Comments on: Information literacy: a non-definition

By: David Fiander

David Fiander — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:11:42 +0000

Thanks for pointing me to Bivens-Tatum’s posting about the improbably source. It perfectly describes the challenge a friend of mine had when asked by a student for “a book about the design of the iphone.”

By: Newman Library Idea Lab » Struggling to Define Information Literacy

Newman Library Idea Lab » Struggling to Define Information Literacy — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:10:20 +0000

[...] Lawson from Colorado College then wrote a nice post on his blog, See Also…, which offered a great description of what students are supposed to be doing with multiple [...]

By: Henry

Henry — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:30:52 +0000

In my opinion, informaton literacy is the ability of find the needed information and evaluate the accessed information
For example, I want to know what information literacy is, I know I am going to use the tools such as google, OPAC, and ask librarian, and when I gain the information, I have the ability to justify if it is proper and real

By: laura

laura — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 02:26:02 +0000

I am fascinated by this for many reasons, but mostly because my idea of information literacy is really kind of different. I should write my own blog post about that, though.

By: Cecily

Cecily — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:24:48 +0000

Ugh. Errant quotation mark in the above comment.

By: Cecily

Cecily — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:11:37 +0000

As someone who is an information architect, the word “information, to me”, means data that can be structured, digested, analyzed, and (re)used. Whether that is a website taxonomy or directions to the nearest Tim Hortons, people must be taught how to interpret the information, judge its usefulness and/or validity, and make a decision accordingly.

By: walt crawford

walt crawford — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:46:48 +0000

Since I’ve tended to treat “information” as roughly equivalent to “inevitable”–that is, as having no meaning at all–it’s tough to comment here except to say that I really, really like this discussion. (And can’t think of a way I could ~~plagiarize it~~ use it as research material.)

By: Iris

Iris — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:19:47 +0000

Let me distract you with a response to your post while I craftily plagiarize the whole thing for the talk that got postponed until tomorrow…

Also, I have the beginnings of a blog post on this very topic, which I hope to publish in the next day or two.

Anyway, I’ve always had two problems with “information literacy” as a term: “information” and “literacy.” The first could mean almost anything and the second could mean doing almost anything with it. I’ve mostly gotten around the second with the definition “finding, evaluating, and ethically using,” but I’m still having trouble defining “information.” The problem for me is that I can start to think that it’s pretty easily defined as “evidence,” but that right there is a much more specific term than the original because it implies a whole apparatus of rhetoric and research and knowledge building. Basically, it’s a jargon term masquerading as a layman’s term.

But, by hook or by crook, I’ll have 10 insightful minutes of stuff to say by tomorrow.