Exploring Information Literacy Through the Lens of Activity Theory

Hall, Hazel; Cruickshank, Peter; Ryan, Bruce

Abstract

Activity Theory (AT) is presented as a framework for explaining Information Literacy (IL) as a technologically mediated social practice. This is achieved in the context of a study conducted in 2016 on the information gathering and sharing activities of Scottish community-level elected representatives. This work demonstrates the value of AT as (i) a tool for IL research that seeks to present information practices in their social contexts, and (ii) as a means of highlighting underlying issues within the social environment under review through the identification of contradictions within the activity system.

Citation

Hall, H., Cruickshank, P., & Ryan, B. (2018). Exploring Information Literacy Through the Lens of Activity Theory. In Communications in Computer and Information Science; Information Literacy in the Workplace (803-812). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74334-9_81

• Conference Name: European Conference on Information Literacy 2017
• Conference Location: St Malo, France
• Start Date: Sep 18, 2017
• End Date: Sep 21, 2017
• Acceptance Date: Jul 8, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Jan 19, 2018
• Publication Date: Jan 19, 2018
• Deposit Date: Jul 11, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 4, 2018
• Electronic ISSN: 1865-0937
• Publisher: Springer
• Pages: 803-812
• Series Title: Communications in Computer and Information Science
• Series Number: 810
• Series ISSN: 1865-0929
• Book Title: Communications in Computer and Information Science; Information Literacy in the Workplace
• ISBN: 9783319743332; 9783319743349
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74334-9_81
• Keywords: Activity Theory, information literacy, hyperlocal democracy, libraries, lifelong learning
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/959311
• Related Public URLs: https://www.slideshare.net/HazelHall/exploring-information-literacy-through-the-lens-of-activity-theory