Information Literacy Level
Assessment Level SCQF Level 12 / SHE level 5, PG 2, Ph.D. – Doctorate
General skill
Using information literacy skills and competences effectively and ethically to independently undertake a piece of scholarly / academic research
Example of level of task
Specific skills[1]
1. The ability to recognise a need for information
2. The ability to distinguish ways in which the information ‘gap’ may be addressed:
- knowledge of appropriate kinds of resources, both print and non-print
- selection of resources with ‘best fit’ for task at hand
- the ability to understand the issues affecting accessibility of sources
3. The ability to construct strategies for locating information
- to articulate information need to match against resources
- to develop a systematic method appropriate for the need
- to understand the principles of construction and generation of databases
4. The ability to locate and access information
- to develop appropriate searching techniques (e.g. use of Boolean)
- to use communication and information technologies, including terms international academic networks
- to use appropriate indexing and abstracting services, citation indexes and databases
- to use current awareness methods to keep up to date
5. The ability to compare and evaluate information obtained from different sources
- awareness of bias and authority issues
- awareness of the peer review process of scholarly publishing
- appropriate extraction of information matching the information need
6. The ability to organise, apply and communicate information to others in ways appropriate to the situation
- to cite bibliographic references in project reports and theses
- to construct a personal bibliographic system
- to apply information to the problem at hand
- to communicate effectively using appropriate medium
- to understand issues of copyright and plagiarism
7. The ability to synthesise and build upon existing information, contributing to the creation of new knowledge
SCQF Level 12 / SHE level 6, PG 2, Ph.D. – Doctorate
[1] SCONUL Seven headline skills from the Seven Pillars Model for Information Literacy