Systems thinking: an action research approach for advancingworkplace information literacy

Mary M. SomervilleAssociate DeanDr. Martin Luther King, Jr. LibrarySan José State UniversitySan José, California USAmary.somerville@sjsu.eduandZaana HowardTeaching and Learning LibrarianPreston Campus Library Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE (NMIT)Preston, Victoriazaanah-ss@nmit.vic.edu.au

As the importance of information literacy has gained increased recognition, so too havelibrary and information science professionals intensified their efforts to advocate,activate, and advance these capabilities in others. Ironically, with few notable exceptions,little attention has focused on advancing these requisite characteristics among practitioners. This paper, therefore, contributes to a small but important literature on anoverlooked aspect of organisational development.This paper places the advancement of workplace information literacy within the contextof organisational learning primarily through socialisation processes. To enable this, theauthors recommend embedding a contextualising ‘systems thinking’ framework withinthe workplace. This serves to guide collective inquiry for the purpose of exercising andadvancing individual and team information literacy capabilities. Examples from an actionresearch project in a North American university library both demonstrate the elements of this evidence-based approach and also suggest its efficacy.

Introduction

Increasingly, organisational success and professional practices are becoming reliant oninformation literacy capabilities. This is particularly pertinent in libraries where professionals have advocated information literacy capabilities without necessarily practicing them. This applied research study was prompted by participants’ sharedrecognition that academic information professionals must re-invent workplace processesand practices as they move from traditional information gatekeeper functions to fulfillnew knowledge enabling responsibilities. This requires revisiting – and re-inventing -

professional roles, campus relationships, and library institutions defined by industrial agemodels.The project was conducted from 2003 to 2006 at California Polytechnic State University(Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo, a comprehensive state-funded institution of higher education on the west coast of the United States. Shared understanding among project participants emerged out of an informal environmental scan of the digital informationlandscape in which technology continues to transform users’ encounters with andexperiences of information. For example, internet-based social networking sites offer a popular way to create and exchange unmediated information. These new technology toolsenable easy information production and consumption, without having to wait for print publishers to create and deliver material. Librarians recognised that students wereincreasingly circumventing what had traditionally been the role of libraries – organising,managing, and enabling access to ‘authoritative’ information sources.Potential student users of academic libraries in North America have spent their entirelives using computers, video games, digital music players, video cameras, mobile phones,email, instant messaging, and other technology tools and toys. These ‘digital natives’think, act, and learn differently than the people for whom today’s libraries were designed,as reflected in decreased library door counts and reference desk transactions (Lippincott2005; Prensky 2005; Windham 2005; Windham 2006; Brown 2002; British Library2008). This situation challenges libraries’ traditional role as static repositories of humanculture, forcing libraries to evolve into dynamic centres of instruction, exploration, and