I will be premising my reflection and response to the LIBR 250 guiding question this week on information literacy standards developed by the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL). The emergence of a society in which there is an overabundance of information has been the genesis for a discussion regarding information literacy. According to the Association of College & Research Libraries (2000), an individual in an academic setting is considered information literate when they "recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information". Many theorists have acknowledged the need for information literacy competency standards, and time and energy continues to be devoted to defining information literacy and pursuant standards. This blog will argue that some of the time devoted to definitions and standards would be better utilized if it was directed at the challenging the engrained information user's sense of not needing to be information literate.
When conceptualizing information literacy standards, it is essential to acknowledge the inherent ambiguities in this term. This is because it encompasses such expansive concepts as "information" and "literacy". Despite this, I would argue that information literacy is predicated on metacognition about information and literacy. It is really the ability to have awareness throughout the information-seeking process, and the ability to recalibrate when necessary. It is fundamentally the ability to actively engage in information encountered in the information-seeking process, and to be able to synthesize disparate sources of information into a coherent framework. And it is critical to develop a sensitivity towards the ethical, legal, and financial dimensions of information.
A major unstated bias regarding the discussion of information literacy standards in higher education is that this movement overlooks the fact that many users don't feel the need to develop a critical awareness of their information-seeking process. Actual research demonstrates this point. In the seminal "Don't Make Me Think", the leading Web usability analyst Steve Krug argues that the information-seeking process on the Web is markedly different from that prior to the Information Age. Krug (2006) demonstrates through ground-breaking usability research that the process of information seeking on the Web can be categorized as "scanning, satisficing, and muddling through". Simply put, many users do not feel compelled to develop a methodical information-seeking process that incorporates information literacy standards. And it seems to this blogger that overcoming this engrained user sense of "scanning, satisficing, and muddling through" is where more energy should be devoted in this discussion.
References
Association of College & Research Libraries (2000). Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. Chicago, Illinois: American Library Association.
Krug, S. (2006). Don't make me think. Berkeley, California: New Riders.
I battle the truth of your comments each time I work with a group of students, conducting research. The students want to look up information in two main ways: Wikipedia and Ask.com I have tried introducing them to subscription databases that are easy to use and secure. I have tried to educate them on web reliability or evaluating website. Ultimately, they want to do what 99.9% of Americans want to do-- a quick Google search, and then click on the first link. My husband, who designs websites, has spent countless hours learning tricks for search engine optimization. He has taught me that it is very rare for web users to scroll down to the bottom of the first page of search results. As those providing information literacy, teacher librarians need to be aware of this tendency and to try help patrons learn to critically evaluate the links on each page.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post ~ articulate and thought provoking! I have much to say but will focus on 2 aspects of your post:
ReplyDelete1) I too have found that there is this compulsion to collect (and I term it consume) information rather than analyze (or, put plainly, think) about it. The overabundance of information, coupled with ease of access, (for those fortunate enough to have an Internet connection) encourages this culture of information consumption. I think a gastrointestinal (not graphic!) metaphor applies here. It is as if people are gorging themselves on information without properly digesting it, or even reading the labels before ingesting this food for our brains. Encouraging people to "read the labels," to look at how and why information is produced and disseminated, and to assess the "health" of its sources and ingestion (instead of mindless and endless consumption) is increasingly necessary, particularly in educational environments. I like the way you apply metacognition to the search process and stress awareness as a skill to be cultivated and activated when assessing information sources and resources.
2) Sometimes I think that being information literate also requires an awareness of an individual's own capacity to collect information from direct experience. Our culture is one of specialists and experts, who we ceaselessly consult and cite to legitimate our acquired information. Don't get me wrong ~ I am not advocating for an abandonment of the citation process wholesale, but I think the compulsion to "visit" the Web whenever we need information or have a question *without* thinking about whether we a) already have the information necessary to answer the question lodged within our own experience, or b) can go outside and find our firsthand the answer to our question has become a matter of dependence, and thus, deprived us of our autonomy as sensory-grounded creatures with critical faculties that are activated and honed through our direct experiences. Moreover, I think the sheer abundance of information and the ways in which we train students to relentlessly support all of their conclusions with "evidence" (i.e. citations) often robs youth of their innate creative capacities and propensity for original thought ~ leading them to devalue the merits of the "power of their [own] ideas" (Deborah Meier title).
(and I agree wholeheartedly with Courtney's post as well!)
This is a great post ~ articulate and thought provoking! I have much to say but will focus on 2 aspects of your post:
ReplyDelete1) I too have found that there is this compulsion to collect (and I term it consume) information rather than analyze (or, put plainly, think) about it. The overabundance of information, coupled with ease of access, (for those fortunate enough to have an Internet connection) encourages this culture of information consumption. I think a gastrointestinal (not graphic!) metaphor applies here. It is as if people are gorging themselves on information without properly digesting it, or even reading the labels before ingesting this food for our brains. Encouraging people to "read the labels," to look at how and why information is produced and disseminated, and to assess the "health" of its sources and ingestion (instead of mindless and endless consumption) is increasingly necessary, particularly in educational environments. I like the way you apply metacognition to the search process and stress awareness as a skill to be cultivated and activated when assessing information sources and resources.
2) Sometimes I think that being information literate also requires an awareness of an individual's own capacity to collect information from direct experience. Our culture is one of specialists and experts, who we ceaselessly consult and cite to legitimate our acquired information. Don't get me wrong ~ I am not advocating for an abandonment of the citation process wholesale, but I think the compulsion to "visit" the Web whenever we need information or have a question *without* thinking about whether we a) already have the information necessary to answer the question lodged within our own experience, or b) can go outside and find our firsthand the answer to our question has become a matter of dependence, and thus, deprived us of our autonomy as sensory-grounded creatures with critical faculties that are activated and honed through our direct experiences. Moreover, I think the sheer abundance of information and the ways in which we train students to relentlessly support all of their conclusions with "evidence" (i.e. citations) often robs youth of their innate creative capacities and propensity for original thought ~ leading them to devalue the merits of the "power of their [own] ideas" (Deborah Meier title).
Until you brought it into the discussion I had not thought of the implications of Krug's ideas on web usability in relation to information literacy. His book is based on the premise that people will look for only the key elements (which should be discernible immediately on a web-page), skim the text or skip a page with dense text altogether. When I read his book I really only thought about the implications for marketing/designing a website as opposed to people applying those same strategies to truly searching for information to learn something. Yet I can see the implications this kind of thinking has on students when doing their research in the library.
ReplyDeleteAs Courtney mentioned above in her response post, students only ever want to use Google and Wikipedia when conducting searches in the library, despite this awesome federated search we have that allows them to search all of our databases, several trusted websites, and our library collection in one search. Because I am in a middle school library we can limit our students to using just this search when they come in as a class with their teacher. However, when they leave they often return to their normal search habits :( Sometimes, I win a few over with the ease of our resources and I count that as a success!