Handbook for Information Literacy Teaching

Cardiff University just made available on the web the 2nd revision of the Handbook for Information Literacy Teaching (HILT) which was originally produced in 1995 and was first revised in 2005. Click here to view the e-copy.

"The handbook was written to assist subject librarians, library managers and others with an IL role by equipping them with techniques to promote IL within schools, to prepare learning outcomes and to deliver and evaluate appropriate learning experiences."

"There are nine sections presented in a logical order beginning with the key issues of IL provision, with subsequent sections exploring the planning and delivery of teaching, and finally evaluation and student assessment. Each sections comprises a presentation of guidelines with references to supporting documents and examples of good practice"

Table of Contents

Preliminaries

Section 1: Information Literacy - Key Issues

Section 2: Library Orientation

Section 3: Lesson Planning

Section 4: Lesson Formats

Section 5: Teaching Aids

Section 6: Lesson Delivery

Section 7: Evaluating your Teaching

Section 8: Assessment

Section 9: Instructor Training

Supporting Documents

"This is very much intended to be a work of reference, dipped into as the need arises, rather than read from cover to cover."


UPDATED as of 18 February 2008


Clinch, P. and Jones-Evans, A. (2007) “The Cardiff Handbook for Information Literacy Teaching – a case study in sharing staff training materials” Journal of information literacy, 1 (3), http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/JIL/article/view/ART-V1-I3-2007-2/29.

Abstract
Purpose: This article describes and discusses the principles behind the preparation by staff of the Information Services Directorate of Cardiff University of the Handbook for Information Literacy Teaching (HILT). The Handbook aims to equip staff with techniques to promote information literacy, to prepare learning outcomes and to deliver and evaluate appropriate learning experiences within teaching schools in the university. The 2006 edition of the Handbook, which runs to 130 A4 pages and is available to subject librarians in both paper and web format, has been revised in the light of both internal and external evaluations. A number of higher and further education establishments and the library of a government department have taken part in an external evaluation and the results of this are presented. The findings on the transferability of the Handbook to organisations outside Cardiff University are discussed and presented.

Methodology/Approach: A largely chronological presentation of the development of the Handbook, with the results of the internal and external evaluations, each of which used a combination of questionnaires and focus group meetings.
Findings: The Handbook has utility for staff within Cardiff University and was well regarded by external evaluation even though major adaptation would be required to make it applicable within other institutions. Consequently, its value within the higher and further education and Government sectors was limited to use as a reference tool rather than as a staff development resource. It is possible to speculate that the Handbook may be more readily repurposed for similar higher education institutions, although this was not specifically examined in the external evaluation.

Practical implications: The results of the evaluation emphasises the different approaches to and levels of information literacy teaching in the higher and further education sectors. Tailored resources can not be easily transferred to other institutions without significant re-design or re-purposing of the Handbook for a wider audience.

Originality/value of paper: The paper deals with a unique product and a unique method of evaluation. On the surface, the Handbook appears to be a transferable publication – the results of the evaluation indicate otherwise.