Friday, March 18, 2011

Some Critical Thoughts


The main idea behind teaching information is to provide people with the skills needed to evaluate, locate and use effectively the needed information which is covered exhaustively in the ALA Information Literacy Competency Standards. The information efficacy of the individual is crucial in order to navigate the information landscape and ultimately contribute to the individual’s ability to be a lifelong learner. And to conceptualize this further, Bruce associates people’s empowerment with the ability to operate within complex information environments.

Bruce, in her book, Informed Learning, goes on to develop this construct of “Informed Learning” as a compliment to Information Literacy with applications across disciplines, in the work place and the community. So while the ALA Information Literacy Competency Standards present a lists of skills necessary for utilizing information, the Informed Learning concept is a more comprehensive and transformative approach to information use ( Bruce, 2008).

My thoughts on the nature of information and literacy rest on access, aka politics, and questions regarding who gets what, when and how. For example, literacy rates in the US are high because of mandated public education courtesy of the State. Information Literacy is very much dependent on the information economy which is trending more towards the commodification of information. Just this week the New York Times announce that users of their web site will now have to pay for content. While this is not surprising and as a business decision, it makes sense for a newspaper to develop other revenue streams because the old advertisement base model is no longer viable in the Internet age, these are the decisions of a proprietary entity seeking to make profits.  But I believe more and more information sources will choose to operate behind a pay wall of some sort. A tension exists between the public service principle of libraries, and an information society framework that is linked to privatization strategies that can further commoditize information. The ALA Information Literacy Competency Standards states that “the sheer abundance of information will not in itself create a more informed citizenry without a complementary cluster of abilities necessary to use information effectively”(American Library Association, 2000, p.4). I don’t believe this admirable and necessary goal (creating informed citizens) can be realize if libraries become just access points for ICT’s (Information and Communication Technologies). I know this may be far adrift from the blog question, but any discipline that claims to study the creation, use and access of information cannot ignore the larger socio-economic critiques.  

American Library Association (2000). The Information Literacy Competency Standards for
    Higher education. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/acrl/ilcomstan.html.

Bruce, C. S. (2008). Informed Learning. Chicago: American Library Association.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Frames, Faces and Agendas


     I think I will explore this through the social impact frame. In 1995, noted political scientist Robert Putnam wrote an essay titled Bowling Alone (Putnam, 1995). The thesis of his essay suggested that social capital, a crucial component of any liberal democracy, has waned significantly in America since the 1960’s due to declining participation in civic organizations. The bowling alone concept pointed to an isolated and marginalized citizenry with little political efficacy. This theory has been cited as an explanation for the general retrenchment of a collective spirit (declining commons) and the primacy of the individual rational actor model. I thought of Putnam as I read about Information Literacy because community and the creation of community is a key point mentioned repeatedly in the readings. Community is a big idea and an assumption in Information Literacy. Social capital refers to connections within and between social networks, and in Putnam’s view, social capital flourished as a result of membership in social and fraternal organizations. On the other hand, proficiency in Information Literacy can aid in creating a new form of social capital with the emergence of new social networks courtesy of the World Wide Web.  

     Along with community, another assumption in Information Literacy is that not only are we living in a knowledge based society, but we are living in a knowledge based economy operating under auspices of globalization. Globalization creates interdependency between nation states which increases the need for Information Literacy as a bridge builder. Concerning globalization, I found this hopeful definition of Information Literacy on a UNESO primer: “Information Literacy as a mean to empower people in all walks of life to seek, evaluate, use and create information effectively to achieve their personal, social, occupational and educational goals” (Horton, 2008).  
References
Horton, F. W. (2008). Understanding information literacy: A primer; an easy-to-read, non-technical overview explaining what information literacy means, designed for busy public policy-makers, business executives, civil society administrators and practicing professionals. UNESDOC. pp.1-103. Retrieved from  http://unesdoc.unesco.org/ulis/cgi-bin/ulis.pl?catno=157020
Putnam, R. D. (1995). Tuning in, tuning out: The strange disappearance of social capital in america. PS: Political Science and Politics, 28(4), pp. 664-683. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/stable/420517