loading . . . The information literacy landscape in Germany – challenges, best practices, and trends #ECIL2025 Nicolas Kusser, Gemeinsame Kommission Informationskompetenz von dbv und VDB and Sabine Rauchmann from Universitätsbibliothek Augsburg spoke about the history and development of IL in Germany. Librarians in Germany have developed a diverse IL landscape in collaboration with a range of stakeholders. This presentation will give an overview of the landscape and highlight best practice and current challenges. IL was established in 3 stages: 1. the Political stage, 2) the regional stage and 3) the collaboration stage across Germany. These three stages provide an understanding of how IL is taught in libraries.
In the 1980s and 1990s, training in libraries was restricted to technical functions, but there was little holistic understanding of IL and little interest in pedagogy. However it has become apparent that a focus on pedagogy was needed. From 2001, the PISA study found that German students had weak language skills, and it was also found that most students and lecturers gained IL skills through auto-didactic learning. Policymakers responded by identifying IL as a key competency and that it needed to be explicitly taught. A key document was this one Libraries should take an active role in teaching of IL, and collaborate with others in the universities to achieve this.
In the regional stage, libraries gradually responded to this policy, and individual libraries pioneered the development of IL teaching. Regional working groups were formed to standardise practice, share methods and materials and were platforms for the formal exchange of best practice in IL education. The first information literacy standards were formed in 2003. The Bavarian group were very productive and created recommendations for pedagogy, doctoral students, relationships with schools, etc. see https://www.bib-bvb.de/web/ag-ik/home
In the collaborative stage, the German Library Association and the Association of Academic Libraries established the joint commission on Information Literacy in 2012 https://www.bib-bvb.de/web/ag-ik/home. This acts as the central interface for IL in Germany, and creates policy and recommendations, it monitors IL activity across the country. It organises networking events and a best practice competition, and it maintains the national IL statistics. In 2016, it adopted the IL framework of reference, and in 2021 it released a German translation of the ACRL framework for information literacy, which defines the competencies and dispositions that learners should gain from IL teaching.
In 2024, we have a snapshot of the state of IL in Germany. Public libraries are busier than ever, and focus workshops on children and teens. Public Libraries provide 30 workshops and tours for children and teens every year, and the number is increasing. Academic Libraries didn't get the same bounce-back after the COVID pandemic that public libraries have seen, but still provide a large amount of information literacy teaching. In academic libraries, the groups that are most targeted are UG and PGT students, but the amount of teaching provided to doctoral students and researchers has increased. Topics taught include catalogues and databases, document delivery, legal and ethical;, electronic publishing and academic writing. The number of individual consultations and webinars is increasing.
The majority of IL teaching is voluntary, and only a minority of libraries have managed to establish credit-bearing courses for information literacy. This often depended on the librarian being in the right place at the right time to influence this aspect of education. They showed some examples of best practice from university libraries, but knowledge of these is limited to people in the field. For example, the LOTSE project in Munster, and the Information Expert Passport Programm. The 2021 translation of the ACRL framework sparked a new conversation on pedagogy for IL, and by 2024 18% of librarians reported actively using the framework, 23% still worked with the older standards, and 43% took an individual approach with no overarching framework adopted for their teaching. Implementation remains fragmented. However, IL is viewed as a core responsibility in academic libraries; a study in 2024 revealed that most institutions have an IL sub-department or a specific person responsible for IL. In most institutions, IL session are carried out by staff from different departments who teach alongside their other duties. In 2024, recommendations were produced that sais that IL teachers should be identified in the organisation chart. The responsibilities and priorities must be defined. All teaching librarians should have professional development, and pedagogical approaches should be based on IL standards, and IL teachers should work collaboratively to develop IL teaching. IL teaching should not be left to the individual, but should be defined by institutions.
The German framework for IK allows for a standardised component of IL in all librarian education in Germany. The Informationskompetenz online platform brings together statistics about information literacy in the country, which are more detailed than the government, and provides a better overview of IL teaching across the country. A roundtable facilitates the exchange of knowledge and practice, the 10th round table took place last year in Hamburg. Each year, the roundtable features different topics and takes place in a different city. The 2025 roundtable will take place in Ilmenau. The information literacy day features collaboration between three countries: Austria, Germany and Switzerland. In 2026 this will be in Augsburg, although it is German-speaking!
The state of public libraries: there are a lot of very varied activities taking place, so it is more challenging to get a good overview of what is happening, as fewer statistics are collected. They provided some examples, many of which commence with very young children, and are integrated with school learning. The online tutorial Sputnik, which was developed by the Bavarian group and some students, is an interactive tutorial to teach IL to high school students and includes a module on AI.
In summary, German academic and public libraries do a huge amount to support IL development across the life-course, and this activity is increasing. However, there are some more opportunities, challenges and gaps.
In terms of opportunities, a new Handbook Bibliothekspedagogik was published, which showcases the diversity of approaches and covers IL pedagogies in detail. It defines IL across all services in the Library, and the ethical use of information, including addressing fake news and AI. These are particularly important for public libraries. It also covers novel pedagogies for online teaching, drawing on experiences from the COVID pandemic. In terms of challenges, the underdeveloped IL guiding structures undermine the IL teaching of librarians. A more formal governance could recognise the strengths of IL teaching librarians, and support higher quality programmes. IL teaching needs to address IL development across the life-course. The framework is mostly used in academic libraries, greater collaboration across different professional groups and internationally. The gaps include that publications are often limited to field reports and experience papers rather than peer-reviewed publications. Bachelor's and master's theses contain some useful research, but they are not widely disseminated. A dedicated journal in German with a focus on IL would be an improvement. A structured onboarding process for new teaching librarians would support new professionals.
Germany has built a strong foundation for IL, through political recognition, regional initiatives and national collaboration. However, there is a need for further professionalisation in teaching and establishing sustainable organisational and staffing structures to promote IL in the long term.Photo by Sheila Webber: canoers, Bamberg, September 2025 http://dlvr.it/TNHBqR
