Library & Information Science, Course 250: Instructional Strategies.
Dr. David Loertscher
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www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~ahayden/literacy.html

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:

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 when

information 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.

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