Information literacy and the leveraging of corporate knowledge

This chapter reports research by the authors in the fields of information literacy and knowledge management. It provides a brief overview of information literacy research and how information literacy is conceived, then explores the concept of information literacy by considering the nature and manifestation of the phenomenon within two contexts ' first, in formal education institutions such as schools and universities, where IL takes on a behaviourist perspective and is viewed as the development of skills and attributes; and second, in the workplace, where IL takes on a holistic perspective. Discussion of the educational context includes library-based information literacy instruction and recent attempts to embed information literacy in the curriculum of higher education institutions. The chapter also discusses the role of knowledge management in the learning organisation before exploring some of the commonalities between IL, especially IL in the workplace, and knowledge management (KM), which is geared to maximising the use of knowledge in organisations and in fostering knowledge sharing ' a body of knowledge and practice that is of considerable interest to the library and information science community.