Incorporating Data Literacy into Information Literacy Programs: Core Competencies and Contents

The growing importance of data in society in general and scientific domains in particular, mirrored in the Open Data initiative and in the advent of eScience, requires public, school and academic libraries to contribute to both data and information literacy, as part of their mission to further knowledge and innovation in their respective fields of action. No specific library standards have been proposed to date, however, and most research studies conducted adopt a partial view of data literacy, stressing only the components needed in any given context. The present paper aims to contribute to the advancement of data literacy with the proposal of a set of core competencies and contents that can serve as a framework of reference for its inclusion in libraries' information literacy programs. The various definitions of data literacy are discussed, the coverage of the competencies listed in information literacy standards is described, and the competencies considered in the experiments conducted to date in education and libraries are identified. The conclusion drawn is that the model proposed can favour the development of data literacy support resources and services. Topics for further research are also specified.