Identifies a need for information, the nature and extent of that information and potential sources of information
As the name and the definition outlined above suggest, the Prepare pillar is all about starting out and recognising your need for information.
Prepare isn't just about your first few weeks at university. As you progress through your university programme you will develop your confidence and understanding of why you need information, how much information you need, what you already know and understand and which resources will be the best to use to fill the gaps and provide the evidence for your assignments.
Your skills development is an ongoing process with a continuous growth in your skills and competencies.
The pages in the menu to the left, outline the skills and competencies you could expect to develop at each level, and should demonstrate how you scaffold and build these skills over your time at university.
It's worth remembering that the levels used in the Information Literacy Framework do not necessarily correspond directly to your year of study; you can be a beginner in some of the skills even if you are in your final year of study. We have given the following as a guide:
Beginner: Skills expected to be developed by someone new to, or returning to University level study after a break in education.
Novice: Skills that build upon the Beginner level and that demonstrate an increased confidence and understanding.
Intermediate: By the Intermediate level you are developing higher level skills. For example, you may be expected to demonstrate some or all of these by the end of the second year of an undergraduate programme.
Advanced: These are more advanced skills expected to be developed by the end of the third year of an undergraduate programme, for example.
Expert: The expert level skills would be expected to be developed by the end of a final year undergraduate or taught postgraduate programme.
We have a range of tools to help you develop your Information Literacy skills. They may be workshops you can attend, guides we produce in the Library, resources we pay for you to be able to use, or further reading. Take a look at the Tools to Help page in the left hand menu.