Information Literacy Space

Welcome to my Information Literacy blog space.  I am pleased and delighted to have you walk with me on this journey of learning.  Each week I will be sharing my weekly reflections on lessons learned on my Information Literacy class.

Background of Information Literacy and teaching of library instructions

The librarians of the 1970's started the first program that teaches library/ bibliographic instructions to users, the teaching methods back then were in a class format where users were shown how to find library items using a manual card catalog, the computerized system took over from then and allows users to be taught using online catalog.  The current library as we know it  now is what many call a Smart library, advances of technology that allows  users to no longer be  seen as receivers of information but creators of information.  Librarians in offering library instruction must consider teaching programs that will incorporate online learning tools, to meet the needs of users in vast geographical areas and digital skills of users.

Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education

In the year 2000 the Association of College and Research Libraries  came up with a framework on information Literacy in higher education (ACRL).  These standards get reviewed periodically by a task team which consist of stakeholders who are practitioners of the Information Literacy teachings.  The framework stipulates that Information Literacy is  life-long learning, it should be self reflective to educator and student, it should encourage conceptual and lateral thinking to students. It encourages librarians to consider pedagogical approaches that evolve with the times, i.e blended teaching methods. The framework aims to encourage dialogue and collaboration among educators, librarians are given platforms to create knowledge by designing IL curriculum, assignments and summatives.

More information on the ACRL framework can be accessed on http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework

Differences between Bibliographic instruction and Information Literacy

During my training years as a librarian, which was in the early year 2000. I was introduced to user education, which was also knows as bibliographic instructions, down the line in my practicing career I now come across Information Literacy.  Is there really a difference between the two??  Apparently yes, how
ever the distinction is very little but outcome very very big.

Bibliographic Instruction/User education

Here we talk of set instructions that are taught to users to locate information that they need quickly and effectively.  It centers around the library tool, which is generally known as the library catalog.  Users are shown how to search for information using subject, author, titles etc  interface.  The users are then introduced to Dewey Decimal Classification and how subjects are classified under Dewey.  Libraries subscribing  to online databases, use the training sessions to demonstrate to users how  to find articles on databases.  In some academic libraries this is sometimes combined with the library orientation day, where users are given the library tour.  In  that era as students of the bibliographic instructions we were seen as receivers of the instructions, not much was expected from us in terms of having a learning dialogue where we can start conversations of learning with our peers, let alone where we can be taught to evaluate resources, as mostly all of them were in print, and mostly reviewed and deemed suitable by the acquisition side of the library.

Information Literacy (IL)

In comes the Information Literacy program.

The  Prague declaration, (2003) defines information literacy as encompassing 'knowledge of ones information concerns and needs, and the ability to identify, locate, evaluate, organize and effectively create, use and communicate information to address issues or problems at hand, it is a prerequisite for participating effectively in the information society, and is part of the human right of life long learning.

The most glaring difference of the two is that information literacy teaches users critical skills to find, evaluate use or create information, learners previous knowledge is taken into consideration and is used to support content taught, the skills acquired in class are not just to pass the module, but for life long use.  Another key difference between BI and IL is that with bibliographic instruction  too much focus by teachers was on finding print format i.e book or newspapers, with IL focus has shifted drastically with the introduction of the digital age, users are tought to  search, find electronic format records, and are tought discerning skills as not information available in the digital world is empirical.

The evolving role of a teacher librarian

Librarians are sometimes  known as the walking and talking encyclopedia.  This is due to the variety of  of quires they receive on the daily bases.  The role of librarian is evolving to that of teacher librarian, gone are the days where librarians are duty bound to organize collections and know the dewey set A-z.  Today's  librarians are collaborators, they provide spaces for  online collaborations for students and lectures to meet and discuss content, they introduce and train on new learning management systems, i.e Blackboard,  they assist students learn to create content, this we see with digital podcast and you tube videos for class projects, librarians not only end there, they provide one on one service to assist students with bibliographic and in-text referencing, a job that was previously left to lecturers.   Librarians are event organisor's and tend to do well in internal marketing for current awareness programs , using lib-guides, blogs, and related social media packages. In research environment teacher librarians are equal to the task by teaching research skills, finding literature for research, collaborating with faculty to assist with selecting suitable content, with the varied information technology skills among patrons librarians also assist with basic computer skills like Microsoft packages, print and internet connections.

Shooo after all this a cup of coffee will not be such a bad idea,

 till next time friends.  Cherio.