Interdisciplinarity and information literacy: Librarians' competencies in emerging settings of higher education

Abstract

Our aim with this conceptual analysis is to demonstrate possible expectations put on librarians who are engaged in interdisciplinary courses in higher education programs. We do so by relating views on interdisciplinarity with views on information literacy. We distinguish views on interdisciplinarity by the degree of integration between disciplinary components and views on information literacy by the degree of participation iin addressing research problems. The analysis brings forth four cases. The cases entail different professional competencies that range from source-oriented technical skills applicable in multi-disciplinary settings to collaborative negotiations of research problems and information needed to address them in inter-disciplinary fields. This conceptual account has a twofold potential: First, it has a capacity of informing academic libraries about alternative paths in developing or revising activities for interdisciplinary education. Second, italso provides a framework for developing future research problems that address current challenges related to information literacy in interdisciplinary settings.