Information Literacy and Library Instruction

                
According to the Association of College & Research Libraries (AACRL) information literacy means you are able to:

• Determine the extent of information needed
• Access the needed information effectively and efficiently
• Evaluate information and its sources critically
• Incorporate selected information into one's knowledge base
• Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose
• Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information and access and use information ethically and legally.

Basically, information literacy education is the act of students learning how to learn. This is the core of library instruction, as librarians must be information literate, and be able to understand how to learn new information literacies as they emerge. 

Relevant readings:

• Adebonojo, L. G. (2010). LibGuides: Customizing Subject Guides for Individual Courses. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 17(4), 398–412.
• Elmborg, James K. “Teaching at the Desk: Toward a Reference Pedagogy.” portal: Libraries and the Academy 2.3 (2002): 455-464.
• Leach, G. J., & Sugarman, T. S. (2005). Play to win! Using games in library instruction to enhance student learning. Research Strategies, 20(3), 191–203.
• Pritchard, P. A. (2010). The Embedded Science Librarian: Partner in Curriculum Design and Delivery. Journal of Library Administration, 50(4), 373–396.
• Walker, B. E. (2006). Using humor in library instruction. Reference Services Review, 34(1), 117–128.

Literacies

The concept of "literacy" is complex, and changes over time. We have gone from the days where literacy means solely being able to read written text. With new technologies being incorporated into the daily routine, there are technological literacies that must be acquired. People cannot simply rely on knowing how to read. Buschman (2009) effectively broadens the idea of literacy to mean inter-related concepts involving "reading, the teaching of reading, writing, and the teaching of writing, speech/orality and the acquisition of language...and the technologies affecting text and the changing nature of text."

Literacy within the LIS field means:

• guiding readers to "good" reading
• guiding readers to enlightenment
• guiding readers to read for moral/personal and civic reasons
• proliferating new materials and resources
• encouraging and facilitating information literacy

Relevant readings:

• Buschman, John. "Information Literacy, 'New Literacies, and Literacy." The Library Quarterly, Vol. 79, No. 1 (January 2009), pp. 95-118.
• Clanchy, M.T. "Looking Back from the Invention of Printing." Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress, 39(3):169-183.
• Freire, Paulo. "The Adult Literacy Process as Cultural Action for Freedom." Harvard Educational Review 40(2) (May 1970): 205-225.
• Radway, Janice A. "Reading is Not Eating: Mass-Produced Literature and the Theoretical, Methodological, and Political Consequences of a Metaphor." Book Research Quarterly 2 (Fall 1986): 7-29.