Donna L. Gilton - Lifelong Learning in Public Libraries: Principles, Programs, and People

The World of Information Literacy Instruction (ILI)

Public librarians have always instructed their patrons on the use of information, but their style is so informal, personal, indirect, and basic and so tied to guidance, it is not always recognized as instruction, either by public librarians or by their peers in academic settings. It is a thesis of this book that public librarians should teach more, but that this instruction should be on their own terms, taking their own histories, philosophies, traditions, and characteristics into account.

Public libraries exist to strengthen democracy by promoting an informed citizenry. By combining their own traditions with more elements of Information Literacy Instruction (ILI), public librarians can contribute to the information enfranchisement of their patrons, further fulfilling many of their traditional goals and purposes.

This book will give an overview of the ILI field for public librarians; describe all aspects of ILI; discuss many ways that ILI can be used in public libraries; consider the history, philosophy, and traditions of public library service; establish a framework for planning instructional programs, activities, and outreach from public libraries; and describe and summarize needs of diverse users and developmental theories. It will not attempt to give detailed information on topics already well discussed elsewhere but will give brief summaries and refer readers to other sources of information.

Several articles have mentioned the need for public librarians to receive much more training on how to instruct. The present situation is very similar to trends affecting academic librarians before the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) created the Institute of Information Literacy (IIL). It is a goal of this book to give public librarians an overview of this complex field and to enable them to pursue goals and strategies useful to them. It is hoped that this book will act as a portable IIL for this group, along with a forthcoming book, Creating and Promoting Lifelong Learning in Public Libraries: Tools and Tips for Practitioners , which will elaborate much more on specific instructional practices. These works will not only demonstrate the wide variety of instructional activities already performed by public librarians and what makes many of these activities unique but will also show that there are many ways of viewing, designing, and evaluating instructional programs.

Information enfranchisement represents a paradigm shift. It is no longer just a goal in itself but a means to an even nobler endan informed citizenry, which has long been a traditional aim of public librarians. Promoting information enfranchisement for all people strengthens our democracy, promoting social capital, social inclusiveness, and community building. This attitude will also encourage the survival of the concept of the common good as well as help public librarians to deal with challenges from the information industry and the private sector. The research reported here will probably raise more questions than answers, encouraging the creative research and work of both library scholars and professionals.

This chapter will define and describe Information Literacy Instruction, elaborate on the history of the movement in all kinds of library settings, and mention unique aspects of public libraries and their instructional activities. Chapter 2 will illustrate current developments in public library instruction as well as the state of the literature on this topic.

What Is Information Literacy Instruction?

Information Enfranchisement = Public Libraries + Information Literacy Instruction

Most definitions of information literacy focus on the characteristics of information literate individuals. Paul Zurowskis original definition of such a person is anyone who uses a wide variety of information sources to solve work-related and other daily problems. Patricia Breivik, Carol C. Kuhlthau, Hannelore Rader, Christina S. Doyle, Christine Bruce, and other experts on ILI mention many other traits of information literate people, including the ability to define their information needs, their knowledge of a variety of information sources and information-seeking techniques, patience, flexibility, attention to detail, and the use of critical thinking to evaluate materials. Michael Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz as well as American Library Association (ALA) organizations like ACRL or the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) have set many criteria to determine who is information literate. According to the ALA Presidential Committee on Information Literacy, a person knowledgeable in ILI is an individual with the ability to recognize an information need and can locate, evaluate and use that information effectively. People who know how to learn.

A definition of library instruction or user education that is very useful for public libraries is the following: activities such as providing library tours; delivering classroom lectures, presentations, or demonstrations on information gathering skills and resources; developing and teaching credit and noncredit library courses; co-teaching or providing course integrated library instruction; developing print, media, and multimedia library instructional materials; and even creating and implementing library signage systems. Other definitions of information literacy can be found in works by Barbara Humes, Robin Angeley and Jeff Purdue, Lori Arp, Shirley Behrens, Loanne Snavely and Natasha Cooper, and Joanna Burkhardt, Mary C. MacDonald, and Andree Rathmacher.