Information literacy strategy development in higher education: An exploratory study

Information literacy (IL) is recognised internationally as an essential competence for participation in education, employment and society. Communities and organisations need strategies to ensure their members are efficient and effective information users. An investigation of formal IL strategies in UK universities was initiated to examine their content and presentation. The study breaks new ground in undertaking an in-depth qualitative analysis of ten institutional cases, evaluating IL practice from a strategic management perspective and discussing how corporate strategy concepts and models could increase effectiveness in this emerging area of professional practice. Its insights and suggestions contribute to the development of IL and related strategies at both conceptual and practical levels. The study found that all the strategies aimed to integrate IL into subject curricula by engaging stakeholders in collaborative partnerships. Common approaches included the adoption of professional standards and development of new methods of delivery, including elearning. The majority of strategies covered IL of academic and other staff in addition to students. Most strategy documents provided extensive contextualisation, demonstrating the relevance of IL to corporate concerns; many included case studies of good practice. Few documents conformed to strategic planning norms: none provided mission or vision statements and several contained poorly-specified objectives. The study concluded that corporate strategy tools, such as stakeholder mapping, portfolio analysis and customisation models, could strengthen IL strategies. Future research could test the use of such analytical techniques to advance information literacy strategies in higher education and other sectors.