Information Literacy and the Google student

26 Mar, 2017 - 00:03 0 Views
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The Sunday Mail

Learnmore James Kagwiro Belvedere Technical Teachers College —
Information literacy (IL) has increasingly become important for students in tertiary institutions because of the geometric increase in the production of scholarly content and the proliferation of pervasive Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).

Academic libraries have responded by reconfiguring their services and spaces in order to provide for the epistemological needs of users. IL refers to the know-how and confidence needed to discover, interpret, analyse and make use of information in a sagacious way (Goldstein and Whitworth, 2017, p.40). IL is relevant to everyone including learners, employers, entrepreneurs, citizens, health care users, among many others.UNESCO’s Information for all Programme (IFAP) endorsed IL as a basic human right with reference to education and all aspects of human endeavour.

The incorporation of Information Literacy skills in Library and Information Science practice and education and institutional curricular of most progressive academic institutions marks a paradigm shift from the traditional view of librarians as support or auxiliary staff to a well defined pedagogic driven proactive role focussing on helping users to locate, retrieve , discover, manage, critically evaluate and use information for problem solving, research and decision making.

People with skills and knowledge to effectively and efficiently utilise information resources in learning, teaching and research are referred to as information literates. Those with skills and knowledge to effectively and efficiently make use of the panoply of digital technologies are referred to as digital literates. They have learned techniques and skills for utilizing the wide range of information sources in moulding information and solutions to their problems (Orr, Zurkowski, Appleton, and Wallin, 2001).

Several conceptions and definitions of IL have become prevalent. For example, one school of thought defines IL in terms of a set of competencies that an informed citizen of an information society ought to possess to participate intelligently and productively in that society. The American Library Association’s (ALA, 1989) Presidential Committee on Information Literacy, Final Report states, “To be information literate, a person must be able to recognise when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.”

In November, 2005 a High Level Colloquium on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning held at the Bibliotheca Alexandria in Egypt produced and promulgated The Alexandria Proclamation of 2005 recognizes information literacy as “a basic human right in the digital world” as it empowers individuals “in all walks of life to seek, evaluate, use and create information effectively to achieve their personal, social, occupational and educational goals”.

The term IL, according to Humes (2002), refers to information competency, which generally means the ability to access, evaluate, organise, and use information from a variety of sources. ALA (1989) believe that being information literate requires knowing how to clearly define a subject or area of investigation; select the appropriate terminology that expresses the concept or subject under investigation; formulate a search strategy that takes into consideration different sources of information and the different ways that information is organised.

It also involves analysing the data collected for value, relevancy, quality, and suitability; and subsequently turns information into knowledge. This involves a deeper understanding of how and where to find information, the ability to judge whether that information is meaningful, and ultimately, how best that information can be incorporated to address the problem or issue at hand. Therefore, IL is becoming a more important part of education. It is also a vital part of college and university education in Zimbabwe.

That is why in tertiary education system and information-centric world, it was agreed that students should develop information literacy skills earlier on so they are prepared to survive the demands of the ICTs centric university and workplaces (Phiri, 2010). The practical use of IL in a knowledge driven knowledge society, is premised on access to information and the competencies to effectively use ICT’s. Coiro (2008) argues that the knowledge dispensation requires new social practices, strategies and dispositions to ensure effective utilisation of ICTs in learning, teaching and research.

The Centre for Intellectual Property in the Digital environment views IL a way of thinking rather than a set of skills “ a matrix of critical and reflective capacities, as well as disciplined creative thought that impels the student to range widely through the information environment… ’’ (Centre for Intellectual Property in the Digital Environment, 2005: viii-ix).

However, all the definitions of IL share a common denominator with reference to the focus on; ICTs , independent navigation and discoverability of information and the ability to recognise the need for information, retrieving, evaluating , using and sharing information (Mattox, 2009) . Other authors also view IL as a process concept with involving using and ethical creation of content and sharing.

IL is rooted in the concepts of library skills (LS), bibliographic instruction (BI), and forensic bibliographic reconstruction. Thus, it is the basis for life-long learning hence the adage “learning from the cradle to the grave”. Julien (2002) views IL as the ability to make efficient and effective use of information sources.

The author argues that an information literate person today should possess specific library skills, multimodal skills and online searching skills, which include the ability to select appropriate search terminology, construct a logical search strategy, and evaluate information appropriately. September (1993) asserts that students need some level of LS to make decisions about academic matters and other aspects of their daily lives. Julien (2002) identifies the skill domains that are involved and classifies them as cognitive, affective, and physical, i.e., thought, attitude, and operation.

IL in the broadest sense may range from retrieving information from an online public access catalogue (OPAC) to preparing an annotated bibliography on a particular topic. In order to progress to the more exact skills needed in using the library in tertiary institutions, students will need to be taught basic library skills, which will serve as a foundation for other skills which will be acquired later.

More importantly, the basic LS which the librarian will be teaching will form, for most students, all the library and information skills that they will ever need. IL contributes to the personal and intellectual development of the student, including the ability to continue autonomous learning outside the formal educational context (heuatagogy). Thus, it prepares students for the continuing process of self-education following formal studies. The promotion of the library and its literature at student level encourages the development of the habit of reading and library use during and after training as a teacher, artisan or technician.

IL is an important reference skills course taught to first year students in some tertiary institutions in Zimbabwe. It is a skills course which makes students aware of the existence of the library, its literature and service (Chanakira, 2013). After the awareness or introduction, this skills course helps students to utilise the resources and services offered by the library. Students should use information effectively to accomplish specific purposes.

They should understand the economic, legal and social issues surrounding the use of information and access and use it ethically and legally. Without these requisite skills students are found on the wrong side in using library facilities. However, as with the CIBER report from 2008, it recognises that students look for a quick fix when searching for information, paying little attention to evaluation and ethical issues. It has also led them to impatience- a preference for quick answers- and to a casual approach to evaluating information and attributing it and also to copyright and legal constraints (Melville 2009).

Quality academic research output arises if a student is equipped with the right IL. Lack of IL amongst tertiary students has led to a culture of intellectual mediocrity as evidenced by prevalence of plagiarism, copying and pasting as some students fail to acknowledge sources consulted and used for assignments and research projects, thereby compromising the quality of their work (Orr, Appleton and Wallin, 2001).

There is a daily explosion of information resources and the challenge of using these resources effectively and responsibly. In using the library resources, students lack skills in locating and evaluating information, which impedes its effective use (Issa, 2003). Quoting and citing in IL are processes to acknowledge the works by other authors or other organisations. If acknowledgement is not done it is a criminal offence, it breaches the Intellectual Property Right and Copyright Act. If this happens a student is labelled as an “information thief” in the academic and library and information science fraternity.

In academic writing, quoting and referring to the work of others is known as “bibliographical citation” or simply citation. Students, researchers and general public all need to be able to provide accurate citations to their sources so that others will be able to find those sources.

With the wide range of available citation styles, such as Anglo American Cataloguing Rule second edition (AACR2), American Psychological Association (APA), Morden Language Association (MLA), Chicago University Press (CUP), Harvard and an ever- growing number of formats, students find it increasingly difficult to accurately cite the information sources that they use. Add to that the relatively new format of the Web, and students are very confused about citations.

Aiding students with citations is a rapidly growing function of the librarian. This is extremely common in academic institutions where students are learning how to cite material, but citations are a common area of query in public and special libraries as well. Reference librarians are often responsible for maintaining good standards in citations and references.

We live in an ever-changing world, which requires constant vigilance and responsiveness to the needs and demands of our (users) students. The format, in which information is presented, continues to metamorph at an alarming pace. Because of this, students need information literacy training now more than ever.

The proliferation of digital information has generated a greater need for information skills. Our in-coming Google children (students) generally assume that search engines understand what they are looking for, without any regard for developing an effective search strategy. They find the likes of Google, Yahoo and Wikipedia to be a great deal more intuitive than many library books and websites. Librarians need to be aware of these additional challenges posed by the Google Generation and work even harder to convince them of the importance of information literacy and the wider context of information resources.

The digital age offers huge opportunities, but then decline of information literacy skills risks robbing a generation the ability to fully utilize these opportunities (Brindley 2009). Librarians need to work harder than ever to ensure that students of the 21st century are equipped with the information literacy skills to make the best of what the digital environment offers them. IL remains critical in the twenty first century and the thrust on self directed learning as we move away from knowledge stockpiling to knowledge sharing.

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