Information Literacy as a Liberal Art

Is information literacy “more akin to a ‘liberal art’” (Shapiro & Hughes, 1998)?

Is it “knowledge that is part of what it means to be a free person in the present historical context of the dawn of the information age” (Shapiro & Hughes, 1998)? 

Should it equip people “not only to use information and information technology effectively and adapt to their constant changes but also to think critically about the entire information enterprise and information society” (Shapiro & Hughes, 1998)?

An information literacy curriculum should comprise ‘tool literacy’, ‘resource literacy’, ‘social-structural literacy’, ‘research literacy’, ‘publishing literacy’, ‘emerging technology literacy’, and ‘critical literacy’ (Shapiro & Hughes, 1998). This curricular should equip people with both technical skills, and the ability to adopt a “broad, integrated and critical perspective on the contemporary world of knowledge and information, including its origins and developmental trends, its redefinitions of experience and social life, its philosophical justification, biases and limits, its potential for human emancipation and human domination, and for growth and destruction” (Shapiro & Hughes, 1998).

Shapiro & Hughes’ (1998) assertion that perhaps information literacy is an all-encompassing new liberal art made me curious about two things. Firstly, what was Shapiro’s standing amongst academics, and secondly, what are world wide trends in the area of information literacy.

I located the pdf document, “Information Literacy as a Liberal Art: Enlightenment proposals for a new curriculum”, using a Google Scholar Search for “information literacy”. The Google Scholar statistics indicated that the document had been ‘cited’ in 225 works in a number of languages, with publication dates ranging from 1999 to 2010. The document closes with the statements about the authors:

Jeremy J. Shapiro is a senior consultant with Academic Information Projects at the Fielding Institute, as well as on the faculty of its Human and Organization Development Program.

Shelley K. Hughes is an information specialist in the Fielding Institute's Learning Resources Department. jshapiro@fielding.edu and skhughes@fielding.edu.

Shapiro’s biography is available in Wikipedia and confirms that he is an academic professor at the Fielding Graduate University. The staff directory on the university website confirms that Shapiro and Hughes do in fact hold the positions stated. So I assumed that Shapiro and Hughes’ assertions at least warranted consideration.

But how was information literacy viewed in other countries?

In the same Google Scholar search, I had located a literature review by Sirje Virkus of Manchester Metropolitan University, titled, “Information literacy in Europe: a literature review” that was published in the online academic journal, Information Research. According to Virkus, European countries are moving towards an American view of information literacy, and the most cited definition of information literacy in Europe is that provided by the American Library Association (ALA) Presidential Committee on Information Literacy:

'To be information literate, a person must be able to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information' (ALA, cited in Virkus, 2003).

The prevalent use of this definition locates information literacy squarely in the territory of librarians. What began as bibliographic instruction has evolved into what is known as ‘information literacy’. Since the very first libraries, people have been trained to organise, search and retrieve information. Providing access to library collections of increasing magnitude and complexity, necessitated the widening of formalised training in information retrieval.

With computer technology to facilitate information storage, searching and retrieval, the emphasis in formalised information-related training is changing again. The search engines of public and private electronic collections now include online help in the form of smart text, boolean and fuzzy logic searches, search instructions search saving and tracking, and advice to authors and publishers. Universities provide online tutorials. Users are increasingly accustomed to accessing online help for software applications. So, while some might benefit from formalised instruction about information seeking practices, it is questionable whether it is necessary.

In order to determine new directions for information-related education, let’s examine the nature of information. If information is taken to be “anything we experience as informing” (Bruce, 2008, p.5), then it appears as though society is moving towards an ICT-driven model of information organisation, construction and dissemination. Many forms of mass media (television programs, radio stations and newspapers) now also publish on the Web. There are free and subscription online dictionaries, encyclopaedias, academic journals and electronic books. But more importantly, we now operate in an information environment where, using freely available email, wikis, blogs, video and image libraries, and social networking sites through mobile technology, anyone can publish, anywhere and at any time.

This availability of unedited, uncensored, and in many ways unsolicited, ‘information’ broadcast in text, images and sound, requires a shift in emphasis in information literacy from mere information seeking practices to information evaluation, synthesis and construction practices. These practices need to be applied to multimodal texts and transactional texts like email, blogs, wikis and social networking sites.

Virkus (2003) avoids the term ‘information literacy’ and prefers instead to use ‘information-related competencies' which comprise several sets of competencies. These competencies have close ties to constructivist learning theory (Virkus, 2003) and include complex information processing, problem-solving, decision-making and transfering knowledge and skills to new contexts (Virkus, 2003). As constructive learning involves seeking and using information, critical analysis and metacognition, it follows that information-related competencies need to be seated in a context and grounded in context-specific content (Virkus, 2003). Consequently, information-related competencies can be seen as “context- and content-dependent competencies” rather than a body of knowledge in its own right. (Virkus, 2003).

Library-based educators have used this argument to justify their roles in school libraries, and promote collaboration with teachers in delivering information literacy education that is embedded in the curriculum. However the same point of view supports the embedding of information-related competencies’ within all areas of the curriculum, rather than seeing them as a separate area of study.

This approach has been enacted in Queensland where numeracy, literacy and ICTs are described as  cross-curricular priorities; and the Australian national curriculum, where information-related competencies are described as general capabilities of literacy, numeracy, information technology competence, critical and creative thinking, ethical behaviour, personal and social competence and intercultural understanding.

    “General capabilities … encompass skills, behaviours and dispositions that students develop and apply to content knowledge and that support them in becoming successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed citizens. Throughout their schooling students develop and use these capabilities in their learning across the curriculum, in co-curricular programs and in their lives outside school.” (ACARA. n.d.)

Keeping in mind that Virkus, Shapiro and Hughes’ views related largely to information literacy in the higher education section:

How well does the Australian curriculum description of general capabilities fit with Shapiro and Hughes’ vision for information literacy as a liberal art and Virkus’ description of context- and content-dependent, information-related competencies?

REFERENCES

Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (n.d.).General Capabilities, The Autralian Curriculum. Retrieved August 9, 2011, from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/GeneralCapabilities

Bruce, C.S. (2008). Informed Learning. Association of College and Research Libraries / American Library Association, Chicago.

Shapiro, J.J. and Hughes, S.K. (1996). Information Literacy as a Liberal Art: Enlightenment proposals for a new curriculum. EdCom Review. Sequence: Volume 31, Number 2, March/April 1996. Retrieved August 9, 2011, from http://net.educause.edu/apps/er/review/reviewarticles/31231.html.

Virkus, S. (2003)  "Information literacy in Europe: a literature review." Information Research, 8(4), paper no. 159. Retreived August 9, 2011, from http://informationr.net/ir/8-4/paper159.html