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Information literacy is a buzz word among the library community and heavily emphasised by instruction librarians in colleges and universities everywhere. Librarians know the importance of information literacy to combat misinformation, yet how often does this translate into other professions? Our colleague Karl Stutzman, former library director of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, posed this question to us a few years ago in terms of religious leaders, whose messages can have a significant influence over members of their communities.
With Karl’s vision in mind, and some grant funding from the Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI), we created a research study around the question: “What information seeking behaviors do practicing faith leaders currently rely on to find and evaluate the information they need?” In partnership with seven theological seminaries of the PALNI consortium, we sent out a survey to 1,000 individuals who had attended a PALNI-affiliated seminary. 53 religious leaders responded to the survey, with 10 respondents engaging in an in-depth interview with us. These leaders came from a variety of religious backgrounds and had served in religious leadership for a varying number of years–from early professionals to retired clergy.
“Our study showed that religious leaders feel pretty competent, confident and equipped in their own information literacy. They have the ability to evaluate information — they filter it through the religious and theological lenses that they’ve been trained on, and they might cross-reference it with another source or consult with someone they trust. But they don’t necessarily feel that this ability is as developed as it could be among members of their congregations. And figuring out how to encourage information literacy within their congregants is a lot more challenging than just attending to their own information literacy.” – Karl Stutzman, as said to Heather Grennan Gary in a recent interview published in Faith & Leadership.
Stock photo by Pavel Danilyuk
To learn more about our study, you can read the full interview with Karl and Ruth in Faith and Leadership, view highlighted findings in a PALNI press release or find the entire report here:
https://bit.ly/religious_leaders
Have similar questions about the information literacy of the populations you serve? Aestiva Solutions is ready to partner with you to design a study around your research questions. If funding is an issue, we can work together to apply for grants and other forms of funding. Share your ideas and questions with us today!