Librarians As Information Literacy Educators
I am SO glad this topic has finally gained the prominence it deserves, which is among the top issues of our day. I am a teacher and MLIS student who is making a mid-life career change to go into academic library instruction because I feel so strongly about the importance of information literacy education. I have been passionate about this issue for a long time. I believe that librarians hold the keys to this issue, in our roles as educators and facilitators of information literacy skills. My goal is to empower students with the knowledge and skills necessary to access and discern credible information. With the immense information landscape and resultant confusion about truth, facts, and authoritative information, we must be bold leaders in this arena. As a Teaching Assistant in a freshman course called "Fake Checking: Combatting Disinformation In the Real World," I had the amazing opportunity to be a part of educating college students about skills such as lateral reading, assessing biases, and engaging in the deep critical thinking and discussion that this complex topic demands. I look forward to returning to in-person classes in the Fall, when I will have the opportunity to teach Information Literacy skills to English 101 students. I have so many ideas for how to make this instruction pertinent and relevant to the goal of empowering students with this crucial set of knowledge and skills in a lively, meaningful, and engaging manner.
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Comments (4)
Hi Marybeth and Christie:
Can you share one of your educational approaches? Is it something that could be rolled out to adults with a lifelong learning approach?
Here is the link to the video from the Stanford History Education Group, on Lateral Reading: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/
Marybeth,
Thank you for sharing your journey and description of the "Fake Checking" course, highlighting the lateral reading, bias assessments, and engaging in the deep critical thinking so necessary! I share your passions. After working in public libraries with all age and diverse youth, I am now in an elementary school library. I realized that information literacy has to start young, at the elementary level yet in developmentally appropriate ways. In my state (IL) i find civics standards and curriculum for older youth. I strongly believe that there has to be a foundation for the younger kids upon which to build as they get older. I've been working hard on experiential learning ideas all of this year. I love reading what you are doing and trying to come up with ways I can translate that to the younger kids. Good luck as you continue through library school.
Hi Christie,
Thanks so much for your reply! I love that you are working on experiential learning ideas for youth. I fully agree with you that the foundations upon which to build these skills later has to begin at the younger ages. I am a former elementary school teacher, and I wholeheartedly agree with you that we must start information literacy education at the elementary school level, creating age-appropriate learning opportunities for these students, and building awareness of these issues in the community. As I am currently homeschooling my second grade twins, I am engaging them in lessons on skills such as assessing our sources for researching. Right now we are learning about animals and their habitats in science, and I have found that a high-interest topic such as this a great way to teach younger children about information literacy as they search for information about a topic that is relevant and engaging. I am really interested in what you are working on with your students. I think that school libraries play a pivotal role in particular as leaders of information literacy education in their schools and communities.