National framework promoting information literacy in Wales
7 January 2011
Information literacy empowers a proactive learning culture which is fundamental to educational attainment and progression. Information literacy skills also develop social inclusion, as access to information equates to choice and the power to make informed decisions. Indeed, those excluded from today's 'information society' are increasingly disempowered in aspects of life from the economic to the social.
Information Services is playing a key role in delivering the social and academic benefits described above by hosting the new Welsh Information Literacy Project which aims to raise the profile of information literacy and provide a consistent national framework.
The Welsh Information Literacy Project was inspired by a national conference held at Gregynog Hall in mid Wales in 2009 and was officially launched on the United Nations' International Literacy Day in September this year. The project is based in INSRV and is funded by the Welsh Assembly Government's CyMAL: Museums, Archives and Libraries Wales division. It brings together librarians from all sectors across Wales and is working with partners in the Welsh Assembly Government and elsewhere.
The project underlines the importance of information literacy in delivering many social, political and academic drivers in Wales including One Wales, digital inclusion and the skills curriculum. The project also provides case studies of information literacy across different sectors showing real world examples of information literacy in practice.
The information literacy framework for Wales builds on this by mapping information literacy across the curriculum. This framework will be tied into the Credit and Qualifications Framework for Wales which will provide consistency across sectors and a roadmap for developing information literacy at an appropriate level for the individual learner. This unified and progressive framework will support information literacy in schools, further and higher education, the workplace and the wider community, raising awareness of the importance of information literacy in 21st century Wales.
Find out more...
Welsh Information Literacy Project website
Information literacy at Cardiff University