Information literacy between the lines : a textual analysis of the governing documents of the Swedish elementary school

The aim of this study is to examine and map out the different ways that theconception of information literacy (IL) is used in the governing documents ofthe Swedish elementary school. IL is a controversial concept around which thereis no proper consensus. Despite that fact, the word is used in a vast number ofcontexts. In the school world as well as in the library sphere the different waysof using the concept often appear to overlap although rarely in ways that seemconducive to one another. My work therefore, is aimed at finding out how theconcept is used within these two discourses and if or in what ways the usagescoincide and are compatible. Using five ideal types constructed out of fivedifferent theoretical notions of IL I have carried out an idea analysis of thegoverning documents for the Swedish elementary school. The study implies thatthe concept of IL is used frequently within the governing documents, althoughwithout ever referring to the word itself. It also implies that the schooldocuments make use of the concept in a certain school manner as opposed to theditto library one and that the fact that the two fields essentially operate towardthe same goal therefore gets neglected. I claim that this may result in that theschool and the library possibly fail to benefit from each others competencies.The aim of my thesis is therefore throwing light on how the notion is expressedwithin the two discourses, possibly facilitating and bringing the two professionscloser together.Program: Bibliotekari