Scholarship, Practice and Leadership

Information Literacy is a hot 21st century topic. It is seen by many as a critical skill though there is little consensus as to who owns the responsibility of developing this literacy. This paper looks at the importance of information literacy and the differing views of how to begin promoting a life long love of learning.

In January 1989, The Association of College and Research Libraries declared Information Literacy is a survival skill in the Information Age. A survival skill. With information expanding at an unprecedented rate  (ACRL, 1989) the ability to “. . . recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information” (p. 1) is crucial in business, academia, and lives. The barrage of information is practically constant and from such a variety of sources that skills to cope with it will determine the success or failure of businesses, of scholars and of people.

Some of the questions faced when discussing information literacy include: where lies the responsibility for developing these skills in individuals and when and how should this proceed? There are those who believe that librarians, as the gate keepers to so much information, should shoulder the burden. Others feel that teachers own the responsibility, and still more who consider collaboration between the two groups the best way to proceed. Despite the lack of consensus on approach, most agree that information literacy is now as fundamental as reading, writing and arithmetic.

The notion that information literacy is such a fundamental skill has prompted government and industry alike to provision Information Communication Technology, training, hardware, and software. Still, it is important to distinguish between the skills and the tools. Deploying technology is only a starting point in developing the necessary competencies of information literacy (Bruce, 2002, p2). There are in reality two distinct sets of skills at work here. The skills to use the information technology to search for information are only a small piece of the puzzle. The information literacy skills of effective searching and analyzing the data are completely independent. The focus is on the stuff rather than the substance. A degree of scholarship must accompany the technology in order for it to be a truly effective tool. With a tool box containing critical thinking, effective search skills, and the ability to synthesize ideas, people are better equipped to take action on the information they find.

With the technology in place, information literacy is relegated to the Librarian to instruct. The library has become an obscure place as “students rely on the Internet as the primary source of information for coursework, neglecting library databases and print resources,” (Zabel, 2004, p. 2) and is evidenced in the question “If you can’t Google it, is it anything worth knowing?” (Besel, 2006, p. 1). This is not entirely a bad thing as librarians frequently develop a variety of materials ranging from publications, to tutorials and web pages regarding information literacy. Additionally, they are keenly aware of the information seeking behaviors of students, what materials are available and key concepts that students need to be effective researchers (Mackey & Jackobson, 2005 p. 143). It is essential that faculty be more involved with information literacy.

“Some type of instruction is a necessity given that students, especially undergraduates, often lack the skills to find, evaluate, and effective use information” (Zabel 2004). A collaborative approach to information literacy may be the answer. If faculty and librarians were to partner and create curricula that embed information literacy into the program, students would have the opportunity not only to learn these essential skills, but put them to use. According to Zabel (2004), “Instruction . . . is meaningless unless teaching faculty require students (especially undergraduates) to do research as part of their coursework,” but, Mackey and Jackobson observed that without a “defined focus on research and writing” students are unable to effectively turn out college level work (2005, p. 141). This falls in line with the 1989 ACRL recommendation that instruction “move from textbook and lecture style learning to resource based learning , as well as making the library an “extension of the classroom for self-directed learning” (Mackey & Jacobson, 2005, p. 142).

Students who know how to do research are not the only benefit of information literacy. According to the ACRL (1989), there are also economic and social benefits of information literacy: “To promote economic independence and quality of existence, there is a lifelong need for being informed and up to date”. They stress this point in saying that “In Individuals’ Lives Americans have traditionally valued quality of life and the pursuit of happiness; however, these goals are increasingly difficult to achieve because of the complexities of life in today’s information and technology dependent society”, information literacy is a survival skill, whether one is pursuing higher education or not. If Americans are to continue to achieve those things we value – quality of life and pursuit of happiness – information should be at the forefront of our educational process. I believe that economic independence and a better informed citizenry are the least of the benefits of information literacy. Where students are “. . . move[d] away from the dominant paradigm of prepackag[ed] information . . . in the form of text books, lectures and even artificially constrained multimedia resources to facilitat[ed] active learning using real world information.”(Bruce, 2002, Section 3, ¶ 4) there will be lower drop out rates, fewer problem children and possibly more of them pursuing advanced studies. An article by Louanne Smolin and Kimberly Lawless (2003) described a second grade class exploring What it means to be bilingual.

Together students wrote interview questions; practiced them on one another; took walking field trips into the community; and, armed with digital cameras, video cameras, and audiotapes, accomplished the interviews. Upon returning to their classroom, they reviewed their pictures, audiotapes, and videotapes and then used the five classroom computers to analyze and synthesize their information for a digital slide show which they shared with their school community. They also emailed these slide shows to “e-pals” with whom they had been communicating. (p. 570)

While Mackey and Jacobson (2005) describe what complicated steps a college is now taking, second graders were more engaged in their studies – two years ago, and certainly learned more than they would have simply listening to a lecture, or reading the information from a textbook. Learning in this way taps into children’s natural curiosity and tendency to ask questions, promoting scholarship at a young age. They were also able to practice what they were learning working on a project that they shared with the community, adding value to what they were learning. These children will be in a fine position to be tomorrow’s leaders, while today’s college students try to catch up.

The amount of information encountered on a daily basis is staggering. This was recognized as early as 1989 by the ACRL and they recommend a framework for information literacy. While many agree that information literacy is a fundamental literacy in this Information Age, there is still controversy – more than 15 years later – on just who is responsible for its development. “Ultimately, information literate people are those who have learned how to learn” (ACRL, 1989, p. 1). Early instruction in information literacy will create lifelong learners who are able to take action on concepts, and become a new, better informed leadership  force in society. These students will understand that while Google may return 121,000,000 hits when searching for information literacy, there is certainly more to know, more to practice, and better ways to lead.

In the 21st Century there must be a change in the teaching paradigm that causes students to fall in love with learning. This begins with the new survival skill, information literacy. Once students begin learning to sift through all the information pushed at them, effectively search through it, synthesize it and put new learning into practice, we will begin to see the beginning of a golden age.

References
Association of College & Research Libraries (1989). Presidential Committee on Information Literacy: Final Report. Washington DC.
Besel, P. (2006). Information Literacy in the Information Age. Connect2OWU – Weekly magazine for the Ohio Wesleyan University Community. http://connect2.owu.edu/ourtown/129.php
Bruce, C. (July 2002). Information Literacy as a Catalyst for Educational Change: A Background Paper. White Paper prepared for UNESCO, the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, and the National Forum on Information Literacy, for use at the Information Literacy Meeting of Experts, Prague, The Czech Republic. http://www.nclis.gov/libinter/infolitcomf&meet/papers/bruce-fullpaper.pdf.
Mackey, T., & Jacobson, T. (2005). INFORMATION LITERACY. College Teaching, 53(4), 140-144. Retrieved Sunday, April 23, 2006 from the Academic Search Premier database
Smolin, L., & Lawless, K. (2003). Becoming literate in the technological age: New responsibilities and tools for teachers. Reading Teacher, 56(6), 570. Retrieved Sunday, April 23, 2006 from the Academic Search Premier database.
Zabel, D. (2004). A Reaction to "Information Literacy and Higher Education". Journal of Academic Librarianship, 30(1), 17-21. Retrieved Sunday, April 23, 2006 from the Academic Search Premier database.