Building Information Literacy
Information practices are increasingly calling for renewed attention to metaliteracy, or thinking about what it is that makes literacy happen. In scholarly work across all levels of academia, literacy is irrevocably tied to information search, collection, analysis, and creation.When we teach to each of these information behaviors, we build abilities and critical self-reflection skills in ourselves and in our students.
This is the goal of information literacy instruction as defined through the ACRL (Association of College & Research Libraries) Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education (The ACRL Framework). Following from The ACRL Framework, PBC Library promotes information literacy as the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning.
PBC Library supports the above definition of information literacy by providing instruction in six core concepts defined by in The ACRL Framework:
- Inquiry-driven research (Inquiry)
- Strategic search exploration (Strategy)
- Information has value (Value)
- Authority is constructed and contextual (Authority)
- Information Creation as process (Creation)
- Scholarship as conversation (Conversation)
Working in unison, each of these concepts provokes increased information literacy. Because all six involve intensive learning processes, it is in the best interests of students, faculty, and the wider research community for instructions to focus on developing understanding and knowledge practices for each at different times, and at every stage of learning.