Information Literacy

Guided Inquiry: Learning in the 21st Century 2nd ed

Part II: Information Literacy: A Concepts Approach

Chapter 6

Information literacy is one of the five kinds of learning in Guided Inquiry. While you read this chapter, think about how you define information literacy.  How have your ideas about information literacy changed over time? What will information literacy look like in the future?

As technology advances and computers take on more and more routing tasks and even some cognitive work, we are rethinking what skills are essential for students to have in the information age.  What are the uniquely human skills that compliment what computers can do and will do in the future? What knowledge and skills will help students to make the most of advancing information technologies? What is literacy for lifelong learning in the information age?

The new type of literacy incorporates research as an integral life skill. For decades, school librarians have been at the forefront of developing education for the evolving information environment.  They have progressed from teaching library skills, to teaching information skills, to teaching information literacy, to take a broad view of literacy that incorporates research abilities into an inquiry approach to learning.

This chapter presents a rationale for the information literacy curriculum that is accomplished through Guided Inquiry, introduced in the next chapter.  We begin with some history on the information literacy initiative and the standards related to information literacy that have evolved over the years.  Next, we consider the increasingly more sophisticated computer technologies that call for new information age skills, what machines enable people to do, and what people can do that machines cannot. We explain the relationship of research to inquiry and the important role of the school library in the information age school.  We emphasize school librarians’ teaching qualifications and their expertise in the research process, as well as their emphasizing a concepts approach to information literacy for optimal transference to college, work, and livelong learning.