8/14/2019 Who Cares About Information Literacy?

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Who cares about information literacy?

 Type ‘information literacy’ into a search engine and you’ll get a million or morehits. But whose? Look more closely and the vast majority are from thelibrary/information world. Mention the term in other professional areas -education or journalism, for example, and you’re likely to be met with a blank

look. I wanted to learn why.

 To get real value from IT products, one needs basic information-handling skills.Research repeatedly shows information-literacy training in Britainto be poor, though the National Curriculum recognises its importanceas a form of ‘IT Capability’.

BETT is a massive educational IT show held in London every January. It aims to putinformation and communication technology at the heart of education - an exciting eventwhere you can see,touch, try and, of course, buy the most sophisticated tools. The ads gave tenreasons to visit the show. No. 6 was: ‘Find out how to embed ICT into yoursubject area’. This definitely seemed the place to go for advice on information literacy..

Software and hardware suppliers were in force at BETT, as were trainers,publishers, media organisations, trade magazines, library suppliers, governmentbodies, unions and just about anyone else with the slightest link to teaching.Even the MLA (Museums, Libraries and Archives Council) was there.What did I find? I traipsed around the vast floors, sent from one stand toanother: from BECTA (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency) to theDepartment for Education & Skills to the BBC. I approached Microsoft’s huge trainingstand where I was, again, passed from one ’expert’ to another: no one could help.

Finally, I approached the MLA (their name spelled incorrectly in the catalogue and givenon their web site as: Museums, Archives and Libraries Council – perhaps, putting libraries

in their place!). But, they were far too busy launching new museum projects to thinkabout other areas of  responsibility: libraries were not even mentioned on the stand. I wasadvised to try the Inspiring Learning For Allwebsite, but ‘information literacy’ does not even warrant an entry in its glossary.

Wherever I went, I received the same (non-)response: no one appeared ever to havecome across the term. When I explained what I meant, I was told computers are self-explanatory.

So, is there a point to all the effort expended by librarians in promotinginformation literacy? Is this a topic to raise with candidates at the local and GLAelections?

Ralph Adam8