Guidelines for Information Literacy are a framework
for how libraries are developed for use and how librarians help learners and
Educators to use information and provide guidance in seeking resources for use
in scholarly research and planning for the continuing evolution of education practices. As a “Digital Immigrant” (Marc Prenski), my
memory of Information Literacy in library practice was centered around Librarians
helping learners to understand the Dewey Decimal Card filing system (see photo
to the right). Librarians helped
learners to find sources found in the library and understanding how to cite
resources. Today, over 30 years later,
librarian’s and libraries are charged with helping Institutions, Educators and
learners with understanding how to use the internet with all of it’s vast
resources of print and media resources.
This way of “understanding” has grown to include how to find reliable
resources, how to learn about the Transliteracy (cultural ways of
communicating), and to be able to use various different ways of accessing
information for learning and teaching that go beyond using computers and
include using various new and evolving technologies used to teach.
Gail Bush Ph. D. from the National College of
Education (1989) states that Information Literacy is “about how to be critical”.
She asserted that the focus of the 21st
century thinker of Information Literacy will have to evolve beyond “how to
answer questions” (20th century approach) too thinking about “questioning
answers” instead. Information Literacy
has evolved immensely in the last thirty years.
It has grown from requiring basic skills for accessing information in
library settings and having trust in the value and reliability in knowledge
resources, because librarians were choosing and selecting information for us to
draw on, too having to be able to decode and evaluate resources that are now
available. Information Literacy is now
focusing on how to think critically and judge and compare resources and is a
skill that “ordinary people” need to have to do research and make claims.
Everyday people need to be able to
think critically and back up claims due to amount of research and information
that is being accessed. This is
discussed in part, in Sue Thomas’s lecture to the IOCT Master’s Program. She discusses the use of multi- media and
digital research approaches being used with students. She cites Bruce Mason (1988) who wrote that,
in regard to “the plethora of new media devices and affordances we should be
able to look at the roles these abilities play in social life, the varieties of
reading and writing available for choice, the contexts of their performance,
the manner in which they are interpreted and tested, not by experts, but by
ordinary people in ordinary activities” (Thomas, 2007), www.transliteracy.com.
Due
to the increased use by “ordinary people” in interpreting and using many
different modalities found in Web 2.0, learning, communicating and drawing
conclusions, understanding Transliteracy is increasingly more important. Referring back to Mason, the promise of what
can be learned (transmitted) through use of ordinary people is what is really
important to the field of understanding what is being passed on through new
media and how it can be used by regular people to learn.
Given the vast amounts information
available, array of resources and increase in the ways these resources can be
used by everyday people, Guidelines on Information Literacy (library practices
and development) have had to evolve and change to address the new and unique
needs placed on learners, libraries and Institutions. In my research of current developments in the
field of Information Literacy, I first looked at lifetime learners. In a final draft of Guidelines on Information
Literacy for Lifelong Learning (2006), the Guidelines are broken down into
critical components in:
(1.) Information Literacy Concepts
(2.) Information
Literacy and Lifetime Learning
(3.) International Standards
(4.) Action
Planning for development
(5.) Learning Instruction Management
(6.) Learning
Theories and
(7.) Learning Assessment.
This collection of guidelines is clearly
written and articulated and the IFLA uses a variety of illustrative flow charts
to show how intentions impact with learning and how this is carried back and
forth between learners and the institutions
They use a “Constructivist Approach where students are (viewed as) engaging
with information to solve a problem and thereby creating new understanding
through active investigation and thought, instead of memorizing facts presented
in class lectures” (p.9). The multiple
ways in which Information Literacy occurs happens through input from:
(1.)
Information Fluency
(2.) Library Instruction (skills)
(3.) Bibliographic
Instruction
(4.) Information Competencies (skills and goals of information
literacy)
(5.) Information Skills (focusing on information abilities), and
(6.) Development of Information Skills (facilitating information skills).
Unlike the clear and comprehensive
outline for Information Literacy created by the IFLA, The NYC Schools developed
a much more comprehensive and overwhelming 466-page guide called the
Information Fluency Continuum. The
continuum is founded on four major concepts.
First, libraries “enable students to explore content deeply and pursue
their own interests”. Second, libraries “surround
students with high quality, engaging resources”. Third, that libraries serve as a place where
students collaborate together and present their work. Finally, libraries “integrate independent
learning skills by teaching inquiry and technology skills and provide
professional development to teachers” (p.1). At each grade, student improvements in abilities
are measured by three standards. The
first is, the “students use “inquiry to build understanding and create new
knowledge”. The second is, students “pursue
personal and aesthetic growth”; and the third, students “demonstrate social responsibility”. Throughout the K-12 education, expectations
for cultural understanding and a growing set of ethics are espoused and is a
standard that is measured.
I was surprised to see how little the
Empire State College web site has in regard to Information Literacy on the web
site. http://www.esc.edu/suny-real/global-learning-qualifications-framework/learning-domains/information-literacy/
There are four short and simple
dropdowns. The first lists questions to encourage thinking about information literacy. Questions posed are: What are the types of
resources are available to me to learn? If I had questions, where would I go?
How did I find resources about my topic? How did I evaluate? How have I conducted research or investigated
my topic? How have I been able to shape,
engage and interpret ideas around my topic? How have I gained critical perspectives
or developed new strategies and How have I used quantitative information to
improve my understanding?
There are 3 other simple drop downs that
include: Examples of Evidence of Information Literacy, Lower-level information
literacy and Upper-level information literacy.
There is no discussion about the role the library plays in the institution,
with Faculty or identifying the librarians as leaders for professional development. There is also no discussion in regard too
collaboration, ethics or increasing cultural literacies that has been noted in
the IFLA and The NYC School Library System.
References
Bush, G. (1989). American Library
Association Presidential Committee on Information Literacy, You Tube video January 10, 1989, Washington,
D.C.. Lau, J. (2006). Guidelines on Information Literacy for Lifelong Learning. International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), Information Literacy Section, Universidad Veracruzana, Boca del Rio, Veracruz, Mexico http://www.ifla.org/files/assets/information-literacy/publications/ifla-guidelines-en.pdf
New York City School Library System (2010). Empire State Information Fluency Continuum, Benchmarks Skills for Grades K-12 Assessments/Common Core Alignment. New York City School District.
Thomas, S. (2007). Transliteracy Lecture by Sue Thomas,
Presentation to the MA in Creative Writing & New Media Class, The IOCT
Masters’ Degree. You Tube video October 24th, 2008. www.transliteracy.com.
Two or Three Little Birds, (2013). bookish reminiscing
for Sunday. Goggle Image Posted on April
28, 2013. http://www.twoorthreelittlebirds.com/?p=1577
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