'Exploring information literacy through the lens of Activity Theory' is a paper presented by Bruce Ryan at the 5th European Conference on Information Literacy in St-Malo, France, 18th to 21st September 2017. It is concluded that Activity Theory is an appropriate tool for information literacy research. Its main strengths are found in the processes of preparing data collection tools and the extraction of ‘meaning’ from interview data. In addition, Activity Theory is especially powerful at identifying contradictions between the activities under scrutiny in research projects. In this case, since information literacy was viewed through the lens of Activity Theory, barriers to information sharing, and the stimulation of change in information practice, emerged as strong themes in the research project findings. **The full paper for this slide deck is available. Please see https://www.napier.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/research-search/outputs/exploring-information-literacy-through-the-lens-of-activity-theory **

1. EXPLORING INFORMATION
LITERACY THROUGH THE LENS
OF ACTIVITY THEORY
HAZEL HALL
@HAZELH
PETER CRUICKSHANK
@SPARTAKAN
BRUCE RYAN
@BRUCE_RESEARCH
CENTRE FOR SOCIAL
INFORMATICS
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2. WHAT ARE COMMUNITY COUNCILS?
Community councils represent small areas within local authorities
◦ Legal duty: Ascertain, co-ordinate and express to the local authorities for its
area, … the views of the community which it represents
◦ In practice, also communication of key facts to citizens
◦ Some rights to be consulted on planning
◦ small budgets (around £1000 annually)
Community councillors
◦ unpaid volunteers
◦ around 11,000 community councillors
◦ No solid demographic information exists
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UK Government
Scottish Government
local authorities
community councils

3. WHY COMMUNITY COUNCILS ARE INTERESTING FOR ECIL
Pure representation role
Almost entirely oriented
to information finding
and sharing
May give an insight into
approaches to ‘facts’ by
representatives
Small scale,
community-based nature:
Analogies with
hyperlocal media?
‘channel-blurring’
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4. RESEARCH MOTIVATION
2014: looking at community councils’ online presences
◦ 16% don’t exist
◦ 36% exist but are not online
◦ 26% are ‘out-of-date’
◦ Only 22% are ‘up-to-date’
Subsequent work used models of knowledge sharing and CoPs (Cruickshank & Ryan, 2015)
◦ information science could provide useful insights
◦ how do community councillors acquire skills and information?
Research gap: information literacy in representatives
Personal motivation/perspective
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5. ABOUT THE PROJECT
9-week project at the end of 2016.
Project aims
◦ How do community councillors
1. access and understand information on their duties and rights
2. keep up to date with local developments of relevance to the communities that they serve;
3. disseminate information to their communities?
◦ Where do future efforts need to be directed to improve the skills and practices of this group?
◦ What are the roles of public library staff in the training of community councillors?
◦ How do community councillors information literacies contribute to their communities, to
building social capital, and to their or others’ citizenships?
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6. RESEARCH APPROACH (1)
Identified themes …
◦ Information literacy
◦ Behaviour and practices
◦ Lifelong learning/everyday life
◦ Libraries
◦ Communities, social capital and
citizenship
◦ Becoming information literate
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•From
themes
•From
literature
Interview
questions
developed
•Information
Literacy
•Activity systems
Validated
against
models

7. RESEARCH APPROACH (2)
IL focusses on the individual
Activity Theory (AT) provides ‘a language for making sense of complex, real-world activities in
cultural and historical contexts’
◦ Stems from work by soviet psychologists Vygotsky, Rubenstein and Leont’ev.
◦ AT’s early history: Mironenko (2013)
◦ Developed into CHAT by Bergstrom
Sees human activities as systemic and socially-situated phenomena.
Provides ready-built framework for contextualising and understanding
underlying issues around social/collective activities.
◦ AT has been used in IL research (e.g. in Wilson, 2008)
◦ not in the context of democratic representation (or specifically, the actions of representatives)
◦ Inspired partly by Detlor, Hupfer & Smith (2016)
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8. RESEARCH APPROACH (2)
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•From themes
•From literature
Questions
developed
•Information
Literacy
•Activity
systems
Validated
against
models
Subject
Tools
Object Outcome
Division of
labour
CommunityRules and
norms
Motivation

9. RESEARCH PROCESS
METHODS
Semi-structured interviews
◦ Interview questions validated against
SCONUL model
◦ 1 hour
◦ Most by phone
◦ Thematic analysis (RQs and AT
constructs)
Triangulation through
◦ Online survey
◦ Direct contact with LA support staff
◦ Desktop research
PARTICIPANTS
19 volunteers across Scotland
◦ From 17 CCs
◦ Recruited via LA officials and CC
KnowledgeHub group
◦ 11M, 8F
◦ CC areas SIMD range 5 to 10
◦ Almost all have degree or PG education
Lack CC demographics information
◦ But untypically high self-efficacy
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1
3
9
4
2
0
2
4
6
8
10
30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70-+
numberofparticipants
participant age-range

10. FINDINGS:
EXPLORING THE AT CONSTRUCTS
Illustrative examples follow, showing
◦ How we used AT constructs
◦ How AT was useful in this information literacy project.
◦ thematic analysis
◦ We didn’t specifically search for contradictions, though some contradictions
did emerge.
The full project findings are in other outputs.
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Community, Knowledge, Connections

11. FINDINGS:
WHO ARE THE SUBJECTS?
Definition
Subjects are people undertaking activities.
Problem
◦ individual community councillors, because they are the
people who undertake the activities?
◦ the community councils, as ‘inanimate’ groups?
Our solution
Precedent
Detlor, Hupfer and Smith (2016) collected data from
individuals but classed libraries as subjects.
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‘interviewee’
‘subject’
Subject
Tools
Object Outcome
Division of
labour
CommunityRules and
norms
Motivation

12. FINDINGS:
WHAT ARE THEIR MOTIVATIONS?
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Definition
Motivations are the reasons why subjects
undertake activities
Anticipation
◦ responses to legislation
◦ response to local authority ‘schemes’
Findings
A majority of interviewees engaged in
information activities that fit with the
motivation construct of AT.
In addition, the interviewees explained their
more general motivations to volunteer as
hyperlocal representatives.
Subject
Tools
Object Outcome
Division of
labour
CommunityRules and
norms
Motivation

13. FINDINGS:
WHAT ARE THE OBJECTS AND OUTCOMES?
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Definitions
Objects are the goals subjects wish to achieve
◦ can change over time
Outcomes are the actual results of activities
◦ can include unexpected results
Anticipation
Main object of information activities would be to
gather, process and convey information about citizens’
opinions.
Finding: objects
confirmed by 15 of the 19 interviewees
Finding: outcomes
Evidence of poor information practices
◦ ‘mailing list [has] 60-odd people [but] there are
25,000 people in the area’.
◦ Another interviewee was considering resignation
due to lack of peer support.
‘We don’t transact actions, we don’t have any
financial power. Our currency is information’
Subject
Tools
Object Outcome
Division of
labour
CommunityRules and
norms
Motivation

14. FINDINGS:
WHAT ARE THE TOOLS?
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Definition
Tools are the physical or mental devices used by
subjects in their activities.
Anticipation
◦ digital
◦ traditional
◦ face-to-face
Question
We asked interviewees how they
◦ gather information about local issues
◦ share information with their citizens.
Findings
Identification of a range of tools including
◦ bodies, e.g. local authorities
◦ individuals, e.g. citizens by word of mouth
◦ traditional media, e.g. local press
◦ internet sources, e.g. Facebook.
Bonus
Data on perceived usefulness and levels of
comfort when using these tools
◦ practical information (training needs)
Subject
Tools
Object Outcome
Division of
labour
CommunityRules and
norms
Motivation

15. FINDINGS:
WHAT ARE THE RULES AND NORMS?
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Definition
Rules and norms are the regulations and
conventions that mediate activities and
relationships within the activity system.
Anticipation
Imposed: legislation and LA schemes
Findings
◦ Imposed: legislation and LA schemes
◦ Self-devised:
◦ e.g. mark email as ‘internal only’ etc
◦ e.g. ignore all planning matters that not
directly impinging on CC’s area.
◦ Two mentions of autocracy
◦ one subject aims for ‘open-ness, information-
and resource-sharing, and accessible paper-
trails’.
Bonus
Revealed factors influencing how information
tasks are undertaken, including whether or
not they are undertaken at all.
Subject
Tools
Object Outcome
Division of
labour
CommunityRules and
norms
Motivation

16. FINDINGS:
WHAT IS THE COMMUNITY?
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Definition
Community is the activity’s stakeholders. It
may be
◦ the subject’s immediate work group or team
◦ the wider organisational community
◦ society at large
Findings
◦ NB each community council has its own AT
‘community’
◦ Fellow community councillors
◦ Local citizens
◦ Local authority staff and councillors
Bonus
additional commentary provided on levels of
engagement across the communities
But…
Subsequently found indications that most
engagement is with local authority, not with
citizens ‘represented’ by community councils.
Subject
Tools
Object Outcome
Division of
labour
CommunityRules and
norms
Motivation

17. FINDINGS:
WHAT IS THE DIVISION OF LABOUR?
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Definition
Division of labour refers to the manner(s) in
which work is allocated among actors
Findings
range of approaches, e.g.
◦ individual skills
◦ designated roles
Result
AT could establish an overview of the means
of task-allocation.
But…
Problems understanding how division of
labour is mediated by rules and norms.
◦ difficult to find clear-cut distinctions between
these two constructs.
Subject
Tools
Object Outcome
Division of
labour
CommunityRules and
norms
Motivation

18. CONCLUSIONS:
A PICTURE OF INFORMATION ACTIVITIES
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Object
information sharing
between citizens and
authorities
Subject
community
councils
Tools
Facebook, other social media, face-to-face, paper
Outcome
limited information
sharing between citizens
and authorities
Division of labour
conflicts, roles
Community
peers and local authority
councilors/staff, local residents
(to some extent)
Rules and norms
mostly from local authority guidance
but some developed ‘in-house’
Motivation
legislation and
local authority
schemes

19. CONCLUSIONS:
ADVANTAGES OF USING ACTIVITY THEORY
Systematic data collection and analysis
Ensured comprehensive data extraction to
answer RQs
◦ Checking each construct was in interview
schedule
Ready-made framework for coding the data
◦ analysis of activities reported by the
interviewees
◦ see alignments between the data put under AT
constructs and the SCONUL IL pillars
◦ e.g. data relevant to both tools and community
fit with the gather and present pillars.
Brought out important findings about IL
amongst community councillors in Scotland
and the factors that influence these
Contradictions/tensions identified
◦ foundations of future practical benefits, by
‘exposing opportunities for change’.
◦ e.g. community councillors are part-time
volunteers
◦ do not have time to undertake all possible
activities.
◦ community councils’ low use of the Internet to
engage with citizens.
◦ Practical recommendations
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20. CONCLUSIONS:
ADVANTAGES OF USING ACTIVITY THEORY
Overall
◦AT is valuable to research design in projects
concerned with group information practices
◦AT can contribute to the generation of findings that
relate to existing IL models
◦ in this case the SCONUL 7 pillars
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21. CONCLUSIONS:
CHALLENGES AND FURTHER WORK
◦ Who are the subjects?
◦ rules and norms v division of labour
◦ Choice of ‘best’ activity system
◦ from local authority to community council to
citizens?
OR
◦ from citizens to community council to local
authority
◦ both may happen simultaneously, e.g. in
Facebook
Activity diagrams are snapshots
at a certain time
Ideas for future work:
◦ Explicit study of contradictions
◦ Longitudinal studies
◦ observe impact of interventions
◦ such as our recommendations, if
implemented
Next: Bigger online survey of IL
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22. SELECTED REFERENCES & FURTHER READING
Behrens, S. J. (1994). A Conceptual Analysis and Historical Overview of Information Literacy. College & Research Libraries, 55(4), 309–322.
https://doi.org/10.5860/crl_55_04_309
Cruickshank, P., Hall, H., Ryan, B.M. (2017). Practices of Community Representatives in Exploiting Information Channels for Citizen Engagement. Paper presented at
information: interactions and impact 2017, Aberdeen, 27-30 June 2017. Abstract available at: http://www.napier.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/research-
search/outputs/practices-of-community-representatives-in-exploiting-information-channels-for-citizen
Cruickshank, P., & Ryan, B. M. (2015). The Communities of Practice model for understanding digital engagement by hyperlocal elected representatives. In E. Tambouris, H. J.
Scholl, M. Janssen, M. A. Wimmer, K. Tarabanis, M. Gascó, … Ø. Sæbø (Eds.), Electronic Government and Electronic Participation (pp. 11–18). IOS Press.
http://doi.org/10.3233/978-1-61499-570-8-11
Detlor, B., Hupfer, M. E., & Smith, D. H. (2016). Digital storytelling and memory institutions: a case study using activity theory. In ASIST 2016. Copenhagen, Denmark.
Hall, H., Cruickshank, P., Ryan, B.M. (2017). Information Literacy for Democratic Engagement. Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh.
https://communityknectdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/il-dem-stakeholder-report-january-2017.pdf
Irving, C., Brettle, A., & Hall, H. (2015). How can information literacy be modelled from a lifelong learning perspective? In Information: Interactions and Impact. Aberdeen, UK.
Retrieved from www.rgu.ac.uk/file/i3-irving-et-al-pdf-800k
Mironenko, I.A. (2013). Concerning Interpretations of Activity Theory. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 47(3), 376–393. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-013-
9231-5
Ryan, B. M., & Cruickshank, P. (2014). Scottish Community Councils online: the 2014 survey. Edinburgh. https://doi.org/10.14297/enr.2016.000002
Smith, L. (2016). Information literacy as a tool to support political participation. Library and Information Research, 40(123), 14–23.
Wilson, T. (2008). Activity Theory and Information Seeking. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 42, 119–161. https://doi.org/10.1002/aris.2008.1440420111
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23. THE END
…FOR NOW
H A Z E L H A L L
@ H A Z E L H
H . H A L L @ N A P I E R . A C . U K
P E T E R C R U I C K S H A N K
@ S P A R T A K A N
P . C R U I C K S H A N K @ N A P I E R . A C . U K
B R U C E R Y A N
@ B R U C E _ R E S E A R C H
B . R Y A N @ N A P I E R . A C . U K
P R O J E C T I N F O :
H T T P S : / / C O M M U N I T Y - K N E C T . N E T /
2017_09_20 HALL, CRUICKSHANK, RYAN - ECIL (SESSION D323) 23
The authors are grateful to …
CILIP Information Literacy Group
Community councillor participants
Local authority & Improvement Service staff
Local authority librarians
Community, Knowledge, Connections