Drawing on the “predator” model of ntrepreneurship put forward by Villette and Vuillermot in their 2009 book “From Predators to Icons,” this article argues that challenging economic times reveal that self-funded, collaborative information literacy models have in many cases unsustainably overstretched staff and budgets. In such circumstances, it is necessary for librarians to shift to an entrepreneurial approach that seeks profitable opportunities funded by parties other than the library in order to build capital for current and future instructional services. Following Villette and Vuillermot, the article seeks to refute a cultural myth that sees the entrepreneur as someone who is first and foremost a “do-gooder” or marketer of helpful products, and it also advocates that librarians adopt a view of the entrepreneur as one who preys on unexploited, lowcost/high-profit opportunities to leverage “other people’s money” to build capital for later innovation. The article considers the economics of information literacy and library instruction programs, provides historical context for what has come to be known as the “collaborative imperative,” points to the economic shortsightedness of many collaborative and “embedded librarian” partnerships, and details six examples from information literacy programs that model successful entrepreneurship of the sort argued for.

Subject searching—seeking information with a subject or topic in mind—is often involved in carrying out undergraduate assignments such as term papers and research reports. It is also an important component of information literacy—the abilities and experiences of effectively finding and evaluating, and appropriately using, needed information—which universities hope to cultivate in undergraduates by the time they complete their degree programs. By exploring the subject searching of a small group of upper-level, academically successful undergraduates over a school year I sought to acquire a deeper understanding of the contexts and characteristics of their subject searching, and of the extent to which it was similar in quality to that of search and domain experts. Primary data sources for this study comprised subject searching diaries maintained by participants, and three online subject searches they demonstrated at the beginning, middle, and end of the study during which they talked aloud while I observed, followed by focused interviews. To explore the quality of study participants’ subject searching I looked for indications of advanced thinking in thoughts they spoke aloud during demonstration sessions relating to using strategy, evaluating, and creating personal understanding, which represent three of the most challenging and complex aspects of information literacy. Applying a layered interpretive process, I identified themes within several hundred instances of participants’ advanced thinking relating to these three information literacy elements, with evaluative themes occurring most often. I also noted three factors influencing the extent of similarity between the quality of participants’ advanced thinking and that of search and domain experts which reflected matters that tended to be i) pragmatic or principled, , ii) technical or conceptual, and iii) externally or internally focused. Filtered through these factors, participants’ instances of advanced thinking brought to mind three levels of subject searching abilities: the competent student, the search expert, and the domain expert. Although relatively few in number, I identified at least some advanced thinking evincing domain expert qualities in voiced thoughts of all but one participant, suggesting the gap between higher order thinking abilities of upper-level undergraduates and information literate individuals is not always dauntingly large.

Information technology is constantly changing, and if academic users are to make best use of these resources, they must sustain efficient information-seeking behaviour. This study explores the information-seeking behaviour of graduate students at Kuwait University, and investigates the factors influencing that behaviour. The population also includes faculty members engaged in teaching and supervising graduate students, and academic librarians. Adopting Wilson's information-seeking model (1999) as the theoretical framework, the study identifies factors influencing graduate students' information behaviour and formulates hypotheses that illustrate the relationship between the different variables. The use of this model provides useful insights into determinants of the information-seeking behaviour patterns of students in a multidisciplinary graduate context. The research uses a mixed method approach, comprising questionnaire survey, focus groups and semi-structured interviews. Application of the Critical Incident Technique method provided in-depth data about the patterns of information-seeking behaviour of both graduate students and faculty members. Logistic regression revealed that significant factors related to library awareness, information literacy, organisational and environmental issues, source characteristics, and demographics act as determinants of the patterns of students' information-seeking behaviour. Uneasiness on the part of graduate students towards using the library and consulting its personnel reflects a broader negative perception of the role of the library in shaping students' information-searching patterns. The clearest finding that emerged from the analysis of the students' information literacy dimension was that the majority of graduate students still face difficulties in finding the appropriate information resources, particularly when using resources that need advanced search strategies. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed a heavy reliance on the information resources that require least effort (search engines, Internet websites, and personal contacts). Further, results revealed that graduate students are overwhelmed by an information overload, which leads them to become anxious about finding the appropriate information resources. Based on the results of the research, recommendations are made to further explore the information-seeking behaviour patterns of graduate students in order to enhance their information literacy skills. Improving information-seeking behaviour and enhancing the information literacy of students require interventions on various fronts: faculty members, academic librarians, the university administration, and graduate students themselves.

L’étude présentée dans cette thèse s’inscrit dans la problématique générale de la maîtrise de l’information et dans le prolongement de travaux antérieurs conduits à ce sujet en France et en Pologne. L’objectif est d’évaluer l’expérience, les connaissances et les compétences des doctorants français et polonais quant à leur usage des revues scientifiques offertes par les bibliothèques universitaires, et ce, afin de mettre en place un programme éducatif, dédié aux doctorants, basé sur les standards de la maîtrise de l’information et visant à développer leur usage des revues scientifiques. / The purpose of the research described in this thesis was: to present the problem of information literacy (IL) from the perspective of the previous works in this domain, especially those conducted in France and in Poland; to evaluate the experience, knowledge, and skills of French and Polish doctoral students in the area of use of scientific journals offered by academic libraries; and to prepare and educational project for doctoral students, based on IL international standards and principally aimed at increasing the use of scientific journals.

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to explore the information literacy of newly arrived people and to obtain knowledge about how they are looking for important information. The research questions are as follows: How do newly arrived people access information in the new society? What strategies do they use to overcome the difficulties/obstacles?How do newly arrived people learn about being information literate? Previous research has examined the importance of information literacy of newly arrived people and discussed how they are looking for important information. In this work, in order to gain an empirical insight, semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven women from Syria. The timeframe for the collection of this empirical data was more than two months. The results conveyed that the ‘newly arrived people’ are looking for important information by friends, relatives and social network. Said individuals have a tendancy to spend copious amounts of time to gain reliable and relevant information. Likewise, newly arrived people are in need of more support which would require further facilitation when entering into the labour market and integrating into society. The analysis also provided traits of newly arrived people needing more support and help learning about information literacy. What can be concluded, is that the newly arrived people did not have enough knowledge about library instructions when offering services. Among other issues, the results showed a great interest in culture, as well as an ambition to learn language and more about society, especially the new arrivals whom are looking for jobs despite the fact that they have been in the country for a short period.

Theme of the diploma thesis is the analysis of the processes inside the library of the University of economics. The first part is dedicated to the definition of the goals of the thesis and to the theory of the company processes. The text interprets the term of information literacy and information education and links these terms with the procedural analysis. The thesis introduces the library and identified processes for optimalization. In the second part, the identified processes are analyzed and described in the EPC notation. The thesis describes five processes and their sub-processes. The first process is the educational program, the next process is the cooperation between the university teachers and the library. Another process is the the control of the plagiarism and the use of electronical sources and thesis in the education. The last described process is the feedback from the users. The conclusion summarises the thesis and is coupled with the recommendation about the optimalization of the described processes. The goal of the thesis is to optimalize the defined processes of the informational education in the library and to improve the quality of them, so they can effectively aid the goals of the library, but also to improve the information literacy of the students.

Thesis (M.A (Psychology))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, 2016 / Undergraduate students’ require a certain degree of digital literacy in order to make use of the internet as a resource and educational tool. This report argues that two critical aspects of digital search literacy are the student’s ability to effectively execute and monitor the search strategies used to navigate the ever-increasing number of webpages; and the critical thinking skills required to evaluate those documents in an academic context. Therefore, digital literacy requires effective self-directed learning (SDL) skills and appropriate epistemic cognition (EC). The present research used a sequential explanatory design, which comprised of two phases: Stage 1, N = 119 and Stage 2, N=17. The sample for both phases of the project was drawn from students enrolled for first-year level psychology courses at the University of the Witwatersrand. The sample for Stage 2 was drawn from students who had already completed Stage 1, which required the completion an online questionnaire. During the second phase, students were tasked with conducting a web-based search on an essay topic relating to the discipline of psychology. Several research objectives were examined; general self-reported epistemic cognition and readiness for self-directed learning levels of a sample of undergraduate South African university students; self-reported self-directed learning behaviours, epistemic cognition and digital search literacy issues; the impact of search strategies on the type and quality of information sources located; and the psychology-specific epistemic beliefs involved in the evaluation of source features of web based documents. Findings showed that students did indeed engage specific self-directed learning and epistemic cognition behaviours while searching for resources online. The key components of digital search literacy included, self-directed learning (monitoring and strategy use) and epistemic cognition (source evaluation). In terms of rating the sources, personal justification and justification by authority were the most predominant when students rated the most credible sources; while relevance to task, personal justification and format/style were applied more often when rating the least credible web documents. In conclusion, future research on digital literacy should include the relative contribution of SDL and EC components as important mechanisms for online search strategies and critical source evaluation. Keywords: self-directed learning, epistemic cognition and beliefs, source evaluation, web search, navigation behaviour, strategies / GR2017

Orientadora: Maria José Vicentini Jorente / Banca: Ana Carolina Simionato / Banca: Edberto Ferneda / Resumo: As relações cada vez mais estreitas entre a tecnologia e a saúde fizeram surgir a chamada eHealth, um conceito que se refere aos processos de comunicação ou melhoria dos serviços e informação em saúde por meio da Internet e demais tecnologias eletrônicas. No contexto da eHealth, estudos abordaram os diferentes graus de literacia em saúde - a habilidade de processar e compreender informações referentes a temas relacionados à saúde - dos indivíduos e sua relação com a adequação dos serviços eletrônicos da área. grande parte da população global possui um nível limitado de alfabetização em saúde. A literacia em saúde está relacionada a fatores pessoais, como condições demográficas e de saúde, assim como a dificuldade de utilizar serviços eHealth. As dificuldades de acesso aos serviços de saúde eletrônicos podem ser ocasionadas por problemas no Design da Informação desses serviços, como a disponibilidade e a legibilidade dos seus conteúdos e a sua usabilidade. O Design da Informação (DI) é uma disciplina que agrupa uma ampla gama de conhecimentos e aplicações. Dentre eles, envolve a análise, o planejamento, a organização e a apresentação de mensagens em seus meios, sejam eles analógicos ou digitais. O DI fornece elementos de melhoria significativa para a interface gráfica de interação entre os ambientes digitais e os indivíduos, a fim de melhorar o acesso, a interação e a comunicação dos documentos, com foco na legibilidade, compreensão e integração do conhecimento. A presente pes... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Increasingly close relationships between technology and health have created the so-called eHealth, a concept that refers to the processes of communication or improvement of health services and information through the Internet and other electronic technologies. In the eHealth context, studies have addressed the different degrees of health literacy - the ability to process and understand information related to health issues - of individuals and their relationship to the adequacy of the area's electronic services. A large part of the global population has a limited level of health literacy. Health literacy is related to personal factors such as demographic and health conditions, as well as the difficulty of using eHealth services. The difficulties of accessing electronic health services can be caused by problems in the Information Design of these services, such as the availability and readability of their contents and their usability. Information Design is a discipline that brings together a wide range of knowledge and applications. Among them, it involves the analysis, planning, organization and presentation of messages in their media, whether analog or digital. Information Design provides elements of significant improvement for the graphical interaction interface between digital environments and individuals, in order to improve access, interaction and communication of documents, focusing on the readability, comprehension and integration of knowledge. This research focuses on t... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Orientadora: Helen de Castro Silva Casarin / Banca: José Augusto Chaves Guimarães / Banca: Bernadete Santos Campello / Banca: Elizete Vieira Vitorino / Banca: Carlos Cândido de Almeida / Resumo: Atualmente, tem-se enfocado, no âmbito das pesquisas científicas, a responsabilidade social do bibliotecário em sua atuação frente à sociedade da informação. Nesse contexto, compreende-se que a formação desse profissional deve abarcar conteúdos que enfoquem o seu papel social, sobretudo no que concerne às questões referentes à Competência Informacional, dado que o bibliotecário tem sido apontado como o responsável por promover, implementar e desenvolver programas desta natureza nas instituições de ensino. A presente investigação teve como objetivo analisar como a Competência Informacional e os conteúdos de formação pedagógica têm sido abordados nos cursos Biblioteconomia no Brasil e de Informação e Documentação na Espanha, caracterizando-se como uma pesquisa de cunho exploratório, documental e comparativo, realizando-se a análise dos currículos, dos planos de ensino e de entrevistas com professores que ministram a disciplina acerca do tema. Deste modo, a análise dos resultados foi realizada tanto de forma qualitativa como quantitativa. Como resultados, no Brasil, constatou-se que há 10 disciplinas de Competência Informacional, sendo que sete são de caráter obrigatório e três são optativas; a nomenclatura mais utilizada é Competência Informacional. Na Espanha, quatro são optativas e uma de formação básica; há uma normatização quanto ao uso do termo alfabetização em informação ou alfabetização informacional. O conteúdo da maioria das disciplinas que abordam o tema inclui o conceito, os programas, os locais de aprendizagem e o papel educacional do bibliotecário, considerando-se que poucos cursos de Biblioteconomia possuem disciplinas de didática ou da área de educação que possibilitam aos alunos compreenderem o sistema de ensino, sua forma de organização, suas ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Nowadays, scientific researches are focused on the social responsibility of the librarian in his/her action towards the information society. It is understood that the librarian's professional formation should include content that focus on his/her social role, particularly on issues relating to information literacy, as the librarian is appointed as responsible for promoting, developing and implementing such programs in educational institutions. The present research aimed to analyze how the information literacy and pedagogical training content have been covered in Library Science courses in Brazil and for Information and Documentation on Spain, being characterizing itself as an exploratory, documentary and comparative research, in which analysis of curriculum, educational plans and interviews with teachers who teach on the subject discipline are made. Thus, the analysis of the results has been performed both qualitatively and quantitatively. As a result, in Brazil, it was found that there are 10 disciplines of information literacy, seven that are mandatory and three are optional; the nomenclature used is informational competence. In Spain, four are optional and only one in basic training. There is a standardization on the use of the term information literacy or informational literacy. The content of most disciplines that approach the theme includes the concept, programs, places of learning and the educational role of the librarian, considering that few courses in Library Science have didactic disciplines or education that enable students to understand the educational system, its organizational form, its learning theories. In the Spanish context, not disciplines of education are offered. However, students have the option to get their higher education as an elective discipline in other courses. It is considered ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

Orientadora: Regina Célia Baptista Belluzzo / Banca: Marta Lígia Pomim Valentim / Banca: Cássia Regina Bassan de Moraes / Banca: Elmira Luzia Melo Soares Simeão / Banca: Sônia Aparecida Cabestré / Resumo: O contexto empresarial é constantemente influenciado pelo movimento da informação no sentido de que seus reflexos influenciam a economia, o mercado, os clientes e, em decorrência, seu modelo de atuação. A percepção da necessidade de modelos de gestão eficientes surge à medida que a competitividade de mercado demanda novas práticas e perfis profissionais adequados aos desafios no cenário que se apresenta. A Competência em Informação pode oferecer mecanismos sólidos às empresas e à sociedade tendo em vista a necessidade cada vez maior em saber lidar com a informação de maneira efetiva para a construção de conhecimento, geração de melhores resultados e sua sustentabilidade no mercado. Surge, portanto, a questão central desse estudo que busca compreender como o empresário/empreendedor de Micro e Pequenas Empresas, sob a mediação de programa de capacitação voltado à inovação, percebe a importância do acesso e uso da informação e a relação com a sustentabilidade em mercado competitivo? Desse modo, o objetivo principal desta tese foi avaliar se a percepção dos empresários/empreendedores sobre o acesso e uso da informação, sob a mediação de programa de capacitação em inovação, exercem influência nas decisões e na sustentabilidade das Micro e Pequenas Empresas, contribuindo com subsídios à compreensão e ao desenvolvimento de competência nessa área. Para tanto, estruturou-se a pesquisa em três etapas: Etapa 1 - pesquisa Revisão Sistemática da Literatura envolvendo os temas em estudo - ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The business context is frequently influenced by the movement of information because its results influence on economy, market, clients and the way companies work. The competitiveness demands new practices and skilled professionals to face the challenges of the context. Because of that, a necessity of new management models emerges. Information literacy can offer mechanisms to both companies and society, since people need to know how to deal with information effectively to construct knowledge, generate better results and become sustainable. The central question of the paper is to understand how the businessman/entrepreneur realizes the importance of information access and use for micro and small business. Furthermore, it aims to investigate the importance of information access and use to sustainability through a training program in innovation. The purpose is to evaluate whether the perception of businessman/entrepreneur about information access and use influence on decisions and sustainability. That perception focus on training programs of innovation and information literacy development. The research was structured in three steps: 1- systematic literature review about the themes studied. 2- Case study, characterization of the research universe and Innovation Local Agents Program [Programa Agentes Locais de Inovação] (documental analysis, discourse of the collective subject, questionnaire applied with professionals, workshop through the use of Belluzzo's diagram, Agents' article... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor