Everyday information literacy in rural areas

Abstract

Information literate behaviour can be understood as an approach to handle the increasingly digitalised information environment. Rural areas and particularly the local authorities face specific challenges realising the digital transformation of decentralized countries. This research investigates individual information needs and behaviour patterns of residents in a rural district in Germany. The aim is to deliver insights concerning the question as to how information provision (supplier perspective) and information literacy (citizen perspective) can be fostered for rural inhabitants. This holistic perspective allows for context-specific recommendations at the end of the three-year project. Data were collected through a user study, expert interviews with information providers as well as an analysis of the websites maintained by the local authorities. The study shows that for residents evaluating information and information sources are the main issues. The analysis of the municipality’s websites indicates difficulties providing target group specific information. The expert interviews reveal a low level of digital maturity on behalf of the local governmental information provision, mainly caused by a lack of resources. Besides finding approaches to foster individual information literacy in the future, the information quality model developed for the analysis may already be used as a reference to improve the information provision of local governments.