INSIGHT
‘‘ MILA Update Review of Information Literacy and Society T
HE Media and Information Literacy Alliance (MILA) has been pursuing its mission to foster collaborations, not
least to help develop the evidence base in information literacy (IL) and media literacy. A year ago, MILA commissioned a project, funded by CILIP and the CILIP Information Literacy Group, to produce a comprehensive review of research about the impact of IL on society. That important piece of work has now concluded and a report of its findings can be found on the MILA website at
https://mila.org.uk/information-literacy-and- society. The review was undertaken by Dr Bruce Ryan, Marina Milosheva and Prof Peter Cruikshank at Edinburgh Napier University. The review finds that the core research that investigates the role of IL in society is geographically skewed towards the anglosphere and the first world. Education, particularly tertiary education, is significantly over-represented in the IL research literature. Barriers to shaping information-literate populations are raised by issues around IL teaching and structures that could support it, including government (in)action. Other key findings are:
l IL research covers a very wide range of topics and contexts;
l IL training/education should be delivered by collaboration between librarians and teachers/lecturers, continue throughout education, and be reinforced during careers and lifetimes;
l IL research may have indirect impact, e.g. research into improving medical professionals’ IL does not just affect these professionals but also wider society, i.e. their patients.
There are missed opportunities for such societal impact, e.g. where medical professionals do not have IL skills and so may not give their patients the best treatment possible; if citizens do not have
38 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL DIGITAL
health information literacy, their health may suffer.
l the review validates many of the findings of the earlier Information Literacy Impact Framework (https://mila.
org.uk/il-impact-framework), published in September 2022.
Much IL research delivers snapshots
of IL skills in various contexts and geographies. During the project, it was not possible to ascertain if such snapshots had been followed up by investigating subsequent changes and the reasons behind them. Hence an anticipated future project is to understand whether follow-up research has been undertaken, and any barriers to such research. There is a push towards understanding the role of theory in IL. It would be revealing to understand how the core IL research found in this review engages with theory. As reported in the June issue of Information Professional (https://tinyurl. com/4t86x9mv), MILA has taken steps to set itself up as a registered charity. Charity status will enable the Alliance to enhance its credibility and become better recognised as a key player that brings together organisations and individuals who wish to work collaboratively on media and information literacy initiatives. This is in line with one of the main recommendations of the UK government’s 2021 Online Media Literacy Strategy. MILA submitted its application to the Charity Commission, and as of December 2023, the Alliance has been formally registered as a charity, rather more quickly than expected. In line with the Commission’s requirements, MILA has appointed an initial set of trustees: Stéphane Goldstein (InformAll); Dr Melissa Highton (University of Edinburgh); Prof Julian McDougall (Bournemouth University); Vicki Shotbolt (ParentZone); and Caitlin Webb (Local Government Chronicle). Over the coming months, MILA will work on developing a roadmap for its short to medium term
Stéphane Goldstein is Executive Director of InformAll. He is the coordinator for MILA and Advocacy and Outreach Officer for CILIP’s Information Literacy Group.
The review finds that the core research that investigates the role of IL in society is geographically skewed towards the anglosphere and the first world.
Bruce Ryan is a Senior Research Fellow in the Social Informatics Research Group in the School of Computing, Engineering and Built Environment at Edinburgh Napier University.
activities, refining its mission and strategy, establishing a consultative body and securing seed funding. MILA also took part in the 2023 edition of the European Conference on Information Literacy (ECIL – https://
ecil2023.ilconf.org), in Krakow, Poland, in October. Jane Secker and Stéphane Goldstein ran a workshop session which sought to draw lessons about how to set up a national initiative focused on promoting media and information literacy. Drawing from the experiences and ideas of an international audience, the workshop explored how any such initiative might develop its persuasive capability, contribute to civic life and resource itself. There are no shortcuts to doing any of this and much of the discussion stressed the importance of judicious networking, being pragmatic about the outcome of its activities and enlisting the support of powerful allies. IP
December 2023
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