"Awareness" for Information Literacy, One of The Leading programs in Saudi Universities
After the remarkable increase in the volume of knowledge embodied in the published information, particularly the electronically published one, it has become difficult for beneficiaries to access to the information they need especially in light of the mass avalanche and the accumulated information. In the past, beneficiaries suffered from a dearth of information, but now they suffer from its abundance. Consequently, beneficiaries badly need an assist to access this information. They need to learn how to cope with the deluge of information emerging from multiple sources. For this current reason, there is a necessity to learn the skills of dealing with the information, as well as the skills of accessing, retrieving, abstracting, processing and manipulating information.
Therefore, The Information Literacy Program, ILP, aims to raise awareness of information available and offered by a working group of the Deanship of Library Affairs, King Saud University to serve the employees of King Saud University, faculty staff, researchers and similar beneficiaries. ILP aims to achieve several objectives with the suggestion of several axes or paths for the implementation of the program.
The objectives of the program
• ILP aims to raise awareness of the information and tries to achieve several objectives which include:
• Stimulating beneficiaries to understand the importance of information in their life ( public , professional and practical life)
• Providing the beneficiaries with some of the skills of dealing with information.
• Eliciting the beneficiaries to identify the sources of information, types and forms. (Paper and electronic)
• Helping the beneficiaries master the skills needed to search for information.
• Helping the beneficiaries acquire the skills of extracting and processing information.
• Assisting the beneficiaries to realize the ethics of dealing with information and scientific integrity.
• Helping the beneficiaries acquire the skills of information documentation.
• Helping the beneficiaries the skill of files organizing.
Pivots of the Program
ILP focuses on several pivots and axes which include:
• The importance of information in the beneficiary’s life
• Information sources, types and forms
• Skills of information manipulation
• Information-seeking skills.
• Skills of information extraction and processing.
• The ethics of dealing with scientific information and the scientific integrity.
• Information authentication.
• Organizing files.
The Project Team
The ILP staff are all members of the Deanship of Library Affairs in order to carry out the mission of the programme and management coordination, as well as arranging for the management of the programme workshops. The members of this group are listed as follows:
• Dr. Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Khudair supervisor (Dean of Libraries)
• Dr. Mohamed Salem Ghoneim Deputy Supervisor (Studies and Development)
• Mr. Zareb bin Mohammed Al-Qahtani member (IT)
• Mr. Abdul Wahab bin Safar Al-Amri member (IT)
• Mr. Firas Alguenibt member (materials organizing)
• Mr. Saleh Aldeiji (Dean Office)
The picture is from left to right: (Mr. Zareb bin Mohammed Al-Qahtani, Mr. Firas Alguenibt , Mr. Abdul Wahab bin Safar Al-Amri, Dr. Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Khudair, Dr. Mohamed Salem Ghoneim, Mr. Saleh Aldeiji)
Implementation mechanisms
The implementation mechanisms of "Awareness" for Information Literacy, ILP, lie in the role played by the staff in executing the tasks of coordinating and running the program and developing a time-bound plan for the workshops. The following is a statement of some of the mechanisms used for implementation of this program.
• The ILP team coordinates and runs program, prepares of the schedule, and identifies speakers, the topics and the places of the workshops.
• Directed lectures at the various locations of the university are used as a means to raise the level of IT awareness. (Going to the beneficiaries in their places)
• A time-plan for this semester is made with two lectures per month.
• The date and place of the lecture is determined in coordination between the Dean and faculty on.
• Other members outside the staff are recruited to implement some of the workshops program, especially in women branches.
• Corporations supplying databases are resorted to give specialized workshops to introduce their databases and explain how to use them.
The report is prepared by:
Dr. Mohamed Salem Ghneim
Deputy Superintendent of ILP
Deanship of Library Affairs - King Saud University