Information Literacy and Pedagogy in the Context of Academic Libraries: A Bibliometric Study (1995- 2022)

Introduction

Information literacy is an essential component of modern education, and its implication in academic libraries cannot be exaggerated. This chapter offers insights into the evolution, key contributors, and emerging themes within the field of information literacy, providing a perception that states library professionals, educators, and researchers about the current state of research and potential future directions. It is a systematic process of knowing the maximum use of information in society. Information literacy is coined by Paul G. Zurkowski in 1974 to which is thought for the efficient use of means to effectively use information and to solve any problem. Recently, with the use of information technology, libraries are becoming an important part of learning resources to cope up with knowledge-based paradigm shift. It is the task of the library professionals to highlight the needs of information and to locate the mechanisms to use them. ALA (American Library Association) Report, 1989 has rightly depicted that “information Literacy is a survival skill in the Information Age” and the librarians are really the torch-bearers to guide users determining the exact resources in need for life-long learning.

The Bibliometric study, in terms of library and information science, is an important area of research output since last decade. It is a critical analysis – both qualitative and quantitative to study information or academic output data. In 1969 Alan Pritchard has coined this term-‘bibliometrics’ which gains its importance day by day to accumulate the mathematical as well as statistical analytical data of bibliographic items. Even in the field of library and information science, such bibliometric study helps a lot to analyze the research output.

In this context, a bibliometric analysis presents a comprehensive and systematic approach to understanding the landscape of research and innovation in the field of Information Literacy and Pedagogy in the context of academic library. By analyzing the patterns of scholarly publications, citations, collaborations, and emerging trends, this study seeks to provide insights into the evolution of research, identify key contributors, and map out the intellectual structure of this interdisciplinary domain. This study tries to evaluate the significant arena of 'information literacy'. It helps identify, access and use of information in terms of decision-making. Even librarians are becoming well-acquainted with implementation of information literacy instruction programs. Gradually, this term has been gaining its importance globally.

The objective of this paper is to conduct a bibliometric analysis of research in the realm of Information Literacy and its pedagogy in the context of academic libraries. By synthesizing data from well-recognised academic database and publications, we aim to shed light on the state of the art, uncover pivotal research directions, and contribute to a deeper understanding of the advancements, challenges, and prospects in this critical intersection of information literacy and pedagogy.

Other objectives are:

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  Prepare a ranked list of articles published on Information Literacy and Pedagogy in the Scopus database from the year 1995 to 2022.

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  Identify the contribution of prolific authors

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  Identify the most productive journals of the research

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  Find out highly cited authors

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  Find out highly cited journals

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  Determine subject wise distribution of articles

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  Trace the geographical distribution of journals

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  Analyse the co-occurrence of author keywords among articles