Information literacy trends in higher education (2006–2019): visualizing the emerging field of mobile information literacy

Abstract

The thematic evolution of research on Mobile Information Literacy between 2006 and 2019 in the field of Information Literacy, learning and mobile technologies is analysed in an international context. For this purpose, the relevant bibliographic references from five databases (ERIC, LISA, LISTA, Scopus and WOS) were retrieved. To systematize the keywords, high dimensionality is reduced by means of a term-based process. Fields, topics, sub-topics and top terms are defined. The main top-terms and their relationships are analysed applying the fractional counting methodology using VOSViewer software. Fifteen major themes were set, which were grouped into six clusters to identify the main thematic trends during the period under review: IL and e-learning, Mobile devices and competencies, Ethics, Library and e-resources, Educational technology and Technological environment. The convergence of IL and e-learning, the growth of e-literacy, the increasing relationship between mobile devices and information competencies, as well as that of libraries and e-resources, are thus detected. In conclusion, there is evidence of a growing interdisciplinarity in the scientific publications on Mobile Information Literacy, which interrelates the studies of information and digital literacy with e-learning and mobile technologies.