Hi

I agree with Mark completely that information literacy concentrates or 
focuses on secondary research.

My suggested reasoning for this, including (post-hoc) for the CILIP 
definition, would be that primary research, as described by Mark, is more 
aligned with tertiary education than anything else - it is the kind of 
thing taught in e.g. university Research Methodology courses. Perhaps more 
importantly, primary research tends to deal with data - or raw, 
unprocessed information - and we seem to be trying to define information 
literacy or information skills, rather than data [handling] skills.

This verges on semantics and niceties of terminology, and may seem to be 
playing with words simply for the sake of doing so. It seems to me that 
the problem is not so much about a (or the) definition for information 
literacy, but about a definition - or at least a set of skills - for 
independent learning; and one of the skill sets is almost certainly 
information literacy.

At some point in time, people have begun to treat the two (IL and IL!) as 
synonymous or at least as near-synonyms and this seems to be the root of 
much confusion. 

Mark said that if it is assumed that "IL is the be all and end all of 
independent learning then we will not be able to engage and communicate 
effectively with others who are involved with independent learning" and he 
is right. The text which is on the CILIP website with the CILIP definition 
notes "IL is here defined as a part of knowledge or learning, ... One 
might say that an information literate person should have an ability to be 
a lifelong learner and to reflect on what they are doing. That is not part 
of information literacy; rather it is a necessary attitude, as you cannot 
develop information literacy without it." Equally you cannot be an 
effective independent learner without being information literate.

I hope that serves to help rather than confuse!

Chris



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Chris Armstrong
Information Automation Limited
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