Information Literacy: An International State of the Art

X. South Africa

January, 2007

Karin de Jager

Mary Nassimbeni

Peter Underwood

Centre for Information Literacy,

University of Cape Town

Cape Town, South Africa

[e-mail]; [e-mail]
With a contribution by
Sandra Zinn

Department of Library and Information Science,

University of the Western Cape

A. Introduction
Introduction and roadmap
This report is divided into sections reflecting three library sectors (university, public and school) and describing their information literacy (IL) initiatives, and noting their online tools, training courses and publicly available material. This is followed by a section on organisations, training the trainers, and a comprehensive bibliography of publications.
Methodology
The information for this report was collected using the following methods:

• 
  A literature search for relevant published papers and websites
  
• 
  An electronic survey of directors of higher education libraries, the most active sector in the field of information literacy
  
• 
  A commissioned report on school libraries from Sandy Zinn
  

Background
To understand the direction that policy-making around information literacy has taken it is first necessary briefly to consider the effects of uncertainties in the governance and form of educational institutions during a period of profound political change. The starting-point is the first South African democratic elections in 1994. The inauguration of a Government of National Unity resulted in the immediate implementation of new structures and dismantling of the oppressive structures of the previous apartheid state, but it had little immediate effect on libraries and information services. However, many years of lobbying by the profession resulted in the establishment of a National Council for Library and Information Services (NCLIS) in 2001, and the commencement of its operations in 2004. For the first time, South Africa has a statutory body to coordinate and develop its library services, with one of its objects being to “provide optimal access to relevant information to every person in an economic and cost-effective manner” (South Africa, Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology 2001: 1) and to inform and advise the Minister of Education on the effectiveness of education and training for library and information services. By mid-2005 there were 11,373 libraries in South Africa (South Africa, Government Communication and Information System 2005: 159). Of these, 9,416 were school libraries and 1,295 were public libraries. University libraries, college libraries, government libraries and special libraries made up the rest.
One of the inheritances of the post-1994 South African government was an education system that consisted of a mixture of state and private provision, overlain by separation on “racial” lines, a system developed by the former apartheid state. The consequences of this policy were readily apparent, principally in a skewed allocation of resources, largely to the detriment of schools attended by non-white children, and schools in rural areas. The consequences were also manifest in the inadequate provision and training of staff at many schools and the lack of even basic school facilities in many rural areas. It is not surprising that school drop-out rates were high and that the quality and preparedness of entrants to further and higher education was extremely uneven, thus further discouraging participation.
The principal aim of the first democratic government and its successors has been to ensure that an affordable compulsory system of primary and secondary education was introduced with adequate safeguards to ensure quality and community consultation. Furthermore, it was recognised that an integrated system of post-secondary education, embracing the concept of lifelong learning, was essential for social healing and economic development. The National Education Policy Investigation (NEPI) of 1992 and the establishment of the Centre for Education Policy Development in 1993 were significant steps towards development of policy and practice to support these aims.
Fixing the higher education system was widely regarded as being of the first priority for economic development. Bunting (2006) has described the vacillations and uncertainties of this period as experiments with the idea of massification conflicted with the power of the South African economy to support such an approach. It is questionable, also, whether the level of social and community involvement in education was yet great enough to make such a policy politically acceptable. Thus, while the present state of the education system is greatly improved in terms of access and resources, it cannot be said that the problems are resolved or that the system is yet stable.

One of the major impetuses behind the recognition of the importance of information literacy in South Africa has been the report, “The Western Cape Library Cooperative Project” (1992), usually known as the “Senn Breivik Report” (Breivik, Pitkin, & Tyson, 1992). It addressed the need for the facilitation of cooperative academic planning within the tertiary education institutions of the Western Cape of South Africa in order to achieve transformation with limited economic resources. Weaknesses in the access to information and the management of information resources were identified as problems for which a cooperative solution would be viable. Information literacy was identified as key part of the solution. The report also indicated that information literacy is inherent in the service role played by higher education to the regional community, including the granting of access to its resources by the community.

In its recommendations, the Senn Breivik Report included the establishment of a pilot project in information literacy, with staff and faculty development activities. A specific point was made: “Only access to a rich base of information resources in many formats can allow a move away from the traditional lecture/textbook/short loan/reserve teaching approach that currently characterizes the great majority of course delivery styles. A rich base of information resources is necessary to design assessments that develop students’ information accessing and evaluative skills . . .” (Breivik, Pitkin & Tyson 1992, pp. 21-22).

A grant of $1 million (US) (3.6 million Rand at 1995 rates of exchange), to be paid out in tranches over a five-year period, from the Reader’s Digest SA allowed the establishment in 1995 of the INFOLIT Project. The primary objectives, listed in the five-year plan included:

• 
  promoting the concept, value and importance of information literacy in the context of globalisation and redress to key players in the region,
  
• 
  launching a series of pilot projects which explore and establish various means of spreading information literacy education in the region,
  
• 
  investigating information literacy models, programmes and initiatives in other countries that could be adapted to local conditions.
  

These objectives were the guiding framework for activity for the INFOLIT Project.

There is considerable evidence that the INFOLIT Project achieved several of its objectives, the greatest being the creation of awareness of the potential of information literacy amongst librarians and faculty. This was achieved by holding workshops around the region, often involving a mix of faculty and library staff, to discuss educational transformation, the issues of redress and the impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) on the ‘learning space.’ ‘Capacity development’ amongst faculty and library staff was the principal method of working, guided by the belief that development of the curriculum is best undertaken with the specific needs of each discipline in mind. The sharing of experience with librarians in other regions also ensured that the influence of the Project was more widely-spread.

Influential early research in information literacy in South Africa was done by Shirley Behrens, who in 1994 comprehensively reviewed the local state of the art following the completion of her pioneering PhD thesis in 1992 (Behrens, 1992). Subsequently Sandra Olen considered the role of the school library and media centre (Olen and Kruger, 1995). Thus, active consideration was given, almost as soon as the Government of National Unity was installed, to ways in which information literacy could begin to influence academic performance and community development.