Conference Agenda

In the information age, media and information literacy (MIL) has become crucial for work and study. Despite the growing number of various projects and initiatives in the field of MIL, this area of social development is still a relatively new concept for the educational policy of Kazakhstan. The information literacy standards have been developed by the ACRL and adopted worldwide, but there is little information as to what extent the current society is MIL trained and competent. In particular, there are no compulsory educational programs on MIL in Kazakhstan. The situation is complicated by the lack of a sufficient number of high-quality educational and methodological materials in the Kazakh language. Thus, most of the teachers, librarians, and students in Kazakhstan experience a shortage of relevant knowledge and skills. This paper reports the results of the “SauattyKeleshek” social project on MIL awarded by the Nazarbayev University Social Development Fund. “SauattyKeleshek” program aimed to improve MIL knowledge, skills, and abilities among academic and school librarians in Kazakhstan. The project included educational training developed and introduced to the target group, both online and onsite. The target audience of the project was academic and school librarians of Kazakhstan. The objectives of this research paper are to identify the MIL competencies of project participants and ways to improve their MIL knowledge. In this study, researchers will answer the following questions: what are the information needs of the target audience; how does MIL training improve the MIL knowledge of participants; how does MIL training program content respond to the information needs of the learners? Specifically, researchers applied the qualitative research method by analysing the results of primary data from an online survey conducted before the training, and the MIL training program developed on the basis of the preliminary survey analysis. The study found that respondents defined the MIL term incorrectly although initially, they confirmed familiarity with the MIL concept. Also, survey results showed that no MIL seminars and training were provided to users at their home institutions. Learners admitted the usage of educational materials without proper citation and copyright. Overall 391 participants attended 24 online and 7 onsite educational trainings within the framework of the project. The MIL curriculum taught participants to:

• manage information flows;

• search, use, and disseminate reliable information;

• select and organize digital content, identify necessary and high-quality online materials;

• understand copyright issues;

• apply critical thinking strategy.

The learners pointed out the usefulness and intensity of the training which responded to their information needs with the availability of further implementation. The effectiveness of the course is proved by the fact that participants with good results passed the final test and disclosed key MIL competencies. Participants developed and conducted various activities dedicated to the MIL concept, which demonstrate the improvement of academic and school librarians’ MIL knowledge and skills. The researchers state that the project results can be a driving force to achieve success in MIL learning and teaching in Kazakhstan.

References

American Library Association. (2015). Framework for information literacy for higher education. Retrieved January 11, 2023 from http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework

Kamilova, Y., & Yap, J. (2022). Subject librarianship in Kazakhstan: Exploring information literacy skills, functions, and practices. International Journal of Media and Information Literacy, 7(1), 132–144.

UNESCO. (2013). Information and communication technologies in education. Retrieved January 11, 2023 from https://iite.unesco.org/publications/3214728/

Objectives

From an Information Literacy perspective to improve existing or create new services, we propose to study the development of individual and collective informational skills, both for employees and users, in order to contribute to transform Social Protection Organizations in France in learning organizations in a new collective intelligence and organizational intelligence) dynamic. For us, these organizations correspond to new digital territories, approached as new informational spaces of cooperation and innovation for new services co-constructed with users. Communication is also a lever for understanding the change in organizations which are built through projects and narratives while trying to discern the invisible and hidden side of work. We will insist on the development of new information and communication skills both of employees and users with the role of socio-technical devices in a global context of digital transformation and the Internet of Things.

Methodology

We qualify our global positioning as ICCOE: Information & Communication and Confidence for Organizing Ecosystems. We also insist on resilience and reliance aspects on territories. Within the interdisciplinary field of information and communication sciences, we position in a collaborative action research perspective in Information Literacy, considering organizations as new informational and communicational spaces to produce validated knowledge for action based on cooperation between academics and local actors.We have developed this approach in Social Protection Organizations:

• In the Family Allowance Funds (CAF), in particular in Seine-et-Marne department, with the observation of the platform « caf.fr » to build « the Caf of future ».

• In Health Territorial Professional Communities or CPTS (hospitals, retired people establishments or EHPAD, doctors, nurses, pharmacies, local authorities, etc.), through the analysis of a new intermediation platform: Conex santé (https://telemedecine.conexsante.com).

The data were obtained through interviews with the actors of these organizations and through participatory observation sequences with the support of the digital tools mentioned: caf.fr or Conex santé.

Outcomes

We propose new approaches to service organizations of the Social Protection sector as spaces of cooperation and innovation. We will especially work to develop new uses of cooperative data to promote a new contributive evaluation way of these organizations, in a perspective of co-innovation involving all the actors around new co-constructed services. So we may also try to analyze the evolution of informational and communicational skills of main actors to improve existing or develop new services, in an idea of new « learning organizations ». In particular, we will analyze how the studied organizations rely on the associative sector in their territory to train a wider public in the new uses of digital technology We will also try to better mobilize the specificity of the informational and communicational skills of the actors in order to reveal obscure sides of their activity (idea of “iceberg of activity”).

References

Bourret, C., Gheller, J., & Parrini-Alemanno S., (2022). Changes in social protection and territorial issues: New cooperations and services innovations in the health and social sectors in France. In Proceedings 32st RESER Conference: Looking Back to Move forward the Past, Present and Future of Service Science (pp. 48–51). Paris: Université Gustave Eiffel.

Linstead, S., Maréchal, G., & Griffin, R.W. (2014). Theorizing and researching the dark side of organization. Organization Studies, 35(2), 164–168.

Wilensky, H. L. (1967). Organizational intelligence: Knowledge and policy in government and industry. New York: Basic Books Publisher.