This morning’s inbox included the delightful news that another open-access information literacy journal has started up and released its first issue. From the email:

Volume 1, Issue 1 is now available from the Information Literacy website: http://www.informationliteracy.org.uk/JIL.aspx

JIL is an international, peer-reviewed, academic journal that aims to investigate Information Literacy (IL) within a wide range of settings. Papers on any topic related to the practical, technological or philosophical issues raised by the attempt to increase information literacy throughout society are encouraged. JIL is published in electronic format only and is an open-access title. The aim of JIL is to investigate and to make generalised observations on how Information Literacy impacts on organisations, systems and the individual. While recognising the firm foothold already established by IL in the Higher Education sector, the editorial board, seeks to consolidate and extend this to a wider educational audience. Furthermore the board welcomes ever-wider interpretations of IL that extend its theoretical interpretation and practical use beyond the educational arena and across national frontiers.

Interestingly, this journal also provides its definition of information literacy and the understanding that skills/competencies in informaiton literacy require(http://www.cilip.org.uk/professionalguidance/informationliteracy/definition/):

Information literacy is knowing when and why you need information, where to find it, and how to evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical manner.

This definition implies several skills. We believe that the skills (or competencies) that are required to be information literate require an understanding of:

a need for information

the resources available

how to find information

the need to evaluate results

how to work with or exploit results

ethics and responsibility of use

how to communicate or share your findings

how to manage your findings.

Two things that strike me about this. First, perhaps obviously – the different listing of “top level” items than we see in many standards documents in the United States. Second, that this is a list of understandings required for information literacy skills and so I wonder if these understandings are considered to co-develop with skills, be pre-requisite for, or causal of? Good food for thought.

JIL looks a welcome addition to the information literacy field. Happy reading!

Lisa Hinchliffe