A Consultation on the Digital Strategy for Scotland

Hello everyone, this consultation closes at midnight tonight the 23 December 2020.

I’m really sorry we’ve not coordinated a joint reply from all of you in the Information Literacy Community of Practice for Scotland.

As Liz McGettigan tweeted ‘Don’t reinvent the wheel. Respond to this consultation #Libraries! Reinvent and fund existing library network! Libraries have been taking on this challenge for decades.'

With this in mind, I hope you might agree that I respond to Digital Strategy consultation with the same thoughts we collaborated on regarding the last Digital Strategy for Scotland, bearing in mind that with the pandemic crisis and a world rife with mis-disinformation, it’s all the more necessary we employ information and digital skills and literacies.

The main point we made in the last Digital Strategy for Scotland, was the request to include information literacy and information skills when describing digital skills in The Digital Strategy for Scotland.

“Information literacy is associated and overlaps with other literacies, including specifically digital literacy, academic literacy and media literacy.”

cilip_definition_doc_final_f.pdf (ymaws.com) CILIP Information Literacy Group Information Literacy - CILIPS

 Information literacy incorporates a set of skills and abilities which everyone needs to undertake information-related tasks; for instance, how to discover, access, interpret, analyse, manage, create, communicate, store and share information. But it is much more than that: it concerns the application of the competencies, attributes and confidence needed to make the best use of information and to interpret it judiciously. It incorporates critical thinking and awareness, and an understanding of both the ethical and political issues associated with using information.

Information literacy relates to information in all its forms: not just print, but also digital content, data, images and the spoken word. Information literacy is associated and overlaps with other literacies, including specifically digital literacy, academic literacy and media literacy. It is not a stand-alone concept, and is aligned with other areas of knowledge and understanding.

Information literacy helps to understand the ethical and legal issues associated with the use of information, including privacy, data protection, freedom of information, open access/open data and intellectual property.

Importantly, information literacy is empowering, and is an important contributor to democratic, inclusive, participatory societies; as interpreted by UNESCO, it is a universal human right. (CILIP Information Literacy Group)

Thank you,

Jenny Foreman (joint chair for Information Literacy Community of Practice for Scotland)

Email: jenny.foreman@gov.scot

Twitter: @JennyForeman