing. Originality/value – The article offers a systematic review of recent LIS literature on information sharing, and extends the theoretical base for information sharing research.

This article seeks to make visible information-sharing activities that take place within a geographically dispersed network of design researchers. For this purpose, a theoretical approach is applied that comprises the analytical notion of material objects and a document theory. Empirical material was primarily ethnographically produced over a period of 6 months, including 2 seminars within the network. Trajectories of sharing that reach across time and space have been identified by studying how people interact with multidimensional objects, such as documents. These were found to coordinate and shape the social practice under study. The theoretical framework has made it possible to highlight aspects of information sharing that have tended to be blackboxed in previous research. It has been suggested in previous research that the concept of information sharing can be reduced to that of mere sharing. Such a stance potentially entails reduction of conceptual ambiguity but may also decrease analytical sharpness. Based on the present study, it appears beneficial to adopt the concept of document into the discourse of information-sharing research. By adding the concept of document to our analytical toolbox, which hitherto has been dominated by the slightly diffuse concept of information, material features can be emphasized without reducing the social and cognitive dimensions of information sharing. The article offers insight into the information-sharing activities of design researchers. Through its focus on materiality, it presents a novel theoretical approach and methodological strategy for studying information practices.

A substantial part of the work conducted by librarians at Swedish regional libraries concerns staying alert and informed in ways that allow for continuous development of the kind of knowledge and abilities that are required for doing a qualified job, but this part of the work is elusive and hard to identify. This paper presents an empirical study that elucidates this specific kind of work of keeping abreast and updated with professional information. Empirical data were produced through interviews and logbooks with 10 members of staff at 4 regional libraries in Sweden. The data were analysed by employing Marcia Bates' model of different information-seeking modes. The results of the study show that the activity in focus is seamlessly intertwined with other work activities and enacted in a variety of ways that are adapted after other work tasks (than the information seeking in itself) and dependent on individual preferences and routines. Since there is a certain conception of this activity as something that should be carried out in a certain systematic way and since it is something that one as a librarian ought to be good at, it is furthermore often associated with a normative dimension that provokes a sense of guilt among the study participants.

The overarching issue for this keynote concerns the relationship between information literacy (IL) practice and research. My basic assumption is that different actors such as librarians and researchers in the IL field, have much to gain from being well-versed in each other’s interests and activities.

The presentation will be somewhat retrospective and personal in nature. I will begin with some reflections on my previous experiences as an academic librarian working with IL. I will then move on towards my present interest and activities in library and information science (LIS), which includes research on IL. This intellectual journey from practice to research spans 20 years. When I was working as a librarian, I began to come across LIS research of the sort that I now quite systematically monitor in my capacity as a researcher. I strongly believe that research contributed to inform and improve my teaching practice as a librarian. I aim to promote what I would like to term a ‘research-use’ approach to teaching IL and to do this, I will present an overview of selected LIS research that I think relevant to people who are engaged in IL issues.

As a librarian I was primarily engaged in IL as a goal for my educational activities. What was most important to me then was to enable my students to become information literate. As a researcher my goal is somewhat different. Now I am more inclined to conceive of IL as a study object, as something that can be observed through the study of what people do with, and through information. However, in line with my suggested research-use approach to IL teaching, I can see a clear connection between these two interests. From my current researcher-perspective, I will elaborate on this connection between teaching IL and research into how people learn through information. I will conclude with a suggestion for an empirically based understanding of IL, which I believe has the potential to serve as an important basis for IL teaching. In this way, IL be seen as an embedded capacity to understand and be familiar with how information is produced, sought, used, and valued in a certain practice.

This book is an edited volume on digital libraries and information access. Despite the fact that both these subjects are vast and multifaceted and can be approached from various angles, Chowdhury and Foo have succeeded with handling the subject in a relatively concentrated manner. In the introduction, the editors assert that information access is the raison d'être for any digital library, a library becomes pointless if users cannot access its content.

This is an ambitious book which clearly manifests the authors’ substantial effort in producing it, not least through the remarkable amount of literature that has been consulted. It is indeed praiseworthy to take on the task, which Whitworth has done, to not only go through and review but also critically appraise four decades of information literacy writings.

Introduction. Evidence-based practice has broadened and spread into new areas including librarianship. This reorientation has resulted in increased uncertainty regarding what counts as evidence and has caused a tension between formalised procedures and professional judgment. This theoretical paper aims to extend the knowledge about how evidence-based practice can contribute to regulate work and information practices. Method. Data from a small-scale empirical study of social welfare workers was theorised through the lens of institutional ethnography. Analysis. The analysis was primarily guided by the following key concepts: documentary governance, disciplinary mechanism and knowledge mobilisation. Results. Nationally produced statutes, decrees, guidelines, action plans and reports constitute prominent information resources. Knowledge is mobilised when these are read, interpreted, talked about and represented. Evidence-based practice emerges at the same time as a concrete and material activity and as a phenomenon placed in a wider perspective which can be traced through a societal dimension. Conclusions. Evidence-based practice can be viewed as a means to bring about effectiveness but emerges in this study as a disciplinary mechanism through which power is exerted. The theoretical framework has made it possible to elucidate how documents and texts contribute not only to structure but also make things happen in the practice under study.