In the 21st century, information literacy emerges as the cornerstone of educational development. Despite its paramount significance, a stark reality persists — students often traverse the corridors of academia without acquiring essential information literacy skills. This deficiency is exacerbated by a shortage of faculty training, leaving academic libraries to shoulder the responsibility of cultivating information-savvy individuals. Examining Information Literacy in Academic Libraries delves into the core challenges and solutions surrounding this critical educational imperative. This book illuminates the role of academic libraries as bastions of information literacy instruction. The capacity of students and information consumers to seek, evaluate, and utilize information is paramount for informed decision-making ethically and legally. Regardless of whether or not students were brought up in the digital age, many lack the fundamental information literacy skills required for higher education. This deficiency manifests in academic malpractices, such as plagiarism, which compromise the integrity of educational institutions. Moreover, this imperative work contends that the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is not a distant concept but a present reality. The recent global upheaval caused by the Coronavirus pandemic accelerated the adoption of new technologies, necessitating a swift reassessment of our collective ability to navigate this everchanging digital and information landscape. Focusing on media literacy, data literacy, and digital literacy, with information literacy as the overarching domain, this book serves as a beacon for educators, librarians, and policymakers.

It’s not hyperbole to conclude that in today’s world, information literacy is essential for survival and success; and also that, if left unchecked, the social consequences of widespread misinformation and information illiteracy will only continue to grow more dire. Thus its study must be at the core of every education. But while many books have been written on information literacy, this text is the first to examine information literacy from a cross-national, cross-cultural, and cross-institutional perspective. From this book, readers will learn about information literacy in a wide variety of contexts, including academic and school libraries, public libraries, special libraries, and archives, through research and literature that has previously been siloed in specialized publications; come to understand why information literacy is not just an issue of information and technology, but also a broader community and societal issue; get an historical overview of advertising, propaganda, disinformation, misinformation, and illiteracy; gain knowledge of both applied strategies for working with individuals and for addressing the issues in community contexts; find methods for combating urgent societal ills caused and exacerbated by misinformation; and get tools and techniques for advocacy, activism, and self-reflection throughout one’s career.

"Provides a snapshot of the current state of critical information literacy as it is enacted and understood by academic librarians"--

Research 2.0 and the Future of Information Literacy examines possible congruencies between information literacy and Research 2.0, because the work of today's researcher mobilizes a number of literacies. From among the various types of relevant literacies, at least three types of literacies can be mentioned in this relation: information literacy, scientific literacy and academic literacy. This book addresses these literacies in the light of the changing research landscape. Broad contexts of the researcher's abilities, as adaptive and innovative thinking, problem solving skills, self-management and design mindset are also examined. Computational thinking and the computational paradigm in a number of fields of research are taken into consideration, as well. Researchers differ to non-researchers when populating social media, which means that these two different groups require different literacies. The relationship between information literacy and information is approached in a new way. Among the multitude of issues, we introduce a new interface between information literacy and Research 2.0. It encompasses the issues of research data management and data literacy, which represent also a challenge both for the academic library and for the communities of researchers. Similarly, the questions of new metrics of scientific output are addressed in the book. - Summarizes the most important and up-to date approaches towards Research 2.0, including researchers' skills and abilities, the data-intensive paradigm of scientific research, open science, not forgetting about factors that inhibit a wider uptake of Research 2.0 - Discusses the nature of information literacy in the light of its definitions, declarations and related frameworks and by outlining the new literacies context, reading and writing, the cultural context, and the turns of library and information science - Numerous literacies, other than information literacy, its relationship to information overload and personal information management are also subject of the book - Theoretical and practical perspectives are given to enable the understanding of the transformations of information literacy and its relationship to Research 2.0

This book explains how information literacy (IL) is essential to the contemporary workplace and is fundamental to competent, ethical and evidence-based practice. In today’s information-driven workplace, information professionals must know when research evidence or relevant legal, business, personal or other information is required, how to find it, how to critique it and how to integrate it into one’s knowledge base. To fail to do so may result in defective and unethical practice which could have devastating consequences for clients or employers. There is an ethical requirement for information professionals to meet best practice standards to achieve the best outcome possible for the client. This demands highly focused and complex information searching, assessment and critiquing skills. Using a range of new perspectives, Information Literacy in the Workplace demonstrates several aspects of IL’s presence and role in the contemporary workplace, including IL’s role in assuring competent practice, its value to employers as a return on investment, and its function as an ethical safeguard in the duty and responsibilities professionals have to clients, students and employers. Chapters are contributed by a range of international experts, including Christine Bruce, Bonnie Cheuk, Annemaree Lloyd with a foreword from Jane Secker. Content covered includes: examination of the value and impact of IL in the workplace how IL is experienced remotely, beyond workplace boundariesIL’s role in professional development organizational learning and knowledge creationdeveloping information professional competencieshow to unlock and create value using IL in the workplace. Readership: This book will be useful for librarians and LIS students in understanding how information literacy is experienced by professions they support; academics teaching professional courses; professionals (e.g. medical, social care, legal and business based) and their employers in showing that IL is essential to best practice and key to ethical practice.

This research was conducted to investigate the relationships between conceptions and practice of information literacy in academic libraries. To create a structure for the investigation, the research adopted the framework of Argyris and Schön(1974) in which professional practice is examined via theories of action, namely espoused theories and theories-in-use. Espoused theories were examined by investigating understandings and beliefs of information literacy and learning as seen in a range of policy documents including mission and goal statements of eleven academic libraries as well as those of their parent universities. These libraries were recognized by the academic library community for exemplary instruction resources. Theories-in-use were identified by analyzing information literacy practice via online tutorials utilized by these libraries in instruction initiatives. These documents and representations of practice were augmented by semi-structured interviews conducted with practitioners of information literacy education in these libraries. A constant comparison approach (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) was used to develop broad themes, subcategories and statements of claims from these multiple data sources. Meta-claims developed provided rich descriptions towards a comprehensive, holistic picture of information literacy education. The research findings establish that information literacy education in the selected academic libraries is multi-dimensional, complex, and contradictory. The analysis revealed 1) explicit espoused theories of information literacy which coalesce around themes of knowledge creation and lifelong learning; 2) varied, less explicit and sometimes conflicting theories-in-use which emphasize engagement with information sources; 3) ad hoc levels of congruence in the relationships between espoused theories and theories-in-use as indicated by the few successful attempts to realize goals and outcomes in instruction initiatives; 4) major contradictions and incongruence in the relationships between the espoused theories and theories-in-use as indicated by significant gaps in addressing goals and missions; 5) enablers and barriers to achieving effective practice; 6) emergent trends in information literacy practice. Implications for practice include issues of pedagogy and instruction design towards consistency and congruence. The study suggests areas for future research. The research process is presented as a model and tool for evaluating varied dimensions of information literacy practice including multiple online resources and classroom initiatives.

While the profession has generated many books on information literacy, none to date have validated exactly why it is so difficult to teach. In her new book, Reale posits that examining and reflecting on the reality of those factors is what will enable practitioners to meet the challenge of their important mandate. Using the same warm and conversational tone as in her previous works, she uses personal anecdotes to lay out the key reasons that teaching information literacy is so challenging, from the limited amount of time given to instructors and lack of collaboration with faculty to one’s own anxieties about the work; examines how these factors are related and where librarians fit in; validates readers’ struggles and frustrations through an honest discussion of the emotional labor of librarianship, including “imposter syndrome,” stress, and burnout; offers a variety of approaches, strategies, and topics of focus that will assist readers in their daily practice; looks at how a vibrant community of practice can foster positive change both personally and institutionally; and presents “Points to Ponder” at the end of each chapter that encourage readers to self-reflect and then transform personal insights into action.

"A collection of articles about various ways of applying critical pedagogy and related educational theories to library instruction"--Provided by publisher.

The second edition of this guide for librarians who need to implement informational literacy programs for diverse learners has been revised to include new practices and technologies in the 21st century. Grassian served as a library administrator at theUCLA College Library, and she has teamed with fellow UCLA librarian Kaplowitz to deliver a plan that focuses on goal setting, mode selection, design, copyright and assessment of these programs. A CD-ROM is included that contains sample mission statements, tables that evaluate assessment tools, practice handouts and links to interactive Web pages. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

Practical Pedagogy