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Davies, J; Jackson, C --- "Information Literacy in the Law Curriculum: Experiences from Cardiff" [2006] LegEdDig 10; (2006) 14(3) Legal Education Digest 14

Information Literacy in the Law Curriculum: Experiences from Cardiff

J Davies & C Jackson

[2006] LegEdDig 10; (2006) 14(3) Legal Education Digest 14

39 Law Teacher 2, 2005, pp 150–160

Information literacy is most commonly defined as the skills needed for a person to be able to recognise when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information. The term is relatively recent to the United Kingdom. The individual skills which comprise information literacy are already recognised as skills to be developed in the undergraduate law degree. The QAA benchmark standards for law include, as subject-specific abilities: (1) application and problem-solving; (2) sources and research.

The Joint Statement by the Law Society and Bar Council on what constitutes a qualifying law degree added five ‘knowledge’ areas and eight ‘general transferable skills’ to the requirements of the QAA Benchmark Standards. The latter skills include abilities to: select key relevant issues for research and formulate them with clarity; use standard paper and electronic resources to produce up-to-date information; conduct efficient searches of websites to locate relevant information; exchange documents by email and manage information exchanges by email; and produce word-processed text and present it in an appropriate form.

All law schools teaching the qualifying law degree will, therefore, be addressing these skills at some point during the teaching program. However, skills teaching can appear ‘bolt-on’ and irrelevant to the course if not closely integrated into the curriculum. The concept of information literacy offers a model through which essential skills training can be embedded into law teaching. However, incorporating information literacy into the curriculum requires collaboration across disciplines. Librarians offer expertise in accessing information effectively and efficiently. Law school IT staff, where available, provide the specialist law applications, maintain the hardware and train and support students on a daily basis.

However, only with the active collaboration of the law tutor, can such legal research and IT training be seen by law students as relevant and applicable to their studies. It is the law tutor who establishes the context in which the learning takes place and the expectations of the students. It is the law tutor, too, who plans the progression of the curriculum, monitors progress and who has the skills and remit to develop the higher order skills in the student of analysis and application of information to the legal context. By pooling the expertise of law librarian, IT specialist and law tutor at both planning and delivery stages, skill training can be delivered and information literacy standards met, without sacrificing substantive content.

In 2000 the Information Services division at Cardiff University presented a Learning and Training Policy, having been briefed to develop an innovative approach to training to meet the requirements of the newly converged library and computing services. The resulting policy tied IT and information skills together as stepping stones towards the university’s mission of research-led learning and teaching. The policy recognised the value of information literacy as a basis for lifelong and self-directed learning as well as a key employability skill. The importance of establishing collaboration between all those involved in the learning and teaching process in order to achieve this integration was also stressed. The Law School was the first to embed information literacy learning outcomes into a module at Cardiff University, Legal Foundations.

The syllabus of the module is divided into four units: the legal system of England and Wales; legal analysis and reasoning skills; legal research skills; and legal presentation skills. The legal system unit is subject specific, taught through 15 lectures intended to foster subject-related knowledge and to supply a context for the skills-based elements of the course. The final two units in the module build on this legal knowledge through the information literacy approach. Five two-hour seminars over the next six weeks take students progressively through the information literacy standards, yet also enhance the students’ knowledge and understanding of substantive aspects of law as they research aspects of the criminal and civil justice systems in more detail.

The starting point for the first seminar is a hypothetical scenario leading to the group research exercise. The topic of the scenario is selected both for relevance to the substantive syllabus and for the breadth of information resources available for students to research. The first of the five seminars takes place in a PC room and is led by a law librarian, students having been instructed to conduct background reading on jury trials using textbooks in preparation. In the article each of the five stages is described in detail.

Peer and tutor review of essays in a workshop format has enhanced key skills of communication and literacy. Integration into a law module has demonstrated to students the high value placed on standards of literacy by both law tutors and future employers. However, integrated skills teaching can offer only limited support for those home and international students who need more specialist or intensive literacy support. The benefits from the law librarian’s perspective are also clear. At the library information desk, there has been a marked shift away from those enquiries which indicate a lack of information skills, such as general queries on how to approach researching a task or how to use a database.

Module results confirm the success of an information literacy model of skills-based learning. The Cardiff experience has shown that information literacy provides an effective framework upon which to teach legal skills within a substantive law course, whilst facilitating the attainment of the benchmarks and requirements of a qualifying law degree. By collaborating, we have been able to draw upon the expertise of law tutor, law librarian and IT specialist to design a module which provides students with a firm foundation for their future legal studies, and which sets them on the path to becoming autonomous and lifelong learners. The challenge ahead lies in building it into modules at each level of all degree schemes, which is the aim for the future.


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