The first ALIA Top End Symposium: Powering our Territory

Learn, unlearn and relearn - the information literacy journey

Prue Mercer
Convenor, ALIA Information Literacy Forum; manager, information services, State library of Victoria

Introduction

This is a good year for information literacy:

• the new International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) President's theme is libraries for lifelong literacy (2003);
• IFLA section Information Literacy replaces user education;
• Adult Learning Australia has just celebrated Adult Learner's Week with the theme literacy and as part of that promoted 'The Great Literacy Debate'; and,
• this was driven by the United Nations Decade of Literacy 2003-2013 Library and Information Week, which this year focussed on information literacy and led to this symposium and the theme of Power our territory.

As an information literacy advocate I believe that good information leads to good decisions, to good learning and to social and economic inclusion. Informed decisions make for a better life. To understand what is good information requires the capability to find, use and evaluate information effectively, that is, to be information literate.

Information literacy is a critical thinking literacy in that is it in one of the abilities to critically assess the availability of information and the motivations behind its creation. It has journeyed from reader education and library orientation tours to where it is today.

This presentation is called Learn, unlearn and relearn - the information literacy journey because that it what we are undertaking. We are undertaking a classic journey where the map certainly is not the territory, and where the process of travelling and experience delivers the transformation - its not about the destination. This is a journey where we and our communities have to unlearn in order to learn and relearn in order to advance, both socially and culturally as well educationally and economically.

In the next few years the information environment will continue to be dominated by the internet. And because of this our libraries will be multifaceted multi-cultural organisations. This means traditional services alongside electronic information.

Knowledge is growing faster today than at any period in history. And the world is dividing into those with easy access to it and those without. This in turn is driving a huge distrust in information; or anxiety about having enough information (I am sure you are all familiar with people searching for more); or not really knowing how to find information at all. There is a famous quote:

'The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn'

In order to verify this I started off with a Google search and (as is often the case) got a large number of hits. I looked up my copy of Future Shock by Alvin Toffler (1971) as a number of the websites attributed it to this work. In the index under literacy or learning there were no references.

So then as I was doing this at home on a Saturday afternoon, I logged into Santa Monica Public Library's chat service. My query was answered by a librarian from San Jose Public Library. After a 25-minute chat I was advised that my query would be answered by e-mail. There followed a number of e-mails and it turned out that the quote does come from Future Shock but is a paraphrase made from the a couple of sections, including the author quoting someone else:

Psychologist Herbert Gerjuoy of the Human Resources Research Organisation phrases it simply:

The new education must teach the individual how to classify and reclassify information, how to evaluate its, veracity, how to change categories when necessary, how to move from the concrete to the abstract and back, how to look at problems from a new direction--how to teach himself. Tomorrow's illiterate will not be the man who can't read; he will be the man who has not learned how to learn. (1971: 375)

In summary it took an online chat session, a search of online sources and a search of print sources and a librarian to verify the quote, was quite different to what many other cited. As well as highlighting how we can drown in Google's possibilities, it also is an example of why being information literate helps you evaluate and check the source and also why expert librarians are still important.

Our learning - from user education to information literacy

History and background

Webber and Johnston (2000) provide an excellent overview of the background and history of information literacy. Lonsdale's Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) Information Literacy Forum, National Library of Australia and National Office of the Information Economy Feasibility study (2002) for a national information literacy coalition is also useful background.

One of the key points that runs through the national coalition study is the question of definition. It is also examined in Webber and Johnston.

Paul Zurkowski has been credited with coining the term information literacy in the early 1970s and a set of personal attributes developed by Doyle in 1990 has formed the basis of most definitions. In looking at definitions it is important to think of information literacy as a critical literacy.

For Adult Learner's Week this year Adult Learning Australia put a list of all the literacies up on their website.

1. Basic literacy
   • Reading and writing everyday texts
   • Read a newspaper, map, arithmetic, uses PC or mobile phone
   • According to last International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) conducted in 1999 approximately 47 percent or 6 million Australians aged 16-65 have minimal literacy skills
2. Critical literacy
   • Being able to evaluate the value of and motivation for various texts and statements
   • Media literacy - meaning through visual images
   • Information literacy - need to research, and find, evaluate and use information
   • Financial literacy - understanding financial terms
3. Technical or specialist literacy
   • Being able to use word, concepts of communication methods that relate to specific cultures or environments eg workplace
   • Technical instructions
   • Jargon, acronyms, etiquette specific to a particular workplace or culture
   • Learning literacy - different modes of learning

This is the working definition we use from the coalition which is reproduced in the Advocacy Kit (2003):

'An information literate person recognises when information is needed and can locate, access, evaluate and apply that information. Information literacy:

• Encompasses the effective use of multiple information technologies and formats
• Enables individuals to develop skills for learning throughout life
• Support skills for workplace enterprise and for community participation'.

Information sources

1. International
   • IFLA - Information Literacy section
   • National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) (2003) - international conference papers, Information literacy life cycle matrix
2. United States
   • National Forum on Information Literacy
   • Institute for Information Literacy
   • School associations and standards (2001)
   • Higher education standards
3. United Kingdom
   • standing conference on national and university libraries (sconul) - seven pillars (2001)
   • Libraries and Lifelong Learning - strategy 2002-2004, Library Association (2002).
   • Inspiring learning for all: a framework for museums, archives and libraries by Re:source (2002)

Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) Information Literacy Forum The work we have done in Australia in information literacy is significant and recognised internationally.

• Five national conferences from 1992- 2002
• Schools developed frameworks in 1992
• There are key advocates such as Alan Bundy (2002) and Christine Bruce (1997)
• Our professional library association has an active section, the ALIA Forum with an important Policy Statement and advocacy activities (2003)
• Australian higher education standards/frameworks were developed in 2001.

Libraries, lifelong learning and information literacy

One of the key drivers in information literacy today in higher education in Australia is the idea of student attributes where students are prepared with generic skills such as information literacy for lifelong learning.

Lifelong learning
Lifelong learning is about what people can do for themselves and not about educational institutions. The OECD defines it as being motivated to continue learning throughout life formally and informally.

Research by Australian National Training Authority (2000) explored the attitudes, values and behaviours of employers and the general community about skills and learning. They segmented the market into three employer groups and eight community groups. In this they came up with some interesting categories such as the 'passionate learner' or those 'learning to earn'. The research found that Australians value learning, with informal learning being perceived as more important than formal.

That is the type of learning that occurs in libraries, and has been occurring in libraries forever. Indeed in the critical years of pre-literacy libraries support parents and carers in enriching children's early learning, providing the foundation for lives of literacy. And all libraries continue to welcome independent learners throughout their lives. School and higher education libraries integrate information literacy into their programs as part of this.

State Library of Victoria
At my own library we call all our educational programs lifelong learning. I am aware of the issues for public libraries in not being part of formal educational structures, and how that therefore requires a different approach than say a school to creating an information literacy program.

In 1999 we received negative feedback on some of our programs to do with content and delivery. We reviewed them and the impact of this review is detailed in Anne Burrows (2003). As a result we consciously moved from thinking of an educational model where information literacy is integrated in the curriculum with assessment to a hybrid marketing cum educational model. We mainly focus on the market approach, where we identify target areas, such as genealogists or business researchers and develop programs according to their needs.

Some of the programs we are offering focus specifically on research in certain subject areas, such as business resources, science and technology, genealogy; others relate directly to the use of technology such as the skills.net programs; others focus on particular formats such as manuscripts; others are tailored for school groups, and these often do link to the curriculum. And we have about 14 000 participants in all these programs each year.

The impact of libraries on learning
One of the most important set of studies are known as the Colorado Studies and these have been replicated in a number of other states in the United States as they show that there is a clear link between increases in student reading scores with increases in library programs. Dividend, a report on the value of Canadian public libraries (1998), quotes a number of studies, such as 92% of respondents in one survey in Ontario recognising the significance of the public library in adults furthering their education after formal schooling has been completed.

The higher education and academic library literature has a body of research and case studies assessing the value of information literacy for learning.

Webber and Johnston (2000) provide an excellent conceptual representation of information literacy and lifelong learning and how an information literate person engages with information throughout life. This is the information literate person in the changing world. It describes the areas where information literacy enables effective and productive activity, development and change, such at work, in society and in education. The relationship between information literacy and lifelong learning encompasses the need to be adaptable to changes throughout life. An individual's needs are influenced by external changes: for example, changes in technology, or copyright laws, by changes in their own lives, changing jobs, changes in their employer's policies, changes in personal circumstance such as divorce or ageing.

Issues

The role of libraries and librarians and issues around information literacy are strongly interrelated. The information world is extremely complex and librarian roles are extremely complex along with significantly changing user patterns and expectations.

Most of the literature around the future of libraries focusses on three things:

1. 1.Technological developments.
2. 2.The function of the library.
3. 3.Librarians' roles.

The prevailing conviction is that technology serves as the driving force determining change. For example, this is the government approach in the United Kingdom, the thinking behind the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and a lot of the Australian government initiatives. These programs focus on information technology skills and on access

And we do have to recognise that in the same way that virtual or digital reference (email, web content, expert websites and so on etc) is helping us understand how we have failed to explain libraries to the public or to our communities, the development and use of digital content is helping us redefine information literacy.

For as users work from remote locations across a number of resources and we are abandoning the notion of a carefully selected and fixed collection, we are also recognising that what users need is the capability to evaluate and use the information they find.

One of the issues in information literacy is the misunderstanding around what information is. Some information myths:

• Finding information ought to be easy.
• Information literacy = information technology literacy, media literacy, digital literacy.
• All information is on the web.
• The Internet has made libraries and librarians obsolete.
• The global village where interacting with data on the Web means creating a community.
• The myth of e learning will answer all information literacy problems, or in fact all learning problems!

Information science or librarianship is the one profession that requires:

• Knowledge of the information environment.
• how information originates, is stored, organised and used.
• Analysis of information needs, use and information seeking behaviour.
• Information product and service delivery.
• Information infrastructures.
• Information access systems.
• Information sources.

It also draws upon:

• Information theory.
• Communication.
• Mathematics.
• Epistemology.
• Computer science/artificial intelligence.
• Sociology/Sociolinguistics.
• Psychology/psycholinguistics.

Still librarians have two overriding imperatives:

1. Knowledge of the users they serve.
2. Knowledge of recorded collection domains.

These roles will become reinforced and more specialised with the impact of technological change in libraries. Given technology, the function of libraries and role of librarians, the future direction of information literacy is clearly going to involve:

• Training and learning support one on one, in groups, online.
• Multimedia technologies, such as video conferencing 'smart boards'.
• Cross-disciplinary teams.
• Collaboration, partnerships and outreach.

Addie (2003) in a recent survey in Victoria of university library online information literary programs raises the following issues:

• How do libraries deliver through the university's online teaching and learning infrastructure and portals, not just through library systems 'silo mentality'
• Being part of multi-expert teams, coping with workloads, staff development to be effective in those teams
• How to develop collaborative solutions to support developments
• Ensuring ongoing commitment to information literacy as a student attribute

The United Kingdom Library Association's strategy (2001) sums up these issues and the role of libraries.

Libraries can offer:

• Accessibility - they are local, hospitable, trusted and well-used social institutions and based in a variety of communities: public, private, corporate, academic, voluntary.
• A supportive environment - space and user-focussed staff.
• Staff skilled in supporting learners and the learning process - as traditionally seen in the academic sector, schools, further education and higher education, but becoming significantly prevalent in workplace and public libraries.
• Resources - the hybrid concept, that is, resources in all formats; print, media, digital and space for individual and group study.
• Partnership and co-operation - between libraries or between libraries and other institutions.
• Experience of strategic engagement - through standards and inspection, annual library plans, cross-sectoral working, Best Value, community planning, further and higher education inspection regimes.

The strategy identifies the constraints as:

• Learning skills of staff.
• Acknowledgement of library staff as part of teaching process.
• Problem of resources in school and further education sectors in terms of library support, let alone provision of full learning environments.
• Lack of recognition of role of libraries.
• Lack of funding to encourage creation of effective partnerships.

Challenges to our profession are:

Challenge #1

Moving from the focus on place, on the library building (and this comes from someone who works in a landmark building) to an integrated approach that encompasses a significant online presence and a significant outreach/awareness program

Challenge #2

Moving from viewing the role of the profession as being within that space to being to do with the experience of information seeking and use.

Meeting these challenges will be our learning, unlearning and relearning as a profession.

Nardi and O'Day (1999) document the interplay between librarians, technology and clients or users. In particular their work exposed what is often invisible - how the librarian bridges gaps in language and expertise between an individual and a particular interest. The most valuable part of this is how a librarian helps a client understand his or her own needs. They designated the librarian's role that of a keystone species, where the librarian is an essential part of the ecology of information.

And just as the profession is continually redefining itself in terms of technology and its role, information literacy practices and research have to evolve. For example, there is minimal portability in terms of information literacy frameworks between sectors such as school, higher education and public or special libraries. Making transitions between those sectors in terms of frameworks of approach, conceptual perspectives and even language aren't as easy as they could be.

Webber and Johnston (2000) note the limitations in what they the 'list' approach to information literacy and highlight the need to engage in defining a new area outside of a traditional view of librarianship. We need more research and thinking about information literacy within as well as outside the educational sector. There is also the general failure to fully appreciate the librarian role for advice and training as well as access, as explored by Nardi. That sort of indirect approach used in a reference interview. It is also important to think about power structures within the profession and how they influence research and discussion as much as they influence the use of information itself.

Conclusion

Information literacy is a critical thinking literacy and this needs to be more widely appreciated and understood. Australia's contribution to information literacy and ALIA's work is important in a field where studies prove the value and importance of libraries.

There are inevitably remaining challenges and issues such as the myths about information, the need for more research, and ongoing exploration of definitions.

All journeys or transformations require a shift, in this case the shift to thinking about the meaning of information not just information itself. The shift is to move away from seeing all library issues in terms of collections, or content or connectivity or access.

The shift is to focus on our knowledge of our communities and users. We need to make our 'invisible' work visible to ourselves as well as communities.

The challenge is to deliver the vision of a thriving national and global culture, economy and democracy advanced by people able to recognise their need for information. In other words to keep learning, unlearning and relearning.

This will take:

1. Remembering the fundamental role of librarians - knowledge of our users and knowledge of recorded collections; and,
2. Remembering that we are a key part of any learning community or as Bonnie Nardi puts it a keystone species in an information ecology.

I hope you continue to serve your users well.

References

Addie, J. Online information literacy survey: report to CAVAL Council meeting for round-table discussion 31 July 2003, Melbourne, CAVAL, 2003 http://www.caval.edu.au/wpr/council/, referenced 10 September 2003

ALIA Information Literacy Forum. Advocacy Kit and Policy Statement, http://www.ala.org/acrl/ilcomstan.html, referenced 10 September 2003

Bruce, C. The seven faces of information literacy. Adelaide, Auslib Press, 1997

Bundy, A. 'Essential connections: school and public libraries for lifelong learning', Australian Library Journal 51(1) February 2002, 47-70

Burrows, A. 'Lifelong learning and genealogy: the State Library of Victoria experience', Proceedings of the 10th Australasian Congress on Genealogy and Heraldry, compiled by J.Roy. Melbourne, Genealogical Society of Victoria, 2003, 50-56.

Council of Australian University Libraries (CAUL) Information literacy standards 2001 http://www.caul.edu.au/caul-doc/InfoLitStandards2001.doc [Microsoft Word, 109KB], referenced 10 September 2003

'Dividend: the values of public libraries in Canada', The bottom line: managing library finances, 11 (4) 1998, 158-179

Information literacy life cycle matrix (NCLIS), http://www.nclis.gov/libinter/infolitconfandmeet/infolitconfandmeet.html, referenced 10 September 2003

Inspiring learning: a framework for access and learning in museums, archives and libraries. 2002. http://www.resource.gov.uk/action/learnacc/insplearn00.asp(Accessed 10 September 2003)

Libraries and lifelong learning: a strategy 2002-4. London, Library Association, 2001 http://www.la-hq.org.uk/directory/prof_issues/lls.html, referenced 10 September 2003

Libraries for Lifelong Literacy, http://www.ifla.org/III/gb/prtheme03-05.htm, referenced 10 September 2003

Lonsdale, M et al. Feasibility study for the development of a national coalition for Information literacy advocacy. Final report, March 2002, http://archive.alia.org.au/advocacy/information.literacy/, referenced 10 September 2003

Meeting client needs: a national marketing strategy for VET June 2000, http://www.anta.gov.au/images/publications/nationalMarketingStrategyMeetingClientNeeds.pdf [PDF, 408KB], referenced 10 September 2003

Nardi, B and O'Day, V. Information ecologies: using technology with heart. MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 1999

National Commission on Libraries and Information Services International Information Literacy Conferences and Meetings, http://www.nclis.gov/libinter/infolitconfandmeet/infolitconfandmeet.html, referenced 10 September 2003

Standing Conference on National and University Libraries (SCONUL) Seven headline information skills 'pillars' http://www.sconul.ac.uk, refereced 10 September 2003

Toffler, A. Future shock. Pan, London, 1971

Webber, S and Johnston, B 'Conceptions of information literacy'. Journal of Information Science 26(6) 2000, 381-397