Professor Mark Hepworth is a Reader in People’s Information Behaviour in the Centre for Information Management at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom. Mark’s research concentrates on how people interact with and use information and understanding the factors that affect their information experience. He has conducted research, supervised PhDs and published widely in the area of information literacy, including two books one on Teaching Information Literacy and another on Developing People’s Information Capabilities. His expertise in people’s information experience has also led to his involvement in the design of people-centred information solutions.

The AURA project: an institutional approach for developing information literacy and research capacity

This presentation provides an overview of the AURA project, which is a collaborative project between the Institute of Development Studies, the Information Training and Outreach Centre for Africa (ITOCA), Loughborough University and nine African universities. The purpose of the project is to implement and develop a framework that universities can apply to enable learners to develop their information literacy, critical thinking, independent learning and research skills. The approach is innovative in that, rather than discrete interventions, a holistic institutional solution has been designed and this will be implemented in collaboration with faculty staff and staff from the library, IT services and professional development. Furthermore the research capacity of academics will be strengthened and also their ability to create learning environments, in a context where resources are often limited, that will enable their students to develop these capabilities. The paper will discuss the design and also explain the theoretical rationale for the strategy.