Lost in Information? Syrian new Scots Information Literacy Wayfinding-practices

First report to the Information Literacy Group

One month has already passed since the beginning of our research project on the information literacy wayfinding experiences of Syrian new Scots. At the beginning of last week we submitted the first report to the Information Literacy Group reporting on the initial findings.

The research in Phase 1 was conducted via interviews with two Scottish Refugee Council Coordinators and two focus groups with Syrian new Scots (with nine women and nine men). Syrian participants were also involved in a drawing exercise that helped to map visually their information worlds.

The main information needs expressed by participants revolved around the learning of the English language,  travelling freely and gaining confidence to navigate around the city/town and reuniting with family members. There was a series of interesting findings related to the Syrian families' use of technology and a few new ideas around information provision.

We also submitted a paper to be presented at LILAC, the Librarians Information Literacy Annual Conference  that will take place at Swansea University in Wales on  10-12 April.