Conference Agenda

The American Library Association defines Information Literacy (IL) as “…a set of abilities requiring individuals to ‘recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information” (ALA, 1989). The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) (2000) underlined information literacy as the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning.

Information literacy is more important than ever. The outbreak of COVID-19 poses new challenges to concepts of information literacy. Research trends studies have emerged in Information Literacy (IL) to determine research manner and changes before and after COVID-19. The aim of this study was to reveal the IL concept and relationship between the concept of IL before and after the pandemic. Also, common keywords were examined. The period between 2016-11-01 and 2019-12-31 was considered as pre-pandemic, and between 2020-01-01 – 2022-11-26 as post-pandemic, in both groups. Trend analysis on the information literacy pre- and post-pandemic period was performed by VOS viewer software and in-app algorithms thereby visualizing ISI database on the related concept (van Eck & Waltman, 2010). The co-occurrence analysis of the keywords of articles conducted to reveal common concepts and the most associated concepts.

The data set was extracted from ISI Web of Science databases and included 3141 articles published between 2016 and 2022. While 1701 of the articles were from pre COVID-19, 1440 articles were from post COVID-19.

Using a bibliographic mapping method, we pursued two research questions listed below

• What are the common concepts on maps before and after COVID-19?

• What are the most associated concepts with information literacy in both maps?

Results

After the bibliographic analysis of common keywords of the sample articles, 25 most common concepts before and after the pandemic were obtained and visualized. Some prominent concepts before the pandemic were digital literacy, assessment and collaboration, while misinformation, digital divide and disinformation were observed in the post-pandemic period. Also link strengths showed, health literacy, critical thinking and misinformation were the most associated concepts revealed from the maps. Detailed findings about the concepts and the implications of the results will be discussed in light of the IL - COVID-19 relationship.

References

American Library Association (ALA), Association for College and Research Libraries (ACRL). (2000). Information literacy competency standards for higher education. Retrieved December 4, 2022 from http://hdl.handle.net/10150/105645.

American Library Association. (1989). Presidential committee on information literacy: Final report (2006). Retrieved December 4, 2022 from http://www.ala.org/acrl/publications/whitepapers/presidential.

Van Eck, N., & Waltman, L. (2010). Software survey: VOSviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping. Scientometrics, 84(2), 523–538.

This presentation reviews current perspectives on the Media and Information Literacy (MIL) of ageing populations including socio-economic contexts, countering ageism, empowering older people, and the prospects for citywide strategies to support older people’s MIL. The focus of the presentation is on mechanisms to estimate what life is like for older people in a city, including the concept of a lifestyle check, and how that can be applied to Webber & Johnston’s (2019) #AFMIL (Age-Friendly MIL) City model. This model draws on international guidelines and reports including UNESCO (2019).

Ageing remains an international concern (World Health Organization (WHO), 2021; European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, 2022). A common theme is that older people’s access to rights and services have been compromised by the pandemic, requiring renewed action to protect those rights. For example England’s Centre for Ageing Better (2022b) provides evidence that COVID19 has exacerbated longer-term negative trends for older people in employment and housing, with implications for health and social care. In response, the Centre for Ageing Better (2022b) produced a guide for developing local ‘State of Ageing’ reports for use by local authorities, voluntary groups, and community leaders. The guide utilises the WHO’s (2017) eight domains of community life, one of which is Information and Communication, and draws on work in Leeds (Centre for Ageing Better, 2021).

Scotland’s Common Weal has produced an overview of population ageing in the Scottish context (Johnston & Dalzell, 2021) considering factors such as neoliberalism, demographics, ageism, pensions, housing, employment, and health. They propose a lifestyle check, which can be implemented across society to give people greater control of their ageing process. This strategy includes reliance on good MIL. However, for example, in Glasgow’s (2022) Strategic Plan 2022-27 issues relating to population ageing, including MIL opportunities, must be teased out from broader socio-economic policy and value statements. This is a challenge to prioritisation of MIL at city level.

We will draw on the #AFMIL City model, Johnston &Dalzell’s (2021) lifestyle check, the work by the Centre for Ageing Better and the Leeds and Glasgow eqalities outcomes examples to (1) critique indicators of a MIL City (Yanaze & Chibas, 2020) which neglect older people, and (2) propose more positive ways of enabling older people, and city authorities, to audit a city’s response to MIL, and to develop more creative age-friendly media and information literate environments.

References

Centre for Ageing Better. (2021). The state of ageing in Leeds: What life is like for people aged 50 and over in Leeds. Retrieved 19 January, 2023 from https://ageing-better.org.uk/resources/the-state-of-ageing-in-leeds

Centre for Ageing Better. (2022a). Guide: Developing a local ‘State of Ageing’ report. London: The Centre for Ageing Better.

Centre for Ageing Better. (2022b). State of ageing report 2022. London: The Centre for Ageing Better.

European Union Agency for Fundamental rights. (2022) Social rights and equality in the light of the recovery from the COVID19 pandemic. Retrieved 19 January, 2023 from https://fra. europa.eu/en/publication/2022/fundamental-rights-report-2022

Glasgow City Council. (2022). Strategic plan 2022 to 2027. Retrieved 19 January, 2023 from https://www.gsastrategicplan.co.uk/

Johnston, B., & Dalzell, C. (2021). All of our futures: Scotland’s ageing population and what to do about it 2021-2045. Glasgow: Common Weal.

UNESCO. (2019). Global framework for media and information literacy cities (MIL Cities). Paris: UNESCO.

Webber, S., & Johnston, B. (2019). The age-friendly media and information literate #AFMIL city: Combining policies and strategies for ageing populations in media and information rich societies. Journal of Information Literacy, 13(2), 276–291.

World Health Organization. (2021). Global report on ageism. Geneva: WHO.

World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe. (2017). Age-friendly environments in Europe. Copenhagen: WHO.

Yanaze, M., & Chibás, F. (2020). From smart cities to MIL cities. Retrieved 19 January, 2023 from https://www.academia.edu/43369259/FROM_SMART_CITIES_TO_MIL_CITIES_Metrics_inspired_by_the_vision_of_UNESCO