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ALIA Information Literacy ForumExploring information literacy meaningWednesday 10 September 2003Can you really learn metacognitive IL skills? A view from a public library. ...or do you need to immerse yourself in the social world of the knowledge area to be really information literate? According to Lonsdale et al ' [Librarians...see information literacy mainly in the context of the range of skills needed by higher education students, those working in community groups regard what they are doing as more akin to computer or technological literacy. In the corporate field, information literacy becomes 'information awareness' in a knowledge management context. For governments information literacy is tied to the notion of economic productivity' (Lonsdale et al 2002 p20). For ALIA: 'Information literacy means more than being able to read or use a computer. It means knowing how to find, evaluate and use the best, most current information available' (Australian Library and Information Association 2003, p3). Christine Bruce has identified seven conceptual skills required when working with information: technology, sources, process, control, knowledge construction, knowledge extension, and wisdom (Bruce 1997). 'Evaluation', 'using the best', and development of 'wisdom', require at a minimum a sophisticated and critical approach to information (Bruce 1999, p46). To teach to this level requires a demanding curriculum (Johnston and Webber 2003). In schools and universities such a curriculum is often implemented. Partnerships between librarian and teacher are common, with the later focused on explication of the issues significant for critical evaluation within the subject domain. The aim is to produce metacognitive abilities so that students can moving readily between subjects uncovering essential information in the face of potentially overwhelming volumes (Grassian and Kaplowitz 2001). There are different approaches to critical evaluation. The dominant cognitive approach posits critical skills as being about 'problem solving', while others extend this to include sociopolitical awareness of the ideologies embedded in information (Kapitze 2003). Town defines information literacy as 'learning the intellectual norms of the subject domain associated with the production of knowledge' (2003, p97). This is close to Hjorland and Albrechtesen's domain analytical viewpoint (1995) and Lave and Wenger's 'communities of practice' (1991) - meaning that the student must understand the social world of the particular discourse to be 'informationally literate' in it. IFLA president Raseroka (2003, quoting Bundy 2002) has recently declared that the information literacy divide, not the digital divide, is the critical issue of the 'information age'. It not so much whether you have access to computing resources, but whether you have the critical ability to use the resource. As a public librarian I conclude that - because critical information literacy is difficult to teach, requiring subject expertise and considerable time - public librarians are generally equipped only to train in the basics of information technology and how to access information sources. These are but two of Bruce's (1997) 'seven faces' of literacy. My conclusion is that the bar of information literacy standards as promoted by ALIA, ALA and the Council of Australian State Libraries (2001) has been raised too high to be practical beyond formal educational. However I agree with Raseroka and Bundy that literacy generally is a major social issue and public libraries are well placed to play a significant role. The appropriate approach seems to be an indirect one - as the 'keystone' in partnerships connecting people with people, rather than as teachers. For me social constructionism offers a way forward. It considers that people are best viewed as socially oriented knowledge creators who have shared interests and make common meanings with others. Many (perhaps most) will be experts within some field of knowledge. This contrasts with the image of needy 'atomised' individual users which the cognitivist viewpoint in information science tends to reinforce (eg Kulhthau 1993). Within the learning community this means that people can be in one context library users and in another knowledge contributors providing assistance, guidance and resources for others. In short my conclusions after reading and talking about information literacy in the context of public libraries:
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