Information overload is the popular conception of information, especially with the internet and the 24-hour news cycle. Information is something we are "bombarded" with: news reports, radio programs, billboards, magazine articles, facts, statistics, stuff on websites - type information into Google and you'll get "About 2,640,000,000 results." However, the popular conception of information is still pretty text-based, narrower than that of information theorists like Christine Bruce, who defines information as "anything we experience as informing" (p. 5, Informed Learning). This view of information is contextual and can include stuff with words but also visuals we wouldn't usually think of. For example, fire contains information for a fireman, as does the body language of his colleagues.
Certainly the conception of information in academia is largely text based, composed of figures and numbers and primary sources - things you can look up in books and electronic databases and possibly verify. The ACRL information literacy standards illustrate this emphasis. Multimedia forms are included, but information is still something that can be fact-checked.
Nonetheless, the traditional views of information and the broader view a la Informed Learning both boil down to two important parts of information literacy - knowing how to get useful information and knowing how to use the information you get.
Of course this begs other questions: Where do we go to find information? How do we go about looking for it How do we recognize useful information when we find it? Or in other words, how do we evaluate the information we find? How do we understand or conceptualize the information? How do we integrate the information into our work? It is these questions that the information literacy standards attempt to address, in a general way that speaks to a specific discipline - academia. Thus the emphasis on more scholarly sources, electronic retrieval of information, and intellectual property.
This expanded definition hasn't so much changed my view of information literacy as much as it has made explicit what I would have implicitly agreed with - it's all about context. However, it further emphasizes the need to have some methods of interfacing with information in a critical way that facilitates evaluation and reflection.
I see what you mean about the information literacy standards speaking specifically to academia. As LIS students we know that information literacy encompasses everyday information needs for everyone. It's just that academia's information needs seem to be most emphasized because information and learning are constantly being formally explored and taught in that setting. This brings me to Mary Ann's lecture for this week. She mentioned that the definition of an information literate person has moved away from including that they have "learned how to learn". I think its important to emphasize the "learn how to learn" aspect in information literacy for those outside of academia. This is because the internet can be an informal method of education. So for the average person who is not in an academic setting they could continue learning after what ever level of education they left off at if they have "learned how to learn". Meaning they know how to seek out information, how to evaluate it, and how to use it within the context of their need.
ReplyDeleteI now have to go back and reread the ACRL standards because I didn't think about the emphasis on text-based information. This is probably the biggest difference between the standards and what Bruce proposes ("anything we experience as informing")and I really didn't pick up on this until now (doh!) Your comment brings my mind back to the last discussion when we were asked about the assumptions of the standards. I'm sure this bias toward text-based "fact-checkable" information is absolutely true.
ReplyDeleteIn my post, I mentioned that the K-12 standards should be made a priority so students are ready to meet the ACRL standards later. I still am ok with this comment, but now I would refine and broaden it to include information in many different formats.