Information Literacy and IT Fluency: Convergences and Divergences

• Published in: Reference and user services quarterly 2007-03, Vol.46 (3), p.23-59
• Main Author: Gibson, Craig
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic learning; Academic librarians; Academic libraries; Blended learning; College librarians; Company business management; Company systems management; Competencies; Computer literacy; Educational Change; Educational research; Exact sciences and technology; Fluency; Gibson, Craig; Information accessibility; Information and communication sciences; Information Literacy; INFORMATION LITERACY AND INSTRUCTION; Information management; Information science. Documentation; Information standards; Information technology; Language fluency; Learning Processes; Librarians; Library and information science. General aspects; Library Instruction; Library Skills; Lifelong Learning; Literacy; Management; Nonprofit organizations; Sciences and techniques of general use; Teaching Methods; Theories, definitions and sources in information science
• ISSN: 1094-9054; 2163-5242
• DOI: 10.5860/rusq.46n3.23

A new agenda that aims to reform the curriculum includes questions of how to make sure that information literacy is not just library-sponsored, but includes many stakeholders who claim ownership.6 Equally important new agendas include the idea that learning, not just teaching or pedagogy, should be the overarching concern in program development; that the concept must include a major focus on the digital, networked environment and that the focus on the individual student as the locus of learning should be transformed to considering the social dimensions of learning.7 In effect, academic librarians, through a full consideration of the implications of information literacy, are rethinking their roles in relation to potential partners in the academy, and have begun to understand the cultural shift that is required to implement information literacy at a deep, enterprise-wide level on their campuses. The emerging connections and discussions concerning information literacy and IT fluency among various levels of education in the United States are demonstrated most clearly in the development of the ICT Literacy Assessment, by the Educational Testing Service (ETS).15 This test, designed to measure "information and communication technology skills," is a scenario-based, real-time instrument that assesses students' abilities with ICT literacy (defined as "the ability to use digital technology and communications tools to succeed in an information society").16 The tasks included in the ICT proficiencies are organized into seven categories (define, access, manage, integrate, evaluate, create, and communicate), which parallel some of the competencies identified in the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, but with a strong infusion of technology-enabled tasks and projects that are typical of what might be expected in a college or university environment, or in the corporate world. An example is DePauw University's information fluency program, which brings together computer science, the digital media lab, faculty instructional technology support, information services, the library, the center for contemporary media, and the university Web team to provide education and training through apprenticeships in such skill sets as programming, digital imaging, project development and instructional design, deskstop software, electronic research, video editing, and Web authoring.17 Such an approach showcases the experiential nature of information fluency as impo