Library &
Information Science, Course 250: Instructional Strategies.
Dr. David Loertscher
b22.html
www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~ahayden/literacy.html
K. Alix Hayden
EDCI 701 - The University of Calgary
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Information Age
Today, we live in the information age. We are bombarded with massive amounts
of information each day. Not only are we confronted by traditional sources
such as books and newspapers and even television, but we now we have to also
contend with the Information Highway, video conferencing, CUSEEME
technology, and virtual reality. Bill Moyers (1989) referred to a report
that stated "there is more information [data] in a single edition of the New
York Times than a man or woman in the sixteenth century had to process in
the whole of his or her life" (cited by Lenox, 1993, p. 312).
The information entering our world each day is composed of facts, data,
figures, details, tidbits, advice, wisdom and even lore. By itself,
information is not knowledge. Information and data must be gathered, read,
assembled, observed, questioned, conceptualized, judged, manipulated,
integrated, analyzed, synthesized, and evaluated before it becomes
knowledge. Information must be filtered through our experiences and applied
to our lives in order to become knowledge. It must be used and reflected
upon to become meaningful, otherwise it remains just facts and figures.
Lenox (1993) suggests that information is the manipulator of a passive mind;
knowledge is the liberator of an active intellect. Nobel Prize winner
Herbert Seaman contends that in the past, to know meant to have in one's own
memory. Today, however given the deluge of information, to know means to
have access to the informational process. Possession is replaced by access
(Hade, 1982, p. 8).
In 1775, Samuel Johnson said:
we know a subject ourselves
or
we know where we can find
information upon it.
Today, more than every before, we must be able to find information because
there is simply too much available to possibly possess in our own minds.
To prepare the leaders, teachers, librarians, engineers, administrators, and
academics of tomorrow, we must today strive to teach students to become
critical thinkers, intellectually curious adults, and life long learners.
Librarians, along with teachers, are the ones who can start and guide
students on their journey to information literacy.
--------------------------------------
What is Information Literacy?
The question arises, What is Information Literacy? There are many
definitions of information literacy just as there are many definitions of
literacy. From some people, information literacy means being able to cope
and adapt to technology. Many seem to have this narrow view of information
literacy. This definition is somewhat akin to saying that being literate
means one can read; being information literate means one can use a computer.
Both literacy and information literacy are abstract concepts, that entail
and varied levels and complex processes.
In its broadest sense, information literacy refers to the ability to access
and use a variety of information sources to solve an information need. But,
just like literacy meaning more than the ability to read and write,
information literacy entails finding, evaluating, using, and subsequently
communicating knowledge. The person must desire to know; must use analytic
skills to formulate questions; must identify research methodologies; and
must utilize critical skills for evaluation. In addition, the person must be
able to search for answers to those questions in increasingly complex and
diverse ways. Information literacy, then, involves a complex set of skills
that allow us to express, explore, question, and understand the flow of
ideas among individuals and groups in a vastly changing technological
environment.
The American Library Association's definition of information literacy is the
one that is used most often today, partially because it was widely
publicized and distributed.
To be information literate, a person must be able to recognize wheninformation is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use
effectively the needed information . . . . . Ultimately, information
literate people are those who have learned how to learn. They know how
to learn because they know how knowledge is organized, how to find
information, and how to use information in such a way that others can
learn from them. They are people prepared for lifelong learning,
because they can always find the information needed for any task or
decision at hand. (ALA, 1989)
Educators, including both librarians and teachers, need to create an
environment, a community, where students can acquire the skills needed for
information literacy. As Lenox (1993) states, educators need to shift their
emphasis from acquisition of a product to execution of a dynamic process.
Students need to be transformed from passive information gatherers to
active, participating knowledge finders.
--------------------------------------
Librarians and Information Literacy
Librarians have a particularly important role in fostering information
literacy. This is just beginning to be recognized the Canadian universities.
Librarians, are in fact, the epitome of information literacy. Their career
focuses on identifying information problems, finding information, analyzing,
synthesizing and evaluating the information, and then ensuring that the
library's community has access to the information. Traditionally, librarians
were the gate keepers of information; today, they are the gateways to
information. As librarians, we need to become facilitators of students
learning; we need to teach information literacy skills which involves
curriculum and information strategies that help students formulate the right
questions. We need to teach students how to use information sources to
answer their questions; to help them understand how to manipulate and mold
information into knowledge; and to help them learn how to communicate this
knowledge with the world. Lenox (1993) maintains that librarians need to,
most importantly, design a curriculum and pedagogy that helps students use
their "knowledge in deciding, acting, and behaving in this world" (p. 5).
Librarians need to weave the fabric of information literacy into the souls
of the students.
Most of the literature on information literacy contends that an information
literacy curriculum cannot stand alone; rather it must be integrated into
the academic curriculum. Librarians, therefore, need to actively forge
teaching relationships with academic faculty. They need to work together to
integrate information literacy into the teaching and learning processes.
Information literacy needs to be across the curriculum rather than a
component of a single course. For information literacy skills to be viewed
as being vital to the academic curriculum, librarians must take an active
role in education faculty about its value. To this end, librarians need to
have a voice in the curriculum development. Librarians and faculty need to
work together as equal partners, rather than the librarian being seen as a
service to faculty. Integration of information literacy into the curriculum
is analogous to writing across the curriculum.
--------------------------------------
Questioning Information Literacy
Prior to collaborating with faculty on constructing a curriculum for
information literacy, we need to question what is involved. Certainly,
information literacy can be defined as the ability to effectively access and
evaluate information for problem solving and decision making; however, what
complex processes and strategies are involved in becoming information
literate? Literacy teachers investigated how students learned to read, what
processes they used, and what strategies they implemented prior to creating
new curriculums which encompass whole language. The same research
methodology should be used for information literacy. We should look at the
strategies and processes that one uses when solving an information problem.
Through detailed analysis and reflection, a model of information literacy
may appear that can be incorporated into the curriculum.
This page is maintained by SLIS Web, slisweb@wahoo.sjsu.edu. It was last revised on June 7, 1999.