Starting at the beginning:
a conversation about information literacy
In an era where the key to success in our society will increasingly be determined by the ability to deal with information, it is alarming that information specialists in schools are still fighting for their existence, and spending much of their time and energy trying to convince system-level and local education administrators and teachers of the immense value a proactive teacher librarian and library can add to the school and its curriculum programs.
What is information literacy?
Information literacy is definitely part of the new 'buzz' terminology of the twenty-first century. The term is being used by politicians, the media, education consultants and providers, teachers and administrators working in education systems world wide. As a term it also appears to have multiple meanings and is often used synonymously with other terms such as ICT (Information Communications Technologies) literacy, computer literacy, Internet search skills, critical thinking, generic skills, graduate attributes, learning-to-learn and lifelong learning.
Over the years a number of methodologies or information process models have been developed to provide a teaching framework of skills that an individual needs to become information literate. Information process models include the inquiry method, the Big6 (Eisenberg & Berkowitz, 1998), information seeking behaviour (Todd, 2004), the Information Search Process Approach (ISPA) (Kuluthau, 1996), the research cycle and questioning techniques (McKenzie, 1999, 2000). There is such a plethora of terms being used interchangeably by different sections of society that it is no wonder the new buzz term 'information literacy' remains difficult to define and a teachable skills set, if one exists, almost impossible to implement.
Delegates at the Australian Computers in Education Conference 2004 were told that there would be new national ICT literacy testing for all Year 6 and Year 10 students by 2006. The proposed definition of ICT literacy includes three domains:
Clearly, the term 'information literacy' according to the above definition has different meanings for different people. In order to make practical decisions about the teaching of information literacy skills, we need to start at the beginning and to define exactly what the term means and what might be included in the information literacy skills set.
The information literate person is able to use technology.
An information literate person is also computer literate. There is a general assumption that students are not only motivated by technology, but are also 'techno savvy' (US Department of Education, 2004). Recent research however, shows that these assumptions about technology and youth are not necessarily valid (Aldridge et al, 2002; Zemsky & Massy, 2004). Just because students are not afraid to use technology does not mean they use it well or have a preference for using technology as a learning tool. We also need to ask if 'techno savvy' translates into information literate, or does it just mean that students are 'surface users' of the technology? The advent of graphics-based operating systems such as Windows, and sophisticated, user-friendly word processing programs, email and chat (Zakon, 2004) in the 1990s shifted computer use away from the original tight-knit communities of mainly academic users who needed a certain skills set to be able to operate in what was essentially a technical and unfriendly environment (Coyne, 2001). As technology became more affordable, competition for users shifted the focus of major companies such as Microsoft and Apple Macintosh. The production of multifunctional operating systems and software that require little or no technical knowledge or understanding by the user has now become the norm. So we may have a generation of users who can use a computer, but how many do so beyond a very basic level? How many students actually use the operating system as an information management tool? How many use the full capacity of word processing programs for high quality desktop publishing? Do they use it just as an electronic typewriter? How many use spreadsheet programs for statistical analysis and the graphical representation of complex data sets?
An information literate person is also ICT literate.
This person can use information communication technologies both effectively and efficiently. ICT literacy is a different skills set to computer literacy. It involves being able to use the full capacity of the Internet to access and communicate information. In many cases ICT literacy is translated to mean using email and being able to search the World Wide Web (WWW), which is a subset of the Internet. Questions we need to consider here include the following:
The above questions indicate that being able to use technology as a descriptor for an information literate person is difficult to 'unpack' and measure. This discussion hasn't considered other technology such as video cameras, graphics calculators, PDAs, wireless technologies, digital cameras, videoconferencing, teleconferencing, chat programs, and associated software such as graphics manipulation packages.
As technology continues to become cheaper, smaller and more powerful, it is also becoming more prevalent, more mobile and multifunctional. Information storage devices such as CD-ROMs and Flash drives allow us to store vast amounts of complex information easily. A desktop computer is now a single, mobile, multifunctional workstation that can be used to create quality print and electronic publications and multimedia presentations; connect users for real time videoconferencing, chat and streaming video; and store vast amounts of information that can be easily manipulated, changed and disseminated to a global audience (Combes, 2005).
When defining the information literacy skills set, we also need to consider how much a person needs to know to be considered information literate. In recent years it appears that being able to get access to and 'use' the technology (more specifically, the Internet) at an undisclosed level is the defining factor (Commonwealth Government of Australia, 2004). The information process models, however, indicate that information literacy is much more than being able to use technology to locate information.
The information literate person is able to use a range of information resources.
This is an important point, often lost in the media rhetoric about digitisation and the vast information resources that are now available electronically via the Internet. Information as a commodity, and the fact that computers have made it so easy to manipulate, produce and disseminate information rapidly, has led to an exponential growth in information industries. The volume of information is increasing so rapidly that the terms 'data smog', 'technobesity' and 'info glut' are now part of our vocabulary. 'To google' is now a verb! Google executives currently maintain that the search engine is searching over 8 billion web pages (Aggrandise.com, 2003). The 'needle in a haystack theory' takes on a whole new level of meaning, and this is one search engine searching the public domain web.
These developments in technology have led to an enormous increase in the production of information products using a range of formats. There are CDs, audiocassettes, CD-ROMs, MP3s, DVDs, film/movies, radio, streaming video, VHS, websites, multimedia, learning objects, digital images and photographic images. We are also publishing more in print than at any previous time in our history (Association of American Publishers, 2002). Printed text appears everywhere in the form of posters, charts, big books, picture books, billboards, memos, notices, instructions, how-to manuals and the more traditional non-fiction and fiction titles we associate with the physical collection in a library. Add to this already complex mix electronic records and publications, archival or historical documents and realia, and the information landscape becomes even more complex and often very confusing.
Perhaps this part of the definition should read: The information literate person is able to use a range of resource formats, tools and technologies to locate information. Being proficient in the use of one type of resource format is not enough in a society that uses an ever increasing range of formats to convey and deliver information.
The information literate person has a range of well developed literacy skills.
This is another important point often overlooked. Efficient and effective users of learning technologies (including all resource formats) as learning tools need to have extremely good language (both oral and written) and numerical literacy skills. They also need to have good visual literacy and interpretive/discrimination skills, graphical and symbol interpretive skills. Since anyone can publish on the WWW, the information literate person also needs to have good problem-solving skills to be able to navigate and locate information on badly designed or text-dense web sites. They need to be able to skim, scan, rapidly evaluate and eliminate vast quantities of information, usually presented as text, but also as images, icons or in numerical form. The information literate person needs to be able to 'read' well. Students who are unable to read and have poor traditional literacy skills do not perform well, no matter how the information is presented or delivered.
The information literate person is able to use information.
Once the information literate person has located information they think may be appropriate for their needs, they need skills to be able to use the information effectively and efficiently. The information process models mentioned earlier provide a set of teachable skills or processes to assist students. Locating the information is the skill that appears to receive the most publicity, when in fact this is just the beginning of the inquiry process and perhaps the easiest to teach and learn. Once information has been located the user then has to:
Since users rarely use one source of information, this process must be repeated many times. Once the user has a body of appropriate and authoritative information available, another set of skills is required to deal with this collection of relevant information. The user then:
The information literate person is able to manage the increasingly complex information environment.
To add to this plethora of definitions, necessary skills and complexity, the information literate person has an even broader skills set. The information literate person is able to locate and use information in all its myriad formats (and some that haven't been invented yet) to create new information or personal knowledge that will allow them to move forward in society, ie lifelong learning. This involves many generic skills that we often assume our students already have, such as being able to work in a team, extract information by listening, think critically and analytically, problem solve and use experiential learning, produce summaries of discussions, meet deadlines and manage time, interpret language, and extract information from a variety of information formats and via a range of communication/delivery modes.
We assume that our students have the skills to manage what is a very complex information environment. This is often not the case. The information literate person is successful and able to participate in a process of lifelong learning because they have a skills set that is constantly evolving and much broader than the skills outlined in most information process models. This aspect of the information literacy definition is often ignored in schools, and so students and teachers muddle along trying to use an ever-increasing range of resource formats and delivery modes without guidance or practical support. These generic skills are difficult to teach, but it is important that students receive consistent reinforcement across the curriculum if these skills are to be internalised to become part of the user's information literacy toolbox. These are the practical skills often sought after by industry that add confidence, self-esteem and independence to the students' information skills sets. Students who demonstrate these skills are adaptable, flexible learners, lifelong learners who are able to cope with change in the work force and to adopt new technologies, who aren't afraid to participate in ongoing professional development and who will probably be working in jobs in ten years' time using technology that hasn't been invented yet.
Conclusion
Information literacy as a term describes a person who is adaptable and flexible, is able to access and use information in all its forms and continue to grow and learn as technology changes the way society functions.
These are challenging times for schools and particularly for the information specialists within schools, the teacher librarians (TLs). On a personal level they must accept the challenge of becoming proactive and ongoing professional participants in an evolving information landscape. However, they are also responsible for embedding the information literacy skills toolbox across the curriculum. In an era where the key to success in our society will increasingly be determined by the ability to deal with information, it is alarming that information specialists in schools are still fighting for their existence, and spending much of their time and energy trying to convince system-level and local education administrators and teachers of the immense value a proactive TL and library can add to the school and its curriculum programs. While the new national testing regime of ICT literacy skills represents a confusion of terminology, perhaps it will be a catalyst for schools, educational administrators - and even many TLs - to rethink the role of the TL and the library. Of course, how the TL and other library personnel affect successful change in schools and implement an ongoing culture that embeds information literacy and literacy skills development across curriculum programs involves another conversation.
Barbara Combes, Lecturer
School of Computer and Information Science
Edith Cowan University, Perth Western Australia
References
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