Integration of information literacy in the Library and Information Science curriculum in Mozambique

ABSTRACT

Introduction:  Information literacy is a set of processes, knowledge, skills and learning that are essential in contemporary society, as it enables people to be aware and critical in the production, use and sharing of information.

Aim:  The objective of this research was to investigate the inclusion of the topic of information literacy in the curriculum of librarianship courses located in Mozambique.

Methodology:  The research was developed in two stages: documentary research that consisted of the analysis of the curricula of the Escola Superior de Jornalismo (ESJ) and the Escola de Comunicação e Artes of the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Mozambique. Interviews were also conducted with 22 students in the third and fourth years of these courses.

Results:  The results indicated the absence of specific subjects and contents that use the nomenclature of information literacy. Implicit elements were identified in subjects of the courses that cover contents that can potentially develop aspects of information literacy.

Conclusion:  It is essential to make information literacy explicit in Mozambican librarianship courses, in the form of disciplines and other specific activities, since these courses are responsible for qualifying people with skills and knowledge for planning and implementing educational programs in libraries and other formal and informal environments.

KEYWORDS:
Information literacy; Librarianship; Education; Mozambique

RESUMO

Introdução:  A competência em informação constitui um conjunto de processos, conhecimentos, habilidades e aprendizagens essenciais na sociedade contemporânea, pois habilita as pessoas a serem conscientes e críticas na produção, uso e compartilhamento da informação.

Objetivo:  investigar a inserção da temática competência em informação no currículo dos cursos de formação de bibliotecários em Moçambique.

Metodologia:  A pesquisa foi desenvolvida em duas etapas: pesquisa documental que consistiu na análise dos planos curriculares da Escola Superior de Jornalismo (ESJ) e da Escola de Comunicação e Artes da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, situados em Moçambique. Realizou-se também entrevistas com 22 estudantes do terceiro e quarto anos destes cursos.

Resultados:  Os resultados apontaram a ausência de disciplinas e conteúdos específicos que utilizem a nomenclatura de competência em informação. Foram identificados elementos implícitos em disciplinas dos cursos que abarcam conteúdos que, potencialmente, podem desenvolver aspectos da competência em informação.

Conclusão:  É fundamental a explicitação da competência em informação nos cursos de Biblioteconomia moçambicanos, na forma de disciplinas e outras atividades específicas, visto que esses cursos são responsáveis por qualificar pessoas com habilidades e conhecimentos para o planejamento e implementação de programas educacionais nas bibliotecas e outros ambientes formais e informais.

PALAVRAS-CHAVE:
Competência em informação; Biblioteconomia; Educação; Moçambique

1 INTRODUCTION

Living in the "Information Age" means facing changes that are taking place in all aspects of our lives, many of which involve information, literacy and lifelong learning. Traditionally, literacy was defined as the ability to read and write, but today it encompasses skills and abilities to learn continuously in a society that has become increasingly complex, in part due to the excess of information and the proliferation of possibilities for accessing an almost unlimited universe of knowledge records.

Information literacy, which was proposed in the United States in the 1970s, has been incorporated over the years by librarians and has become practically the exclusive concern of libraries and librarians, due to its direct relationship with information practices and user-education. Some research in the area (Caregnato, 2000; Campello, 2003; Mata, Casarin, Marzal, 2016) points to user education as a predecessor of information literacy, which has come to redefine educational and instructional practices in the area, expanding its scope beyond the information resources available in libraries.

However, the proliferation of information and communication technologies has made the information environment increasingly complex, requiring new knowledge, skills, and reflective and critical attitudes to verify the quality and veracity of the information that one has access to and often shares daily through different channels and media, skills to access and use private and government digital services, and a healthy relationship with the information environment, among others. The use, creation and sharing of information must be carried out in a critical, ethical and responsive manner, aiming at the construction of knowledge and the resolution of problems. This scenario has expanded the debate on the importance of information literacy to educational universes beyond the formal education system and to diverse social groups and strata. The best-known proposals are those that advocate that information literacy should be treated as a set of skills and knowledge that should cover all social and educational sectors and should be essential for all individuals.

In the academic field, several authors (Kuhlthau, 1987, 1991; Johnston; Webber, 2007; Mata, 2012, 2014, Miranda; Alcará, 2019, Moraes; Doyle; Reyes, 2021, Machado; Borges, 2024) have argued that information literacy should be a curricular component of Library Science courses so that students master its contents and know how to apply them appropriately in user training activities, acting as agents promoting information literacy in different sectors and contexts of society. Thus, creating effective ways to ensure the teaching and learning of information literacy has been a challenge for higher education institutions. Based on these assumptions, the research reported here aims to investigate the inclusion of information literacy in the curriculum of Librarianship and Documentation courses in Mozambique, identifying the explicit and implicit aspects associated with this topic, specifically, in the Escola Superior de Jornalismo and the Escola de Comunicação e Artes da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (ECA-UEM), which are the only higher education institutions that provide these courses in the country.

It is necessary to understand the inclusion of this content in the curricula of Librarianship courses because these courses train future librarians who will be responsible for designing, implementing, and evaluating educational programs in libraries and other information environments. This debate is fundamental, especially because Mozambique is a country where courses related to Librarianship and Information Science emerged just over two decades ago and their curricula are still in the process of restructuring and consolidation.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Information literacy is approached in Information Science in different ways, with some authors highlighting its intrinsic relationship with libraries´s educational function, while others highlight it as part of a broader learning process in the context of the information society. Thus, its promotion in the educational universe depends on the theoretical lens through which each actor views information literacy. Kuhlthau (1987) postulated that information literacy is directly linked to functional literacy. It involves the ability to read and use essential information for all aspects of individuals' lives; as well as "[...] recognizing the need for information and seeking information to make informed decisions [...] (Kuhlthau, 1987, p. 7), which demands skills to deal with complex masses of information available in various formats and supports.

This definition highlights the need to understand information literacy beyond the library environment and to include it in curricula because the process of developing information skills cannot be understood as an exclusive responsibility of librarians, as teachers and other educational agents share mutual responsibility. The curricular approach to information literacy was introduced in the 1980s in the United States by Carol Kuhlthau in her monograph entitled “Information Skills for an Information Society: a review of research”, which laid the foundation for teaching information literacy. In her approach, she advocated integrating information literacy into the curriculum, with an emphasis on the processes of constructing meaning through the search for and use of information. In a society that was already showing signs of dependence on technology in which cognitive processes were relegated to the background, the author proposed an alternative model centered on the user and learning, focusing on integrating information literacy into the curriculum and/or study plan of educational institutions.

The Carol Kuhlthau´s work influenced several educational programs in the 1980s, in particular her proposal that the development of information skills should be treated as a cross-cutting subject in several disciplines of the school curriculum, emphasizing learning to learn in order to recognize the need for information, locate, select, retrieve, and use information to solve problems. Hicks et al. (2022) highlighted that although information literacy is an object of study centered on Information Science, its scope has reached multidisciplinary dimensions. In their study on the inclusion of information literacy in disciplines other than Information Science, they found that fields such as Education, Administration, Public Health, and Psychology demonstrate that the concept of information literacy has a very varied reception in disciplines outside of Information Science. Although the ideas and themes addressed are related to the macro-concept of information literacy, the study demonstrated that references for the definitions, models, and theories of Information Science are absent or not sufficiently explicit. This reveals one of the traditional challenges of Information Science, which was established as a field in search of theories, models, and variables of analysis from other areas, but with difficulties in transporting its models to other areas. This is a criticism of Smit (2002), who revealed that Information Science interdisciplinarity does not impose itself on the functioning of the disciplines with which it interacts. Rockman (2003) also recognized that information literacy is no longer an exclusive subject for librarians and has become a way of promoting essential learning in the 21st century. Therefore, information practices aimed at this learning must be effectively integrated into educational curricula in different ways.

Although ideally information literacy content should be included in school curricula, it is important that it is also addressed at other levels of education, such as undergraduate studies, by adapting the content and teaching methods to this level of education. Cavalcante (2006) also highlighted that students who enter higher education do not have the necessary skills for the appropriate use of information to produce knowledge, conduct research, and also for subsequent professional practice because they probably did not have this content throughout their education prior to higher education. Area-Moreira (2007) explained that teaching information literacy at the higher education level is a necessity for all undergraduates in the 21st century. The author emphasizes the importance of including information literacy in undergraduate curricula to better prepare students for “[...] enfrentarse con mayores garantías de éxito a la innovación de los campos científicos y profesionales en los que desarrollen su actividad laboral futura. Les ayudan, también, a resolver problemas de todo tipo y a comprender mejor el entorno en el que viven”(p. 1), it is important to include this component in the curriculum of undergraduate courses.

Rockman (2003) stated that the most effective way to integrate information literacy into academic curricula is to include the topic as part of the students' learning outcomes, with the theme clearly explained in the courses, using parameters and some international standards to facilitate its assessment. Area Moreira (2007) pointed out that the inclusion of information literacy into undergraduate curricula can occur through the inclusion of a specific discipline offered in all courses, which would guarantee a solid and homogeneous education for all students, or even as a mixed model, in which different forms are offered, such as: individual courses aimed at different audiences in the academic community, content incorporated into one or more disciplines of the course curriculum.

A similar perspective was adopted by Uribe Tirado (2010), who asserted that universities committed to information literacy are those that recognize the importance of collaboration between different segments involved in learning in the institution (librarians, teachers, researchers, students). This author points out that the promotion of information literacy should be achieved through its transversal insertion in different academic programmes in the form of programmematic content, courses or modules officially immersed in the curricula.

According to Bruce (2004), a training programme for information literacy should include the following essential aspects:

• Existence of infrastructure to facilitate the learning of specific skills, such as searching for information on the Internet;

• A curriculum that provides opportunities for specific skills at the beginning of course and skills that are related to the satisfaction of their needs;

• A curriculum that demands involvement in learning activities that require interaction with the information environment, and;

• A curriculum that provides opportunities for reflection and documentation of learning experiences through effective information practices.

The aforementioned aspects demonstrate that information literacy occurs at different stages of the educational process, and it is necessary to differentiate it from training to focus on the use of technological tools, as is the case in several educational programs, including government documents on the information society. This distinction is made in order to support the idea that the provision of technological resources and training associated with the use of hardware and software; the focus of some governments and educational programs is only the starting point for achieving the educational reforms desired in the "Information Age" (Bruce, 2004). This proposition is similar to that of other authors (ACRL, 2000, Lupton, 2004, Dudziak, 2003, Johnston; Webber, 2007, Miranda; Alcará, 2019), for whom the best way to make information literacy a broad educational concept is to integrate it into the curriculum, including the political-pedagogical foundation of the entire teaching program.

Lupton (2004) points out that in order for this objective to be achieved, it is necessary to observe some aspects, such as: a) that the objectives of information literacy appear explicitly in the disciplines and in the learning outcomes of the course; b) that the learning outcomes in information literacy are used as evaluation criteria for training programs; c) that there is a sequence of learning development activities that occur through a study program. This is associated with the line of thought of Johnston and Webber (2007), who argued that educational institutions should establish information literacy as an applied discipline, more than a simple set of individual skills, which is why they argue that its social relevance goes beyond librarianship and academic concerns.

As an emerging and fundamental discipline in the information society,

Information literacy is the adoption of appropriate information behaviour to obtain, through whatever channel or medium, information well fitted to information needs, together with critical awareness of the importance of wise and ethical use of information in society (Johnston; Webber, 2003, p. 336).

This proposal already denotes a certain distance from the ACRL and Australia and New Zealand standards, which proposed a set of sequential skills and knowledge that define an information literate person. The authors emphasize that the topic should be part of the course curriculum, understanding it in a broader way, which can encompass various aspects of the educational process, including specific disciplines, other teaching activities such as tutoring, and student experience. For the authors, information literacy has an interdisciplinary perspective, and “[...] information literacy draws on theory, and research approaches, from sociology, psychology, management studies, and media/communication studies to illuminate needs, situations, and behavior." (Johnston; Webber, 2005, p.116). According to the authors, “A curriculum for a particular discipline would involve both a “plan” of the education, which learners are to experience, and pedagogy to realize the plan, and its particular objectives”. (Johnston; Webber, 2005, p. 117). The Havana Declaration (Alfin, 2006) also highlights the importance of pedagogical content for subjects that address the topic.

Moraes et al (2022) stated that the inclusion of specific content and/or disciplines on information literacy from a critical perspective in librarianship courses is essential for librarians to contribute to users not only being consumers but also being critical in relation to information and knowing how to handle and use it effectively.

In addition to the aspects mentioned above, courses can address information literacy content in the introduction of specific disciplines or as a topic in existing disciplines, in addition to outreach and research activities or projects on the topic. In the case of Brazil, Mata and Casarin (2018)´s research founded that the inclusion of information literacy in Brazil was in the process of consolidation, since the various undergraduate courses in Librarianship contemplated the topic in specific disciplines or as the syllabus content for other disciplines in the courses, and that information literacy is a mandatory discipline in some Brazilian librarianship courses.

In addition, the authors made an additional contribution by considering that the absence of a discipline with a specific nomenclature of information literacy is not enough to assess the levels of inclusion of this topic in the curricula because librarianship courses have disciplines that traditionally have the aim of promoting information skills. In general, these disciplines are:

• User Education: a discipline that traditionally promotes the use of a library and its information resources, and that is considered an antecedent of information literacy;

• User Study: a discipline that gave rise to the theoretical formulations of information behavior, and the focus is on knowing users and their attitudes toward information sources and channels;

• Information Sources: a discipline that deals with the typology and classification of information sources, as well as the structuring of an information search process in various types of information sources, whether printed, digital, databases, etc.

• Reference and Information Service: this discipline deals with the planning of user training activities and mediation actions developed by librarians and other information professionals to meet users’ information needs. (Manhique, 2021)

Johnston; Webber (2005), however, emphasized that information literacy is distinct from traditional contents in Librarianship by its close relationship with educational theories and research perspectives.

Mendes & Alcará (2019) investigated the inclusion of information literacy in the curriculum of five courses at universities in the southern region of Brazil. The authors verified the curriculum of the courses and applied a questionnaire addressed to the professors responsible for the aforementioned subjects. The authors divided their results into three categories: those specific to information literacy and user education, subjects that contribute to the development of the librarian´s information skills by addressing information sources, the ways of searching and handling them, as well as their production context, and a third group that includes subjects focused on user study and information mediation. With the exception of the latter, whose professor in charge highlighted “[...] the mediating role of the librarian in developing the skills of his/her interacting community” (p.16 translated), the authors conclude that the subjects in this category contribute little to the development of the librarian´s information or teaching skills. The teachers interviewed also mentioned disciplines such as Documentation Standards and Reference and Information Service.

Moraes et al. (2022) analyzed discipline programs on Information Literacy in the curricula of Librarianship courses offered by Brazilian and Mexican institutions. The results revealed two types of insertion of content related to the topic in Mexican courses: offering specific information literacy subjects and including content on the topic in disciplines such as: Information Users, Educational Programs and Services, Users, and Technologies. In the Brazilian case, the situation was repeated. There are courses that have specific disciplines on the topic, but the insertion of content in mandatory course subjects is the most common in Brazilian courses, both in-person and distance learning formats. The most recent study was of Machado; Borges (2024), that analyzed how information literacy is addressed in the syllabuses of higher education courses in Librarianship in Brazil. The results revealed that 27 HEI from 53 of Brazilian courses offer disciplines related to Information literacy, totalling 41 disciplines about the subject. In addition, 78.6% of these disciplines are mandatory, while 21,4% are optional, but only nine are specific about information literacy.

This brief review of the Information Science literature pointed out that discussions surrounding the inclusion of information literacy content in librarian courses in high education are not linear, since there are several ways in which institutions include this topic, from the inclusion of a specific discipline or even as a topic to be addressed in several disciplines of the course, to the addition of extension activities and research projects, since these activities can also be integrated into the course curriculum. Despite the theoretical variety regarding the importance and form of inclusion of this content in courses, there is a consensus that librarian education should take the lead in teaching information literacy since these future librarians will have the mission of structuring and implementing programs for developing information skills in different information environments.

3 METHODOLOGY

The objective of the research was to investigate the inclusion of information literacy in the curricula of two librarianship courses in Mozambique: the Biblioteconomia e Documentação da Escola Superior de Jornalismo - EJS e the course of Biblioteconomia da Escola de Comunicação e Artes da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (ECA-UEM), identifying the explicit and implicit aspects associated with this topic.

The first phase of the research consisted of identifying the problem and, subsequently, constructing the theoretical-conceptual framework, discussing the different ways of integrating information literacy into the curricula. The second phase of the research consisted of data collection, which was carried out using two techniques: a) documentary research through the analysis of the course curriculum syllabi and b) conducting in-depth interviews with undergraduate students, who were encouraged to indicate the courses in which the topic of information literacy had been addressed, as well as the focus given in each of them.

In the documentary research, the political-pedagogical projects, curricular plans, and teaching plans of the two courses that are the object of study were analyzed. To locate the documents necessary for the analysis, a search of the websites of both institutions was conducted. At ECA-UEM, no information related to the composition and curricular structure of the course was found. In the case of ESJ, the information about the curriculum on the website was out of date, as it was part of the curriculum that had been revised in 2016. Given this scenario, the political and pedagogical projects and curricular plans of both institutions were obtained through contact with respective pedagogical coordinators. The analysis of these documents sought the existence of subjects with the nomenclature “information literacy” or variants that have been used in Information Science in Portuguese, such as: letramento informacional, alfabetização informacional, competência informacional, literacia da informação.

In addition, in-depth interviews were conducted with students of the Librarianship courses at ESJ and ECA-UEM. The selection of participants was intentional, based on the principles advocated by Åkerlind (2005), according to which participants should be knowledgeable about the phenomenon under study, considering variations in gender and age range. In addition, the participation of the actors should be voluntary. These criteria contributed to obtaining participant profiles with maximum variation.

The study participants were students in the last two years of the courses, since, after carrying out the pretest, it was found that students in the first two years had no knowledge or notions about the phenomenon under study. Their conceptions were incompatible with the theory and practice of information literacy. Thus, data saturation occurred in interview number 22, of an intentionally selected sample of regularly enrolled students from both institutions. This sample has the following demographic composition (Table 1):

Chart 1
Description of the demographic composition of the sample

Institution	Demographic characterization of participants
ECA-UEM	● Participants - 12 [six females and six males] ● Age range - 20 to 30 years ● Universe - third and fourth year students
ESJ	● Participants - 10 [three females and seven males] ● Age range - 20 to 40 years ● Universe - third and fourth year students

• Sources: Research data.

The interview data were transcribed and analyzed using Bardin´s (2010) categorical analysis. The subcategories considered in this article focused on the following aspects: identification of disciplines with the name “information literacy” or some derivations in Portuguese, as well as the search for implicit evidence of teaching this topic in the curricular plans and in the interviews with the participants.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The interview data were transcribed and analyzed using Bardin´s (2010) categorical analysis. The subcategories considered in this article focused on the following aspects: identification of disciplines with the name “information literacy” or other derivations of information literacy, as well as the search for implicit evidence of teaching this topic in the curricular plans and in the interviews with the participants.

In the Anglo-Saxon context, authors have advocated for the integration of information literacy into academic curricula for years (Kuhlthau, 1987; Lloyd, 2007; Johnston; Webber, 2007). Associations in the area, such as the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), the American Library Association, and the Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL), have also contributed to the promotion of information literacy by developing standards and frameworks and proposing that this topic be an essential metaliteracy for higher education and for the ongoing learning of students.

These findings lead us to infer that the historical nuances of teaching librarianship and Information Science in various geographic and sociocultural contexts are decisive in curriculum formulation. For example, the context of Anglo-Saxon countries and Brazil have a long tradition of teaching in this area, both in undergraduate and postgraduate courses, which contrasts with what was observed in the courses offered in Mozambique, where librarianship and the area of Information Science itself are being structured and are undergoing a process of institutionalization, since the first undergraduate course in Librarianship was created only in 2010 at ESJ.

As mentioned in the literature review, the absence of disciplines that include the term information literacy or equivalent in their titles is not sufficient to conclude that a given course and/or institution does not address the topic. Other disciplines in the curriculum that traditionally aim to train and qualify librarianship students to deal with information sources and resources and to work on user training should be examined, among which the following stand out: User Education, User Study, Information Sources, and Reference Service. In the two institutions considered in this study, three of these four disciplines were included in their respective curricular plans. Another discipline, “Information Ethics”, was identified, which in its syllabus presents some implicit aspects associated with information literacy. The set of disciplines and their respective syllabi are presented in Table 2.

Chart 2
Disciplines that promote practices associated with information literacy in ESJ and in ECA-UEM

Discipline	Summary	Institution
General and specialized Information Sources	● Identification of general and specialized information sources; ●. Evaluation and selection of information sources according to different audiences; ●. Identification of national and international institutions providing information sources; ●. Information Retrieve by searching print and electronic sources.	ESJ
Information Sources	● General Information Sources; ● Specialized Information Sources; ● Information Sources in Information units.	ECA
Users and communities studies	● Theoretical aspects of user and community studies; ● User and community study methodologies; ● Methods, techniques and instruments applied to user and community studies; ● Development of a user and community study project.	ESJ
Information Ethics	● Ethics, morals and deontology; ● Problems and crises of ethics in contemporary society; ● Ethical issues in the production, management and transfer of information; ● Deontological standards and principles in Mozambique and other countries.	ECA-UEM
Reference and information services	● Reference processes; ● Use of information sources; ● Research, retrieval and information dissemination techniques; ● Reference information products; ● Profile and functions of the reference service professional.	ESJ
Reference services in Information Units	● Reference process; ● Research, retrieval and information dissemination techniques; ● Reference information products; ● Profile and functions of the reference professional.	ECA-UEM

• Sources: Research data.

As shown in Table 2, the curriculum of the two analyzed institutions does not include the discipline “User Education” and the content generally covered in this discipline, which is the foundations and planning for conducting user training activities and programs, were not explicitly found in any other disciplines of the courses. The Pedagogical Project of the librarianship course at ESJ, however, includes “user education”, but with the purpose of ensuring the conservation of library collections, as can be seen in the following excerpt: “Promote education of information users to ensure the integrity of documents, implementing preventive conservation policies for historical collections, in the various media, originated throughout history” (ESJ, 2016, p. 10). In other words, the user education covered in this course does not aim to train people to know how to use information sources and resources or even encourage and enhance the critical and analytical reading of information. It focuses on preserving the collections available in libraries, not on the information user, and on optimizing how the user handles the information universe.

The curriculum of the ECA Librarianship course, unlike that of the ESJ, does not include the subject “User Studies”, which is essential in the training of future librarians so that they become aware of and understand the main characteristics of some groups of users and also so that they master techniques so that they can conduct studies on potential and real users of the information unit for which they are responsible. A more detailed analysis of these curricula revealed the existence of subjects with different names that include content implicitly related to information literacy, in particular the ethical use of information.

Despite the existence of disciplines that cover the topic, the curricula of the courses analyzed are quite laconic regarding specific and fundamental topics of information literacy. For example, no mention of reading, critical use of information, or structuring user training programs was found. The disciplines on "Information Sources", which are offered in both courses, for example, follow a traditional content of the area fixed in formal sources of information, restricting the evaluation of information sources and the development of search strategies in databases.

The disciplines that deal with Reference and Information Services do not refer to information literacy. The closest content concerns “Techniques for researching, retrieving and disseminating information”, which only covers the basic level of information literacy related to access to information.

The subject “Ethics and Information”, found in the ECA curriculum, focuses on the philosophical aspects of ethics, as well as the normative and deontological guidelines for professional practice. One of the thematic units of this subject, however, stands out because it addresses “Ethical issues in the production, management and dissemination of information”. This content is the closest to the current proposal for information literacy, as it discusses aspects related to ethics in research and the responsibility required both in the production and sharing of information, especially in the digital environment.

The results obtained through the analysis of the curricular plans were complemented by interviews with students of the Librarianship and Documentation courses of the two HEIs included in this study. The students interviewed indicated that, in addition to the subjects identified in the document analysis (Table 1), information literacy was addressed implicitly in other subjects of their courses.

The participants of this study were asked about the circumstances and/or context in which they learned or heard about information literacy or equivalent content, derived from the term information literacy. The responses obtained are presented in Table 3.

Chart 3
Disciplines that address information literacy indicated by participants

Disciplines	Focus
Study Methods	Mentioned by 5 participants. The focus of information literacy is on research ethics, focusing on the need to attribute credit to ideas reproduced from other authors.
Reference Service	The subject was mentioned by 15 participants from both institutions. It dealt with the information skills that information professionals must have to guarantee access to information for users. Mentioned by 5 participants. The focus of information skills is on research ethics, focusing on the need to attribute credit to ideas reproduced from other authors.
Public and school libraries	Mentioned by 17 survey participants from both institutions. It addressed the skills of information professionals, as well as the need for school libraries to create and promote information literacy programs for user training. Interviewees mentioned the IFLA/UNESCO guidelines for school libraries as the basis for the need for instructional programs in these information units.
Information ethics	Mentioned by 7 ECA participants. Focused on ethical aspects related to the use of information. In it, information competence was treated as ethical and responsible use of information. Aspects related to plagiarism, copyright and intellectual property were mentioned.
Scientific Research Methodology	Mentioned by 9 participants from both institutions. In it, information literacy was mentioned as a research process, with emphasis on the search and ethical use of information.

• Fonte: Elaborado pelos autores.

Although there are no disciplines designated as “information literacy” or with another associated term, the responses of the participating students (Table 3) reveal that this content is taught transversally in several subjects of the courses, which is in line with what Bruce (2004), Lloyd (2007), Wang (2007) and Mata and Casarin (2018).

The students’ statements (Table 3) also indicate that information literacy has been addressed in the courses in three ways: i) as essential information skills for librarians and other information professionals; ii) as programs that enhance the use of information in (school) libraries and iii) as a process of research and ethical and responsible use of information.

However, although the inclusion of the topic as a cross-cutting and sometimes sporadic subject in courses is a positive aspect for raising awareness among professionals about the topic, it is considered necessary that information literacy be formally included in one or more disciplines or as explicit content to be taught in the course. Therefore, the theoretical and practical content, as well as the understanding of its depth as essential skills and competencies for the professional, can be adequately addressed so that they can contribute to individuals exploring the digital information environment effectively, ethically, and responsibly.

6 CONCLUSION

The research reported here analyzed the inclusion of content on information literacy in the curricula of Librarianship and Documentation courses in Mozambique and identified its implicit and explicit aspects in the curricular plans. The main finding of this study concerns the absence of disciplines with nomenclature associated with information literacy or other terms derived from the concept of information literacy.

Despite this finding, some implicit aspects related to information literacy were identified through its transversal insertion in other curricular disciplines that, historically, develop the educational function of librarians.

However, it is essential that the approach to this topic be explicit and systematized in the course curriculum so that students are aware of its relevance in contemporary society. It is suggested that this topic be incorporated into the curricular plans as a specific discipline of the course, allowing the theories and methodologies that involve the discourses and practices of information literacy to be addressed in greater depth. These disciplines may also encourage future agents working in information environments to promote information literacy among different sectors of society.

The inclusion of information literacy as a programmatic content of disciplines, accompanied by didactic and pedagogical strategies, will allow an effective evaluation of the learning results of the participants in the activities to be carried out, generating subsidies for the necessary improvement of these. Another positive aspect is that the mastery of pedagogical content by librarians can stimulate collaborative practices between librarians and teachers, pedagogical coordinators, and other actors involved in the teaching-learning process in various segments and institutional environments.

It is expected that the results of this research can serve as a basis for other studies on the curricula of undergraduate courses in the area, allowing a systemic and multidimensional integration of information literacy in the curricula of these and other courses.

Acknowledgments:

Not applicable.

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• 

  
  
• 

  
  

• Funding:
  Not applicable.
• Ethical approval:
  Not applicable.
• Availability of data and material:
  Not applicable.
• Image:
  Extracted from the Lattes Platform
• JITA:
  CE. Literacy.
• ODS:
  4. Educação de qualidade

Edited by

• Editor:
  Gildenir Carolino Santos

Data availability

Not applicable.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  12 May 2025
• Date of issue
  2025

History

• Received
  02 July 2024
• Accepted
  10 Jan 2025
• Published
  03 Feb 2025