Presented at LILAC 2024.

2. BruceRyan 2/22/2024
1.Howdoyoudefine‘impact’inyourworkorpractice?
Feedback surveys
Student feedback
Impact…
This is notoriously difficult to
define and even harder to measure.
In an academic library—number of information
literacy sessions taught and number of students
User feedback
Enable people to change their behavior
Altmetrics
Making a difference...
...to behaviour or learner outcomes.
But massively hard to measure.
Student engagement with and enjoyment of our service
Impact means
An observable change in behaviour,
changing someone else's practice
Students successfully completing a research assignment
What impact is not…
Just counting stuff.
Individuals reached and citations
I'm a government librarian and so the measures
would be different from a lot here. For us it would be
seeing an impact on policy or an effect on research.
Changes in learners’ experiences
Seeing/hearing how students will incorporate
the IL skills they learned in their current projects

3. Seeing positive outcomes in things
like improvements in digital skills
Student feedback on improved grades
Student success and achievement
Number of users (students) reached via teaching or 1-1s.
Quantitative and qualitative survey feedback.
NSS score.
SCONUL data benchmarked against other institutions.
Student attainment - working on how we
measured our impact on student attainment.
People using it in everyday work
Death by survey
Re defining impact as value...looking at
impact case studies where IL has given value
Student feedback. Returning students.
An improvement in students‘ marks, ultimately
service usage, and when people provide
feedback on how our service has
changed their behaviour or outcomes
Impact
Hard to get acceptance that IL is even worth
considering in schools so even harder to show or
measure impact. Differences in terminology don’t help
Better informed library users
Increased engagement with the library service
Measuring impact when you teach
This is really hard. What does it mean - results
improve? Students give you positive feedback?
How do you know if they have actually developed
their IL abilities? It's going to be very messy
Wider contribution
Changing existing approaches, policies, improving skills
in measurable ways, getting interest from outside your

4. own silos of work and contributing on a wider level -
getting work known externally and in other disciplines
I prefer to focus on understanding- impact
seems to be a very positivist, neoliberal term
Students/users being able to do
something new or do something at a
higher level as a result of their library use
Successful graduates
UX research - identifying student pain points and
targeting those. Do we teach students things they need
to learn, at a moment when they're useful for them?

6. BruceRyan 2/22/2024
2.WhatistheimpactofILonsociety?
Less health inequalities
Enabling people to have an understanding of the amount
of information, how to find it effectively and use ethically
A more literate and fair society .
A rational and informed citizenry
in a robust democratic society
(Hopefully!) it can help create citizens that think
critically about information and systems, and
how people contribute to and interact with them
The growth of QAnon, according to Matthew
Hannah (Hannah, M. N. (2023). Information
Literacy in the Age of Internet Conspiracism.
Journal of Information Literacy, 17(1), 204-220.)
Ability to have critical, informed discussions
the perpetuation of middle class and white values
People are able to at least suspect that
information they come across might be
wrong. They don't fall for everything they read.
Better IL? Then better, more effective,
engagement with wider society.
I could argue there is a push towards worse IL
(propaganda, fake news, deep fakes, disinformation,
etc) to deliberately prevent good engagement and
enable dodgy political views to gain power.
Informed citizens who can participate in
democracies. Productive, rational debate
among those who disagree. Healthy dissent.
More IL must generally be a good thing...
we would assume that it will contribute to people being
more informed, more empowered, better connected.

7. Less 'hot takes' and more informed opinions. A
more healthy and respectful societal discourse
with less hostile polarisation and more tolerance.
Full citizen participation
Helps people think critically, question what is fake news!
Informed citizens who are critical thinkers
More people have access to
authoritative data and information
People thinking more critically about information
Responsibility and human rights
More responsibility on services and businesses via
government policies to safeguard people’s right
to good information, evidence and truth and less
misuse of personal data and information for gain
When faced with a complex information environment
and large scale communication platforms at hand, an
understanding of this can have big effects.
Imagine what IL looks like in a dictatorship. I suppose
it exists underground and has to be suppressed.
People not led so much by the biased media
I think we also put too much on information
literacy. It can’t fix all the problems
IL and society
Lack of IL and too much information create dangerous
worlds. We must educate and fund this essential skill
from earliest possible age & in the interim educate
general population. Promote the positive not the
negative messages about information handling
Aligns with the UN sustainability goal
4..to give people access to education
continued funding for librarians

8. We should try and understand why people believe
conspiracy theories though, because I agree that
IL is not 'the' solution - it is just part of it
Going outside of one’s bubble is very enticing but
people of all political stripes don’t always want to
listen to other points of view. Not sure precisely
how this relates to Information Literate societies.
People learning to take responsibility for the
information they create. Role models of good practice

10. BruceRyan 2/22/2024
3.HowcanweincreasetheimpactofIL?
Increase understanding of what IL is
decolonise IL (and our research methods)
Encourage people to use IL skills (which is
different from just being aware of them)
Come the glorious revolution, our illustrious
leader Jane will ensure a greater impact.
Grassroots and community building
Standardize it across institutions and disciplines
Introduce it earlier in schools
Start early! Nurture the mindset of evaluating
information, using evidence to support arguments
Use accessible language
Collaborate
Have some standardised ways of collecting
data so we have evidence across the sector.
SCONUL stats type thing for IL....
More research and interventions that include librarians
Training the trainers, more IL trainings for librarians etc
Be advocates for IL at every opportunity
Make friends and influence people-
ask for cited sources in conversations
Get institutional recognition of
what it is, to promote the benefits

11. Illustrate its importance in life
- not just a skill for education
Be better listeners. Make information
accessible. Talk about Information Literacy
without saying the phrase Information Literacy.
Buy the great leader a crown?
A crown AND a golden microphone 🎤
Have IL built into the curriculum
throughout all levels of education.
Get people to learn to take responsibility for the
information they create by providing good
practice models & move away from scary stories
Question the information systems that we use
Promote what it does, rather than framing as IL
Challenge our narrow understanding of impact
Never to early to start- primary school
This is a conversation that goes on for a long time
People who understand and foster IL should take
government and senior management positions to
make the right decisions. Nobody else will make them
and we will have this conversation for another 50 years

12. Recognize IL as a discipline
Librarians take over the world
Get it discussed in mainstream
media and in popular culture
IL on Eastenders was once talked about
and there is a serious point about how
you raise public understanding of it
Stop positioning IL as a discipline
Leverage current recognition that IL is
needed to address information challenges
Spare a thought for Information Literacy!
As it’s clearly having an existential crisis…
Make it relevant to people's lives
This is where misinformation / disinformation and
linking to big issues like the election is important.
But we've got to make people care and want this
as something for themselves and their children
Needs to feature in assessment or it won’t
be embraced in schools like IT was adopted
Merge IL in every level of education
Use the appropriate approach to teach IL
Depending on individual situation. If there isn't enough
capacity to do 1-to-1s, offer one-off sessions in every
single year etc., choose another approach. E.g. train
the lectures to teach IL, create self-paced courses, etc.