Information literacy competence and education has become a part of compulsory studies in most Finnish universities.
The Finnish Electronic Library FinELib (http://www.lib.helsinki.fi/finelib/) has the national and international information resources with large consortia funding by universities, libraries and the Ministry of Education. All Finnish university libraries share the common library network Linnea (Endeavour Voyager http://www.lib.helsinki.fi/english/libraries/linnea/index.htm). In the year 2004 the National Electronic Library Interface Nelli (MetaLib-SFX) will be launched. The Finnish society has also high information technology infrastructure. These elements together make it possible to plan national e-learning environments in teaching information literacy skills.
The Finnish Virtual University http://www.virtuaaliyliopisto.fi/ was launched in the beginning of the year 2001. For example national training programmes( http://www.tievie.fi) are arranged for teachers, experts, librarians, information specialists etc together to use information and communication technology in university education.
Compulsory information literacy education for first year medical students started 13 years ago and has now taken place for two years in a e-learning environment Medica for online courses in medicine using the WorkMates platform (an e-learning environment application designed in Turku University, also used outside the university, http://wm.utu.fi). Suitable parts are linked with the web-based e-learning environment Tietoppi (http://kirjasto.utu.fi/tietoppi) designed in the Main Library of Turku University, which concentrates on general information literacy skills when using both traditional and electronic library collections in Turku University.
The information literacy education in the Medical Library concentrates mainly to licensed information resources available in Turku University computer network. Problem based learning methods are used in medical substance teaching and the library is planning the information literacy education for this education. This cooperation presumes the library staff to have good knowledge in substance of medicine, information technology and working experience in scientific libraries.
The Medical Faculty of Turku University is working actively in the Finnish Virtual University. New e-learning environments in medicine have been built and used both in undergraduate and graduate levels. Information literacy education for better skills is planned to be an important part of these environments for distance education and especially for the continuing medical education programmes outside the university.
The decreasing resources can be passed by cooperation between different experts in information literacy education, information technology and medical education. The ideal future scenario is a comprehensive cooperation over different scientific, national and geographical boundaries. |