Assessment of the information literacy policies and programmes of the University of Auckland : a comparison with ANZIIL standards

Abstract

Information literacy education is a major concern for higher education institutes. They have been developing policies and strategies for designing learning opportunities that enable students to bring information practices into curriculum. Information literacy standards provide a framework and guidelines to streamline these information literacy policies and programmes to a standard level. The information literacy policies and programmes of University of Auckland Library system were studied for this research to assess their compliance with the Australian and New Zealand Information Literacy (ANZIIL) standards.The objectives of this study were to analyse current information literacy policies, and information literacy programmes and identify their targeted competencies to compare with the ANZIIL standards. The research also investigated the benefits, limitations and challenges faced by teaching librarians in integrating information literacy and using the ANZIIL standards.The findings of this research were derived from the discussion with twelve teaching librarians who were representing nine subject streams. The contents of 23 course-related information literacy handouts used by the interviewees were also analysed to compare targeted information literacy competencies with the ANZIIL standards.It was revealed that the ANZIIL standards were used in the University of Auckland Library within a different context; mainly as a reference tool in designing and assessing information literacy programmes. Currently information literacy practices of the University are in transition phase moving slowly to wards an advance level. Information literacy attributes of the graduate profiles were suggested to use for integrating information literacy into curriculum, than using the ANZIIL standards.Vocational requirements of some degree programmes prevent applying an institutional wide generic approach for information literacy education at the University of Auckland.It was found that librarians were primarily responsible for developing competencies outlined in Standard l and 2 of the ANZIIL standards. They also shared share responsibilities with academics staff to develop competencies outlined by Standard 3, 4, 5 and 6.Promoting information literacy competencies through graduate attributes is a practical and realistic approach to integrate it at curriculum level, than promoting information literacy through the ANZIIL standards.