The variations and the changes in the school librarians' perspectives of information literacy

Information literacy was the investigated subject of this PhD research which aimed to study the variations and changes in Syrian school librarians conceptions of information literacy. The main target group was a twenty Syrian school librarians working in high schools in Damascus and its Suburb, ten of them graduated librarians and the rest are classroom teachers who were transferred to the library to perform the duties of the school librarian. The targeted group was purposely selected with intention as broadest as possible samples from different educational, social and ethical backgrounds.
The researcher adopted a phenomenographic approach to discover how the Syrian school librarians conceive the phenomenon of information literacy and how their conceptions changed after attending an information literacy programme designed by the researcher.
The research was in three phases: the first phase aimed to discover and study the school librarians� conceptions of information literacy by conducting a pure phenomenographic approach. Six different conceptions of information literacy were emerged as a result to first phase analysis. The second phase aimed to provide the school librarians with a wide range of perspectives, conceptions and thoughts of information literacy discussed worldwide via an information training programme designed especially to serve that purpose. The training programme was designed by the researcher who consulted a broad literature and methods in attempts to integrate different ideas from different territories. For example, she employed business methods such as Eat the Elephant strategy and SWOT analysis, training methods such as icebreaking and team working, Soft System method such as rich picture and mind map, educational methods such as integrating different teaching styles to meet different learning needs style and communication method such as body language and presentations. The third phase aimed to discover the variations and changes in school librarians� conceptions of information literacy by conducting a new phenomenographic approach. The third phase was conducted six months after the second phase to give the participants chance to discover the concept of information literacy in real world practice. Seven different conceptions were emerged as a result to analysing second phase interviews.
The findings of the research indicate that the school librarians� conceptions of information literacy at the first phase were influenced by their context (school library) and experiences as school librarians, though, further studies are vital. In the third phase the school librarians evidenced more complex and boarder conceptions. Further they were able to combine and create different conceptions to meet their schools� needs. It is interesting to mention that school librarians were not only able to create new conceptions of information literacy that meet their needs, but they were also able to in the Arabic literature.