“Information literacy is the ability to think critically and make balanced judgements about any information we find and use. It empowers us as citizens to reach and express informed views and to engage fully with society.” CILIP, 2018.

Being information literate comprises a ‘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’ (ACRL, 2016).

The Learning and Research Librarians work with academic staff to embed and contextualise information literacy in the curriculum, to ensure that students are adept at finding, using, evaluating and communicating information ethically in a digital world, and in a way that is relevant to their academic programme of study.

They advise on database searching, evaluating web sites and open access resources, equipping students with skills to search efficiently and effectively; detect fake news; source peer-reviewed literature; navigate copyright issues and understand why and how to reference in a digital world.

Information literacy capabilities are noted in many QAA Subject benchmarks. The benchmark for computing sees the ‘ability to locate and retrieve relevant ideas, and ensure these are correctly and accurately referenced and attributed’ (QAA, 2016, p.11) as important for employability. Similarly, the criminology benchmark includes ‘bibliographic and referencing skills’ (QAA, 2014, p.14) as a technical skill.

“Digital Literacy defines those capabilities which fit an individual for living, learning and working in a digital society.” (JISC, 2011).

This includes the ability to make appropriate use of information that has been taken from a variety of sources including digital tools, services and social media.

The Learning Skills Team offer support and workshops to develop digital capabilities for academic research. These cover academic social media, professional digital identities, and digital tools such as linguistics corpora and data visualization tools. Furthermore, volunteering opportunities in the library enable students to create digital content and artefacts thus developing digital capabilities in the workplace.

Research literacy can be defined as the development of academic literacies at an enhanced level. The Learning Skills Team helps researchers to develop advanced information literacy capabilities, working with the Vitae Researcher Development Framework. They provide advice about sharing data from research projects via open access channels, compiling search strategies for systematic reviews and managing citations and bibliometrics.

The library provides guides to the following referencing styles: APA, Chicago, Harvard, MLA, OSCOLA and Vancouver; and to reference management tools such as Refworks and Mendeley. For more information visit our Learning Skills Hub. The Learning Skills Team provide referencing support and advice to staff and students.

Visual literacy is the way we see, interact with, and interpret meaning from the visual environment around us. It is also how we use and create imagery to communicate meaning to others. For more information visit our Learning Skills Hub.