INFORMATION LITERACY PROGRAM

FOR BOOK PUBLISHER IN MALAYSIA

1. BACKGROUND

1.1 The role of books has changed significantly over past half century as medium of
communication and one of information sources than ever before. Nowadays, books give the big
impact to the society by influenced from the content of those books. In Malaysia for instance,
according to the statistic even Malaysia only produced books around 10,000 per title a year
compare to the other countries, it still become a huge amount. But is it all the books either in
printed or electronic books provides valid content and can be trustworthy? In this phenomenon,
publisher has to play the important role in term of selection the books to be published. Other
than that it can bring to information explosion. According to Wikipedia, information explosion is a
term that describes the rapidly increasing amount of published information and the effects of this
abundance of data. As the amount of available data grows, the problem of managing the
information becomes more difficult, which can lead to information overload. When this
happened, it gives some difficulties to the information users to find the correct information
because of validity behind the information. Today everyone can write a book and provide the
information and as the mountain of information gets larger and larger, people begin to suffer
from what Richard Saul Wurman calls “information anxiety”. Information anxiety is that helpless
feeling that comes with realization that there is more information than one person can ever hope
to process. As with many other types of anxiety, having some knowledge and training about
information and its uses can help reduce information anxiety. With this, publisher needs
information literacy skills to identify the better information about a book to be published. In
Malaysia, there are many publishers and almost of those publishers less focus about this
problem.

1.2 Publisher can be define as who are produce and disseminate of literature or information
and any activity of making information available for public view. In some cases, authors may be
their own publisher that means originators and developers of content also provide media to
deliver and display the content. In my opinion, publisher is important part where in produce
information. When we refer to the information lifecycle, publisher play important role where
information have to be manage. Manage here means information provided by author have to be
manage or check by the publisher in order to published information quality. Information provided
must include all the characteristic of information. It just can be identify with information literacy
skills. The question that to be answer by publisher are how do users know when they found
information that answers their information need is correct and valid. Information literacy skill is
significance to the publisher because they can enhance quality of information and on the other
hand can be competitive advantage to them in term of marketing. Information literacy is the
ability to identify what information is needed, understand how the information is organized and
identifies the best sources of information for given need, locate those sources, evaluate the
sources critically, and share that information. It is the knowledge of commonly used research
techniques. "To be information literate, a person must be able to recognize when information is
needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information"
(ALA, 1989).

1.3 Every day we can see many issues related to the book publishing. One of the issues that
related to the books publishing is plagiarism. Plagiarism is the technical term for stealing
someone else’s intellectual property. There have been many issues of plagiarism and copyright
protected material either from book or internet, however this is a complicated issue, as many
countries have not yet passed laws against this act, or do not enforce already present legislation
on downloading copyrighted material from the internet. In Malaysia, almost of the book that
been published cannot be say follow the standard because we can see there are many did not
follow the standard by not provide references especially for academic book. If authors cut and
paste something created by someone else and do not give credit to the creator, they are
plagiarism. This way we can show the validity of the information provided. Maybe some of the
content in those books are copy from other books without permission and it did not provide
acknowledgement to the referrers. Publishers should maintain the highest degree of
responsibility and ethical standards in all their dealings Publishers should conform to the
principle of fair competition. Publishers ought to adopt a positive attitude with regards to the
rights of readers and customers. 
2. OBJECTIVES

2.1 This program is to enhance level of Information Literacy skills among publishers.
They have to know to evaluate the book to be published by make sure all the authors
follow the standard and avoid plagiarism.
2.2 Understand how information is designed, stored, and organized. To ensure clearly
they understand how to define sources of information, identify the formats and
describe the organization of information such as citation, footnote and so on.
2.3 Raise awareness of publishers in major sources of information and importance of
information literacy. They suppose to be have ability to identify what information is
needed, understand how the information is organized, identify the best sources,
located those sources, evaluate and share that information.
2.4 Introduce training program and learning modules to all publishers. Some of
publishers usually not are exposing about the program like this and can be introduce
to other fields.
2.5 Publisher is able to teach their authors the correct way in provide information and
material to be published to public.
2.6 Maximize and keep value of information provided. To enhance the value of
information, they have to know the characteristic of information and other information
skill.
2.7 To identify customers information needs as competitive advantage. With this
program all the publishers able to seeking information about their customers in term
of their information need because different level of customers with different
information needs.
2.8 Identify and select the most appropriate investigative methods or information retrieval
systems for their customers. This is to determine what kind of information is needed
such as statistical data and narrative and also select the most appropriate research
tool.
2.9 Analyze, evaluate, and synthesize the information. This is to make sure they know
how examine the content and the structure of information or the book. Other than
that, by this objective they know how to apply criteria for evaluating both information
and its sources use by authors.
3. MISSION STATEMENT
Today anyone can be a publisher either printed or electronic and information is offered
anonymously. Information literacy is importance to publishers in order enhance the value of
information constantly by produce quality information and helping development of
information society in Malaysia. This program will offer publishers some information literacy
skills in order to solve sort of problems and issues related to copyright and plagiarism.

4. TARGET GROUP
4.1 Malaysia Book Publisher Association (MABOPA).
MABOPA was officially registered on 14 January 1969 to represent legitimate
publishers’ interest. Most of the members are active and publish a wide range of
products including textbooks, revision course books, workbooks, encyclopedias,
readers, magazines, and also multimedia products. Their roles are:
4.1.1 To encourage the widest possible spread of printed books.
4.1.2 To foster the development of the publishing trade in Malaysia.
4.1.3 To foster national consciousness through the publishing industry.
4.1.4 To encourage Malaysian authorship.
4.1.5 To encourage the improvement of the technical and professional
qualifications of the members of the Association.
4.1.6 To promote and protect by all lawful means the interests of the members
of the Association.
4.1.7 To examine all legislative proposals likely to affect publishers and the
book trade, and to take such measures in support thereof, in opposition
thereto, or to secure amendments thereto, as may be expedient.
4.1.8 To study and resolve all problems related to publishing.
4.1.9 To encourage fair trade practices and maintain high standards of
workmanship and service in the business.
4.1.10 To cooperate with other associations representing allied businesses and
with organizations of an educational or cultural nature to inculcate good
reading habits.
5. ACTION PLAN
5.1 Meeting about policy, setup team program, IL program.
5.2 Develop module content of IL program.
5.3 Setup date, venue and duration.
5.4 Conduct activities that incorporate IL skills.
5.5 Make and select assessment methods.

6. EXPECTED OUTCOME
6.1 Publisher will know how to identify information needed. The sources of information
and specific information selected will be determined by the information need. After
program publisher will clearly define information need by start with general topic and
stated as a question based on the specific information need in order to seek
information.
6.2 Greater awareness and understanding of IL among publishers who have
participated in the IL activities. They will know IL skills so important in order to
publish trustworthy information and enhance value of information.
6.3 They are able to identify what information is appropriate according to the market.
Everything is information, but not all information is equally appropriate and useful to
customers as users of information.
6.4 Able to recognize audience of information. The amount of information, the detail
involved, and the language used will be different according to the audience.
6.5 Can be identifying a qualified author. After the program, publisher have to determine
the credibility the author before publish that material because we have to look at the
ownership rights of other original author from many point of view.
6.6 Give publishers the understanding of different types of information available,
searching effectively and evaluating the quality of retrieved information.
6.7 Understanding of plagiarism and the issues surrounding the ethical use of
information.
6.8 All the authors will produce quality material as references or reading materials to the
users with proper way and follow the standard.
6.9 They will be able to conduct user studies to identify the needed information for
establishing user requirement when publishing materials.
7. IMPLEMENTATION COMMITTEE
 Chairperson : Assoc. Prof. Dr. Adnan Jamaluddin
 Vice-Chairperson : Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mohd Sharif Mohd Saad
 Chief of committee : Mohammad Fazli Bin Baharuddin
 Assistant committee : Mohd Naim B. Mohd Nasfi
 Trainers : Students IS 772 (Master in Library Science)

8. COLLABORATION
Information Literacy Program for Book Publishers in Malaysia is organize by course IS 772
Master in Library Science from Faculty of Information Management from UiTM, works with
publishers association in Malaysia that are authors, editors, designers and whose involve in
work publishing.

9. METHOD OF IMPLEMENTATION
9.1 Lecture and speech
9.2 Workshop and tutorial
9.3 Exercise
9.4 Activity in group
10. MODULE CONTENT
This program will be implementing and involve duration 5 days and include seeking methods
either from printed material or electronic material. The module content is based on Empowering
8 Model. Empowering 8 is one of information literacy model that developed at workshop by IFLA
-ALP and the National Institute of Library & Information Sciences (NILIS) of Sri Lanka and
participated by South and Southeast Asian countries. Actually, Empowering 8 is to enhance the
resource-based learning by sensitizing to Information Literacy and it specifically developed for
the Asia and the Pacific region. That means this model is really appropriate to Malaysia.

10.1 Session 1: Understanding the World of Information

This module will be implementing by lecture method and using Microsoft
PowerPoint presentation. Participants have to know the basic knowledge about this
matter in order to make sure all of them really understand the world of information
and their roles are significance narrow to information society development in
Malaysia.
Information is much related with communication. Communication is critical to the
process making information useful and usable. It has to be shared, transmitted or
perceived for actions or decisions to be taken, shaped or influenced. For example
when a meteorologist, with information about a distant and emerging storm system
goes on television or radio with a weather report, people can do something with the
information. They can take precautionary measures that may save lives or property.
If the information is not communicated, it has little value. Withholding information
can be a valuable exercise too. For example, in the interest of national security, our
government keeps certain types of information secret. Similarly, companies try to
keep certain information about products and manufacturing processes secret from
their competitors to gain competitive advantage. This module is more about how to
use information that publishers have. Below is the content of module 1:

 Overview of concepts: What information, Information literacy, and information

explosion are about?
 Relevance and significance of Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning.
 Discussion of the many ages of information. Publishers will learn the history of
information and come to understand why it is important to them. It will give them
 a sense of how humans arrived at the current stage of information overload and
why it can makes people anxious.
 Information Literacy models, programs, and standards.
 Information and book publisher’s world.

10.2 Session 2: Developing Information Retrieval Skills (Empowering 8 Model)

To be information literate, one must have not only a basic knowledge of some
sources of information, but also knowledge of how to use some of these sources.
This section of the Information Literacy modules will focus on how to use some of
the information sources discussed in module 1, such as journals, books, indexes
and search engine for electronic materials.
In this module we use tutorial method and workshop by works in group in order to
make sure all of participants easy to understand what information that trainers want
to give. There is the content of module 2:

 Identify the information need and come out with some questions.
Publishers suppose to be defining the topic and subject related to the questions.
They will be teaching to choose the relevant format for the finish product. Before
they start searching process they have to identify the keywords and plan search
strategy. Other than that they have to identify different types of resources where
information may be found.

 Explore. This step is to locate resources appropriate to the chosen topic. This
step also can find information appropriate to the chosen topic and do interview,
field trips or other outside research. Publishers suppose to be familiar with the
topic of materials that they want to be published. This is important to help in
searching process.

 Select information. This step to choose relevant information. Publishers can

determine which sources are too easy, too hard or just right. All the information
gathered must be record through note making or making a visual organizer such
as a chart, graph or outline. Other than that collect appropriate citations.
Citations can be one of information searching methods because the information
includes are much related to our topics. The initial evaluation should take place
 as publisher peruses the bibliographic citations. Bibliographic citations contain
all the data they need to distinguish one publication from another. This
information is generally combined into three main components: author, title, and
publication information. A close examination of these elements can help them
determine how useful or appropriate this source will be in the context of their
task to produce material. This part is significance in literature because to show
where we refer in order to create our material. It looks like give some credit to
the real creator.

 Organize. All the information have to sort because it easy to distinguish between
fact, opinion and fiction. Other than that, this step publisher can check for bias in
the sources. This is important for publishers that publish academic books.
Sorting must be according sequence the information in a logical order. Use
visual organizers to compare or contrast information. Visual organizers here
mean publisher can draw all information on the paper and make some
comparison. This is the way to avoid bias information in our information
provided.

 Create. After all the information has been determined, publishers should prepare
information in their own words in a meaningful way. Revise and edit, alone or
with a peer. Finalize the bibliographic format.

 Present. This part is how we share the information with correct and appropriate
audience. Publisher need to be presenting their material in module 3.

 Assess. What publisher want assess is that product in term of book. Publisher
has to get feedback from other customers. This is like measurement for our
product. Consider what could be done better next time.

 Apply. Review the feedback and assessment provided and use the feedback
and assessment for the next material. This is competitive advantage that
belongs to the publisher that knows how to use the information.
 10.3 Session 3: Conduct activity based on information literacy skills.
This module is for publishers to apply the information literacy skill that they get in
module 1 and module 2. This is to assessing their understanding do it their self by
follow the instruction. This activity will be done in group and one task will be given in
order to finish by each group. The result will be present to all and will comment by
expertise in information literacy skills.

11. METHOD OF ASSESSMENT

11.1 Surveys and interviews
Surveys and interviews are used to gather publishers' opinions about their
educational experiences and experts' opinions about the efficiency of module
provided.

11.2 Questionnaire
Develop some sort of questions related to the program and module.

11.3 Ongoing assessment

During training session, trainer will give questions to participants in order they really
understand intended program.

11.4 Participants paper and task

Samples of participants work are evaluated by experts or by trainers to see how
well they are meeting program knowledge and skills goals.

11.5 Observation
The program and activity will be observed by trainers from begin the program until
end of program. All the observing will record as reference to make a final report.

12. CONCLUSION
 Publisher is an information supplier to the society and this is the way to develop information
society in Malaysia. By organize this program it will raise their knowledge in term to provide
quality information. Information literacy can be method to produce trustworthy materials
without bias information. Information users rightful to get correct answer for their information
needs and rightful decide which information they want but publishers can play the role to
provide quality information in information explosion phenomenon.

The challenges and impacts that have to be face by users occurring every day. With many
developments of new technologies can give many anxieties to users because it will create
many problems in seeking valid information. In addition, everyone can be author or
publisher. Without information literacy skills, all of these problems cannot be manage and
solve. It will abandon effort of information society to be developed.

13. REFERENCES
1. Burkhardt, J. M., MacDonald, M. C. and Rathemacher, A. J. Teaching information
literacy: 35 practical standards based exercises for college students. Chicago:
American Library Association, 2003

2. Grassian, E. S. and Kaplowitz, J. R. Information literacy instruction: theory and practice.

New York: Neal-Schuman Publisher, Inc., 2001.

3. Owen, P. Publishing now. London: Peter Owen Publishers, 1996.

4. Ryan, J and Capra, S. Information Literacy Toolkit: grades kindergarden-6. Chicago.

American Library Association, 2001.