Readers of international LIS-journals
will have noticed quite a number of
articles on ‘information literacy’ in recent
years. Some colleagues venture the
opinion that this is a new buzz word
for the kind of user education that they
themselves have performed for the last
30 years. In a way they are right. Information
literacy does require and is a
kind of user education. Yet I think they
are also wrong as the programmes
being developed today are far more
sophisticated than before – and to me
the point is that we should aim at a
much more differentiated programme
for information literacy, reaching from
schoolchildren to PhD-level. You may
say that ‘information literacy’ indicates
a new level in the methodological
development of user education with a
more systematic approach that is
highly desirable.What is happening is a
global change in education. For instance
there is a marked increase in distance
learning activities and generally
speaking information collection and
processing are becoming integrated
parts of education and learning activities.
The real challenge
A good definition of information literacy
has been given by the Association
of College and Research Libraries in
America stating that “information literacy
is a set of abilities requiring individuals
to recognise when information
is needed and have the ability to locate,
evaluate, and use effectively the needed
information.” The Association of College
and Research Libraries has been
working with standards for various
programmes in an inspiring way to
reach that ability.
The real challenge is to integrate programmes
on information literacy run
by libraries into the educational system
in a formal way. I am not proud to
admit it, but I believe it is true: it is still
possible to achieve a master’s degree
from a Nordic university without
knowing how to use the library, neither
the virtual nor the real. This situation
is becoming more critical as the ability
to cope with information is becoming a
crucial competence in a growing number
of fields. And this in spite of the
fact that in Nordic libraries there has
been a strong tradition for user education.
Decades ago there would be a
standard programme to introduce new
students to the library, but today university
libraries spend more and more
time on a variety of topics on different
levels. In consequence the Nordic
Council on Scientific Information has
decided to focus on the development of
new methods to cope with user education
in college and university libraries.
However, public libraries do not think
this is sufficient. Many public libraries
have a tradition for quite sophisticated
introductions to information searching
at secondary school level, and the need
for guidance in searching information
to support schoolchildren’s homework
at a still earlier stage is widely recognised
in Scandinavia. Likewise the fast
growth in Internet use in the Nordic
countries created a need in the general
public for basic computer and information
literacy skills that public libraries
immediately faced. Today in Denmark
it is a core activity in public libraries
to give introductory courses in
information search on the Internet,
and in larger libraries you will find a
variety of learning offers directed at
different groups. The conclusion is that
the learning library is becoming a part
of nearly all libraries, and those librarians
that chose their profession because
they did not want to teach, may have
made a bad decision.
New initiative in Nordic county libraries
In January 2003 Nordic county librarians
had their biannual meeting in Stavanger
in Norway and decided that information
literacy is not old wine on
new bottles, but a field that demands
more and more from staff and a field
that has a high priority everywhere. At
the meeting it was agreed that we face
the same challenges when developing
programmes built on identified needs
in various age groups, because the
recognised success factor is to hit a
central information need in the target
group. Consequently it was decided to
form a working party to co-operate on
developing models and methods for
creating this more systematic approach
where there is a defined number of
competence levels coping with the educational
system and various needs
among citizens. Public libraries should
of course co-operate and share the
market with college and university libraries.
Their programmes should anticipate
what undergraduates will meet
at the colleges and universities, but
they should also be aware that there is
a general need in the public for lifelong
learning – and that information literacy
is an integrated part of it.
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