Teaching Information Literacy for Inquiry-Based Learning

Teaching Information Literacy for Inquiry-Based Learning is highly beneficial to those who teach or train people and need to develop systematic ways of using information sources and tools to help them participate in inquiry based learning. Whether at school, college, university or work people need to use the wealth of information around them effectively. They need to find things out, assemble, process, evaluate, manage as well as communicate information. Increasingly a fundamental part of being information literate and an independent learner is being e-literate. This book helps the trainer understand the learner and use appropriate methods to help them explore and engage with being information and e-literate. It also helps the learner to be conscious of what it means to be information and e-literate and to use information effectively.

• Written by two leading experts in information literacy
• Draws on extensive personal experience of training learners and trainers in information literacy and information retrieval
• Uses examples of best practice from the educational context and the workplace

Dr Mark Hepworth is a senior lecturer at Loughborough University in the Department of Information Science. He teaches information literacy, information retrieval, the development of user centred information services. His research interests include: people’s information behaviour, the information needs of specific groups of people, information literacy and capability building in the development, academic and non-academic contexts.

Geoff Walton is a Subject and Learning Support Librarian and Research Informed teaching (RiT) Project Co-ordinator at Staffordshire University, with specific subject responsibilities for Psychology and Sport & Exercise Science. As RiT Co-ordinator Geoff is involved in identifying synergies between research, teaching, learning, information literacy, e-learning and inquiry-based learning. He is particularly interested in the cognitive processes involved in becoming information literate. His research interests also include developing the online information literacy tool the Assignment Survival Kit (ASK), developing a process for online peer assessment, investigating academic skills needs in undergraduate students and using inquiry-based methods to facilitate learning.