The Centre for Social Informatics has won funding to investigate levels of digital and information literacy within Scotland’s Community Council system in a project entitled Information Literacy for Democratic Engagement (IL-DEM). The award has been granted by the CILIP Information Literacy Group.

Peter Cruickshank, Dr Bruce Ryan and I will explore how community councillors develop the skills required to inform and engage with the citizens that they represent, and how libraries support this work. It will build on two established research streams within the Centre for Social Informatics: Cruickshank and Ryan’s work on digital engagement in local democracy (such as our recent DigiCC workshops), and my work with Christine Irving on information literacy and life-long learning. It will also build on our group’s track record in library and information science research. Continue reading →