Information Literacy and IT Fluency: Convergences and Divergences

The theoretical underpinnings of information fluency are still nascent because this blended learning agenda draws upon the language and preferred concepts of librarians, computing professionals, faculty, and perhaps most important, the preferences of today’s students. Another professional membership organization, Educause, has recently addressed the blended nature of research and information skills in a digitally intense, networked world, with social networking, RSS feeds, Facebook and MySpace, blogs, wikis, iPods, and other ubiquitous technologies in students’ lives, through a series of white papers.²¹ These papers identify the need for today’s students to use critical thinking to evaluate information and data, whatever its sources, and discuss the challenges in learning to be thoughtful and ethical in an information-rich environment. The need for collaboration among all academic professionals in order to promote information fluency is also clear because the challenges relating to effective research, information management, and ethics cut across departmental or unit boundaries and are not limited to particular technologies, software products, computing platforms, or learning environments.

Information fluency is perhaps the optimal provisional concept for the academic library’s educational mission–one that builds upon the ordered universe of knowledge and skill envisioned in the Information Literacy Competency Standards , but with technology-mediated abilities and capacities infused in a dynamic, situational way. The very unpredictability of the technology environment suggests that the fluency paradigm better addresses the need to conceive of the student as an active agent in his or her own learning. Defining, accessing, evaluating, and managing information–comprising a form of research education–is the classic skill set for information literacy. The blended learning available through infusing technology into this skill set repositions information literacy as a force for more pervasive, creative impact educational multiplier effect, both within the formal curriculum and more generally, throughout students’ lives. Information literacy and IT fluency, as educational initiatives, pose large challenges for librarians, academic computing professionals, faculty, administrators, and students. The integration of learning and student experience demands a new approach to programmatic integration as well. The existing nomenclature confusion may persist but will, in time, be resolved in favor of integrative concepts and collaborations at all levels of education.

Correspondence concerning this column should be addressed to: Lori Arp, Assistant to the University Librarian, Northwestern University Library, 1970 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208; e-mail: L-arp@northwestern.edu. Beth S. Woodard is Staff Development and Training Coordinator and Reference Librarian Head at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 300 Library, 1408 West Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801; e-mail: bswoodar@uiuc.edu. Craig Gibson is Associate University Librarian for Research, Instructional and Outreach Services at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

References and Notes

1. Bill Johnston and Sheila Webber, “As We May Think: Information Literacy As a Discipline for the Information Age,” Research Strategies 20, no. 3 (2006): 108-21.
2. For the original exposition of the normative, attributes-based conception of information literacy, see: Christina S. Doyle, Information Literacy in an Information Society: A Concept for the Information Age (Syracuse, N.Y.: ERIC Clearinghouse on Information & Technology, ED372763, 1994).
3. National Research Council (United States) Committee on Information Technology Literacy. Being Fluent with Information Technology. Computer Science and Telecommunications Board. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Pr., 1999.
4. See the following for the original presentation of the relational model: Christine Bruce, The Seven Faces of Information Literacy (Adelaide, Australia: AUSLIB Pr., 1997); Hilary Johnson, “The SCONUL Task Force on Information Skills,” in Information and IT Literacy: Enabling Learning in the 21st Century, Allan Martin and Hannelore Rader, eds. (London: Facet Pub., 2003).
5. For an example of the relational model, based on phenomenographic research, applied in an American college setting, see: Clarence Maybee, “Undergraduate Perceptions of Information Use: The Basis for Creating User-Centered Student Information Literacy Instruction,” Journal of Academic Librarianship 32, no. 1 (2006): 79-85.
6. See case studies demonstrating the efficacy of collaboration in: Dane Ward and Dick Raspa, eds., The Collaborative Imperative: Faculty and Librarians Working Together in the Information Universe (Chicago: ACRL, 2000).
7. The shift from “transmission” models of teaching to “learner-centered” models is still underway, but the library community has been much influenced by the research first published by Robert Barr and John Tagg. This article is often cited as a landmark work in distilling needed changes in pedagogy in higher education: Robert Barr and John Tagg, “From Teaching to Learning: A New Paradigm for Undergraduate Education,” Change 27, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1995): 13-25.; Jeremy J. Shapiro and Shelley Hughes, “Information Literacy As a Liberal Art,” Educom Review 31, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1996): 31-35.
8. Bruce, The Seven Faces of Information Literacy.
9. National Research Council, Being Fluent with Information Technology.
10. The National Forum of Information Literacy was established in 1989 as a response to a series of recommendations by ALA’s Presidential Committee on Information Literacy. The group meets three times each year in Washington, D.C. Its member organizations include government agencies, professional education and library associations, accrediting groups, nonprofit organizations, business and CEO groups, and others concerned with the connections between information literacy, lifelong learning, and personal empowerment.
11. Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, “Conceptions of Information Literacy: New Perspectives and Implications,” Journal of Information Science 26, no. 6 (2000): 381-96.
12. American Association of School Librarians and Association for Educational Communications and Technology, Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning (Chicago: ALA, 1998); Association of College and Research Libraries, Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, (Chicago: ACRL, 2000) (accessed Nov. 9, 2006).
13. The mission, goals, projects, and minutes of the National Forum on Information Literacy can be found at www.infolit.org (accessed Nov. 9, 2006) .
14. The mission, goals, projects, and publications of the partnership can be found at the Partnership For 21st Century Skills (accessed Nov. 9, 2006). Under the “Framework” link, the Partnership presents its integrated conception of 21st Century skills, which include information and media literacy as well as ICT skills.
15. Information about the ICT Literacy Assessment can be found at www.ets.org, under the “ICT Literacy Assessment” link (accessed Nov. 9, 2006) .
16. Educational Testing Service, “ICT Literacy Assessment: Assess the Information and Communication Technology Proficiencies Your Students Need to Succeed” (brochure; 2005).
17. Carol Smith, Dennis Trinkle, Lynda S. Latta, Joshua Wilson, “Technology as the New Liberal Art: The DePauw University Approach to Pervasive Information Fluency,” Proceedings of the 30th ACM SIGUCCS Conference on User Services, Providence, Rhode Island, Association of Computing Machinery, November 2002.
18. University of Central Florida, What If? A Foundation for Information Fluency, March 2006 (accessed Nov. 9, 2006).
19. Ibid., 14.
20. Ibid., 6.
21. George Lorenzo and Charles Dziuban, “Ensuring the Net Generation is Net Savvy”; Carrie Windham, “Getting Past Google: Perspectives on Information Literacy from the Millennial Mind”; and George Lorenzo, Diana Oblinger, and Chalres Dziuban, “How Choice, Co-Creation, and Culture are Changing What it Means to be Net Savvy,” Educause Learning Initiative Net Savviness White Papers Series, ed. by Diana Oblinger. Available at www.educause.edu/NewLearners/5515 (accessed Nov. 9, 2006; 2006).

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