Director, University Library
Abstract
| Most countries are facing major challenges in educating students on all levels from kindergarten through the university for productive lives in the information age. Governments and business leaders are challenging educators to provide students with better, up-to-date and measurable skills to live and work effectively in the information age. Cooperative ventures between teachers and librarians in the area of information literacy may provide a solution to these educational challenges. Changing teaching methodology to prepare students for life long learning may be another solution. Definitions of various concepts are detailed. Suggestions and guidelines are offered to make teacher-librarian collaborations a reality with the goal to effectively educate students for the 21st century and the information age. |
Introduction
The emergence of the information age has presented
all nations with tremendous challenges. Information is growing
at exponential rates, technologies for storing, organizing and
accessing information are developing and changing rapidly and
access to information is often only available to the economically
advantaged. Those fortunate enough to have access to computers
and information systems either individually, through work or institutions,
are able to become productive information users; while others
remain on the fringes of society unable to participate in all
the facets of the information societies. Furthermore, people need
education which includes information training to become productive
and effective users of information. This situation is present
in developed nations as well as underdeveloped countries. Governments,
businesses, educational agencies, organizations and citizens world-wide
need to address information problems in a variety of settings.
Educating citizens to achieve information literacy is quickly
becoming an important goal in many countries.
Information Literacy
How various nations deal with information problems
will eventually determine their global competitiveness. One way
to address information issues is to ensure that all people, rich
or poor, old or young, male or female become information literate.
Schools and universities must play a leadership role
in incorporating information literacy programs into their curricula
so that students will be able to gain survival skills for the
information age. Departments of education, higher education commissions,
and academic governing boards are beginning to assume responsibility
to ensure that information literacy becomes part of students'
courses of study while teaching and learning becomes interactive
and resource-based. Also teacher education programs and teaching
outcomes should reflect information literacy concerns.
Ultimately, people of all ages need to gain information
skills whether in school or not and libraries can be very important
partners in creating an information literate population. Libraries
can provide key access points to electronic and print information
and can offer pertinent training programs to help citizens gain
necessary information skills. Unfortunately, libraries have been
largely ignored in this vital debate regarding citizens' preparation
for the information age, yet they can be effective resources for
information access and assist people in learning important information
handling skills which will enable them to continue their learning.
Resource-Based, Collaborative Learning
Education must be revitalized through new forms of learning to help students become effective in the information age.
In general, people retain very little of what they
hear in a classroom or other learning environments unless they
become actively involved in the learning process and apply the
new knowledge to specific problem solving. Teachers must create
positive learning experiences for students to ensure that educational
outcomes are positive and productive.
This is particularly important in the information
age where new information and technological changes occur faster
all the time. In such an environment students must be taught how
to become life-long learners and how to find, organize, evaluate
and use information. This mandates that the learning process on
all levels of education must be restructured. Learning environments
must become interactive, student centered, dynamic, and more creative
to ensure that students will determine their own learning paths
to gain critical thinking and life-long learning skills. In such
learning situations students and teachers should interact on a
regular basis instead of passively listening to lectures. Discussions
should become a regular feature of classroom situations both in
real or virtual situations such as on the World Wide Web.
Collaborative learning means students work directly
with each other or with faculty in research, in teaching skills
to each other, in designing or revising courses. Students share
responsibility for shaping and teaching subjects. Students become
aware of learning as a continuous process of creation to further
their own learning. In this type of learning situation students
learn from each other and through peer influence. Collaborative
learning is a very rich learning mode because it models how knowledge
is generated, how it changes and grows.3
Librarian-Teacher Partnerships
Librarians are uniquely qualified and positioned
to assume an active role in the restructure of the teaching-learning
environment. Librarians are experts in collecting, organizing,
evaluating and providing access to information in all formats.
They are able to teach students how to become knowledgeable information
handlers for print formats as well as for electronic information
in the Internet environment. Librarians must become active leaders
in the electronic information environment and in the educational
reform movement. They must forge partnerships with teachers and
faculty on all levels of education to bring about curricular restructuring
and dynamic learning environments for students in the information
age. Librarians' experience and expertise in the area of information
handling position them uniquely to work with teachers and faculty
in the nurturing of student learners so they become critical users
of information. This is indeed an opportune time for librarians
United States
Since the 1980s educators and librarians in the United States have become increasingly concerned with teaching students skills to become productive and competitive in the information age. In 1989 the American Library Association issued a report regarding information literacy which provides definitions and direction for librarians and educators.4
Public Libraries
As the information age advances and the Internet
and World Wide Web assume a more important role in communities,
librarians in public libraries are finding that they must train
and teach their clientele how to handle new electronic information
formats as never before. This is particularly significant in a
democratic environment where citizens must have opportunities
for productive participation in all facets of society but are
often prevented from access to electronic information because
of economic hardship. Public libraries provide free public access
to and training for electronic and other information handling
and play a most important role in the preparation for full participation
in work and citizenship.
A number of governments are realizing the potential
importance for public libraries to become the information center
in communities especially in the electronic information explosion.
Special funding is being made available in many cases to provide
communities with at least one opportunity to access the Internet
by connecting the public library to it and offering free access
for the community's citizens. As this trend progresses public
librarians are realizing that they need to become information
skills trainers and teachers to the many citizens who have no
other opportunities for such education. Life-long learning and
continuing education programs are being offered through many public
libraries, often in cooperation with schools and colleges.
Schools
Many states have begun to mandate that school districts, from kindergarten to the twelfth grade, incorporate information literacy components into the local school curricula so students can learn information skills on an incremental basis. Teachers are in the process to update curricula to reflect some of these mandates. School librarians have the potential to work in partnership with teachers so that students will have opportunities to gain information skills in an active learning environment.5
To encourage the development of teachers as facilitators
of interactive and collaborative learning and to foster cooperation
with school librarians several strategies are suggested:
To assist education librarians in working with education
faculty to integrate information literacy skills training into
teacher training programs, the Association of College and Research
Libraries, Education and Behavioral Sciences Section, Bibliographic
Instruction for Educators Committee issued the document "Information
Retrieval and Evaluation Skills for Education Students" in
1992.7 This document describes goals, terminal objectives
and sub-objectives under five broad areas:
To help future teachers prepare for teaching information
literacy concepts and processes a case book of 10 applications
was provided giving detailed examples of teaching/learning situations
on all levels from kindergarten to university. This document is
gaining in importance as state education agencies are issuing
mandates for incorporating information and computer skills training
into the curriculum and as librarians are becoming more active
in working with teachers on curriculum revisions and development.
The document is also most useful for developing more active and
resource-based teaching/learning environments.8
Higher Education
Various accrediting agencies have recognized the
importance of information literacy in the curricula of colleges
and universities and the important role librarians should assume
in the teaching-learning environment by including appropriate
criteria for outcome measurements regarding information literacy
in the accreditation requirements. Most noteworthy for their work
in the area of information literacy in higher Education is the
Commission on Higher Education, Middle States Association of College
and Schools. Working with the Association of College and Research
Libraries and the National Forum on Information Literacy they
have surveyed 830 institutions nationwide to explore the status
of initiatives regarding information literacy. They found that
the middle states are leading in applying information literacy
strategies on campuses. Several of these institutions have developed
format assessment strategies for measuring information literacy
outcomes.9
The Commission on Higher Education, Middle States
Association of Colleges and Schools, developed the following standard
on information literacy in 1994:
In 1995 the Commission on Leaning Resources and Instructional
Technology of the California State Universities issued a report
entitled "Information Competence in the CSU" which
recommends policy guidelines for the effective use of learning
resources and instructional technology. Information competency
is one major area identified for which recommendations are provided.
Among many factors considered are cooperative endeavors between
the universities, community colleges, primary and secondary schools
to help all students become information literate. Also recommended
was a close collaboration between faculty and librarians. The
report provides a number useful suggestions to establish effective
information competence program within California State Universities:
These examples from higher education begin to document
a concern with educating students to become effective in the information
age by helping them in gaining information and critical thinking
skills. Nation-wide academic librarians are realizing the importance
of training students in the use of information and that such training
must become integrated into the higher education curriculum. This
is the time for academic librarians to become actively involved
in curriculum development on their campuses and countless examples
of that can be found in the literature. This is also the time
for academic librarians to work with faculty in rethinking their
teaching styles from lecture mode to interactive, resource-based
and collaborative modes. In many academic institutions centers
for teaching excellence are being created to help faculty rethink
their teaching styles in terms of the electronic environment and
student learning needs. Often these centers are rightfully located
in the library. Opportunities are numerous now for academic librarians
to demonstrate their expertise in information handling and user
training and to become involved in the teaching/learning environment
on the campuses.
The Global Situation
Surveys of the literature and interaction with international
colleagues indicate that concern with preparing students for success
in the information age is definitely shared world-wide among librarians.
13 The emergence and rapid growth of the Internet has created
much interest and need on the part of students to gain access
to electronic information and to become information literate.
The need to find, organize, assess and apply information to problem
solving is an international one. Given the ease and speed with
which information can now be shared, it is advisable that librarians
should cooperate and share their expertise and experience not
only locally and nationally but also internationally. To prepare
both librarians and teachers for educating students in the information age the following
should be considered:
Conclusion
Educating students for the information age will be
a challenging job for teachers and librarians. Constant changes
caused by technology and electronic information environments are
affecting all levels of society including education in a major
way. Many educators are not prepared for the changes nor the new
ways of handling information. They are even less prepared to teach
information skills in an interactive, collaborative way. Students,
business leaders, funding agencies and governmental agencies are
demanding, however, that teachers and professors teach differently
and that educational outcomes can be measured significantly.
Librarians, meanwhile, are being challenged by competitors
from the business sector, computing, publishing and others who
are convinced they can provide information better, sometimes cheaper,
more quickly and more conveniently. Librarians are also asked
by funding and accrediting agencies to demonstrate educational
outcomes from library and information use. Demand for training
in information use electronically, and most especially, on the
Internet, are decreasing exponentially.
There are major opportunities available for librarians
at this time in the area of education. Librarians are especially
well positioned through their information expertise to prepare
and train others, particularly students, for effective performance
in the information age. This is librarians' chance to emerge as
trainers and teachers, often in cooperation with others, to help
prepare citizens for productive work and lives in the information
age.
"Each institution should foster optimal use
of its learning resources through strategies designed to help
students develop information literacy - the ability to locate,
evaluate, and use information in order to become independent learners.
It should encourage the use of a wide range of non-classroom resources
for teaching and learning. It is essential to have an active and
continuing program of library orientation and instruction in accessing
information, developed collaboratively and supported actively
by faculty, librarians, academic deans, and other information
providers. 10
The Commission on Higher Education of the Middle
States became the first accrediting agency to join the National
Forum on Information Literacy and promoted a broad definition
of information literacy in terms of curriculum and pedagogy within
an ever expanding electronic information environment. The commission
held two symposia in 1995 which concluded the following:
1.
American Library Association. Presidential Committee on Information Literacy. Final Report. Chicago: American Library Association, 1989.
2.
See above
3.
Sauer, Janice A. "Conversation 101: Process, Development and Collaboration." Information for a New Age. Redefining the Librarian. Englewood, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 1995, pp135-150.
4
American Library Association. Presidential Committee on Information Literacy. Final Report. Chicago: American Library Association, 1989.
5.
Kuhlthau, Carol .C. "The Instructional Role of the Library Media Specialist in the Information Age School." Information for a New Age. Redefining the Librarian. Englewood, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 1995, pp47-55.
6.
American Library Association. Presidential Committee on Information Literacy. Final Report. Chicago: American Library Association, 1989.
7.
Teaching Information Retrieval and Evaluation Skills for Education Students and Practitioners: A Casebook of Applications. Edited by Patricia O'Brien Libutti and Bonnie Gratch. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 1995.
8.
See above.
9. Ratteray, Oswald M.T. and Howard L.Simmons. Information Literacy in Higher Education. A Report on the Middle States Region. Philadelphia, Middle States Association, 1995.
10.
Middle States Association of Colleges and School.
Commission on Higher Education. Information Literacy. Lifelong Learning
in the Middle States Region. A Summary of Two Symposia. Philadelphia:
Middle States Association, 1995, p v.
11.
See Above.
12.
Commission on Learning Resources and Instructional
Technology. Information Competence in the CSU. A Report. California
State Universities, 1995. (unpublished)
13.
Rader, Hannelore. B. "User Education and Information Literacy for the Next Decade: An International Perspective." Library
Trends 44 (Fall, 1995):270-278.
