Practices of community representatives in exploiting information channels for citizen democratic engagement

Hall, Hazel; Cruickshank, Peter; Ryan, Bruce

Abstract

The purpose of the research was to investigate the practices of elected, yet unpaid, community councillors in Scotland as they exploit information channels for democratic engagement with citizens. Its focus is both novel and significant in that it considers the information literacy of a group that has not been studied before: volunteer representatives active in hyperlocal government. The primary means of data collection was semi-structured interviews of one hour in length with 19 community councillors. Research design and data analysis were informed by the SCONUL 7 pillar model of information literacy, and by Activity Theory. The main finding of the analysis is that community councillors engage with a range of information sources and tools in their work, the most important of which derives from local authorities. Three recommendations emerge from the analysis. These relate to (i) information literacy training; (ii) valuing information skills; and (iii) the role of the public library service in supporting community council work.

Citation

Hall, H., Cruickshank, P., & Ryan, B. (2019). Practices of community representatives in exploiting information channels for citizen democratic engagement. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 51(4), 950-961. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000618769966

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 14, 2017
• Online Publication Date: May 6, 2018
• Publication Date: 2019-12
• Deposit Date: Dec 15, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 15, 2017
• Journal: Journal of Librarianship and Information Science
• Print ISSN: 0961-0006
• Electronic ISSN: 1741-6477
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 51
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 950-961
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000618769966
• Keywords: Community councillors, democracy, hyperlocal representatives, information literacy, SCONUL model
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1020213
• Contract Date: Dec 15, 2017