New Skills Bring New Opportunities

Developing an Information Literacy Skills programme at the University of Zimbabwe

Elizabeth Mlambo

Full report, 2010. A look at the development of an Information Literacy programme at the University of Zimbabwe and its integration into the curriculum. The full report can be found below along with the 2-page case study.

The concept of information literacy (InfoLit) can be traced back to Zurkowski (1974) whom associated it with the effective use of information.  It was further proclaimed by participants to the Sub-Saharan Africa Colloquium on Information Literacy and Life Long learning in Addis Ababa in 2007 that InfoLit, life long learning and learning how to learn, are vehicles for the empowerment of individuals.

In 2004, the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) developed the Information Literacy Program to empower students so that they would be able to transform information and create knowledge to solve problems. This was in line with the UZ’s 2003-2007 strategic thrust whose emphasis was ‘to take a distinct lead in the area of producing graduates who are competent in ICT….  every student who goes through the UZ is to pass at least one compulsory course in Information and Communication Technology, irrespective of discipline being studied’ (University of Zimbabwe, 2003-2007).

The timing of the InfoLit programme was perfect as it would greatly contribute to the literacy and ICT competencies of the students. This paper traces the historical development of the InfoLit programme, the process of implementation, the challenges faced, lessons learnt and the way forward

For the report is available in print quality and web optimised versions.

Full report

Document New skills bring new opportunities Web (251kb)
Document New skills bring new opportunities Print (276kb)

Case study

Document Case study Web (246kb)
Document Case study Print (256kb)