Information Literacy in a Wired World

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Information Literacy in a Wired World

• Barbara Fister, March 2, 2007

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• UIS provides an education
• that is . . .
• Intellectually rich
• Collaborative
• Intimate
• Serves the public

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• Engaged citizenship
• Making a difference in the world
• One of the signature qualities of UIS graduates
  will be an ability to engage a world in which the
  distance between local and global communities
  grows continuously smaller.

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• Information literacy is a set of abilities
  requiring individuals to "recognize when
  information is needed and have the ability to
  locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed
  information. ACRL, 2000

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• Information Literacy . . . is a prerequisite for
  participating effectively in the information
  society, and is part of the basic human right of
  life long learning. Prague Declaration, 2003

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• Christine Pawley (2003)
• We should highlight, in addition to the tools and
  skills metaphor, the importance of learning about
  context and content in understanding how
  information works.

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• Second, we need to be explicit about the moral
  and political commitment to flattening rather
  than reinforcing current information and literacy
  hierarchies.

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• Third, we need to recognize that information
  access is not just about information
  consumerism, but also about individuals and
  groups of people actively shaping the world as
  knowledge producers in a way that renders the
  consumer-producer dichotomy irrelevant.

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Information is the product of socially
negotiated epistemological processes and the raw
material for the further making of new
knowledge. James Elmborg, 2006
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• UIS graduates should . . .
• Exhibit creative thinking, critical thinking and
  problem solving skills by effectively analyzing,
  evaluating, and articulating a range of
  perspectives.

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• What do you feel your undergraduate students
  should know about information and how it works by
  the time they graduate?

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Recent Research Findings

• Students start their research with Google
• 89 use print resources
• 66 say library use has not declined but
• 20 say they havent needed to learn how to use
  the physical library
• Relevance and reliability are valued over
  convenience but evaluation is difficult

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• Think of a topic a student in one of your courses
  might tackle in an assignment one requiring
  choosing and using sources . . .

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• Now, trade topics with someone in another
  discipline.
• Where would you start?
• How would you recognize an authoritative source?

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• Students and their teachers have different ideas
  about what research assignments are for.
• .

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• What research-based assignments have worked for
  you?

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• Where does information literacy fit into the
  institutional mission and identity?
• What might be distinctive about information
  literacy at UIS?