Okay, start getting angry.....talk about relegating the library and the
librarian to the lowest possible position in education! I think the
maintenance crew would be more valuable to the student than the
librarian, based upon this article's author!
He starts with the idea that most college students (they are, of course,
high school students before he sees them) are able to locate information
through resources such as Google and that the students can distinguish
between good and bad information (sure, that's why I teach them about
bogus websites like Bonsai Kitten...which my kids wanted to buy
immediately because "it has PayPal" listed! Sure, they understand good
and bad information...not!)
Then he bashes librarians by stating that they want students to be "more
like them" when they search...I don't think so. I'd just like them to
be able to figure out how to logically reason a search topic and come up
with a few good words to use in the search box!
He then says that "information literacy is HARMFUL because it encourages
librarians to teach ways to deal with the complexity of information
retrieval rather than try to reduce that complexity." Excuse me, I
didn't design the database(s) but I can tell you that if you try to use
the same types of search components in all databases, you're going to
find yourself sitting in front of screen that reads, "No search results
located."
The key paragraph (as if there weren't enough there to get you mad)
stated that "Simply put, information literacy perceives a problem that
does not exist.....it misses the real threat of the Internet
altogether....which is that it IS NOW SUFFICIENTLY SIMPLE AND POWERFUL
THAT STUDENTS CAN GRADUATE WITHOUT EVER USING THE LIBRARY." ---
(Duh,....football has been very good to me, coach!")
Where does this person work (actually he's an Associate Dean of
Libraries...scary thought) and has HE ever used the library? --probably
hasn't been out of the office since he got his PhD. Some of his
comments suggest that the librarian should be more involved in the
"writing process" of college students and help them locate resources on
the shelves and in the databases that "narrow the search for the writing
assignment." DUH?? We do that....As far as the writing components are
concerned, if I had to teach English (again), then I'd get the PhD in
that subject rather than in library science.
He also states that "Librarians need to use their expertise to make the
library's online presence approach the simplicity and power of the
Internet." (i.e., the Internet works harder and smarter for students
who just want the answers...don't teach them how to use online databases
or how to search effectively,...students already know how to do that.)
He also goes into the fact that libraries have high-quality print
collections and great online resources...."students should know about
them." HELLO??? Is anyone there???
******
So, let's all meet sometime REAL soon...perhaps at ALA...and let's just
burn those Information Literacy books that we have...and we probably
need to rip out a few chapters in the Information Power Standards book
also, since we shouldn't be teaching all of these unimportant things---
everyone already knows how to do that! (Give me a break....let me
introduce you to the real world!)
Read the article. If you've been in any library in the past ten years,
you'll be a little miffed at this character's take on what we do--or at
least what our university counterparts are doing (and I take offense to
that also because I taught at the university level and believe me, the
freshmen coming in DID NOT know how to search online databases or
Google! Perhaps it was the "digitial divide" thing coming into play for
many students, but that wasn't even addressed or acknowledged in the
article!)
Off the soapbox...I've got to get to work...on information literacy
projects!
~Shonda Brisco
Trinity Valley MS / US Librarian
Fort Worth, TX
briscos@trinityvalleyschool.org
-----Original Message-----
From: School Library Media & Network Communications
[mailto:LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Alice Yucht
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2005 9:04 AM
To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: [LM_NET] GEN: Information Literacy Makes All the Wrong
Assumptions ??
Very interesting article in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education /
Chronicle Review:
http://tinyurl.com/5hvxs
Information Literacy Makes All the Wrong Assumptions
"Information-literacy programs -- knee-jerk responses by libraries to
competition from online data -- are based on wrong assumptions about
what students need, writes Stanley Wilder, associate dean of the River
Campus libraries at the University of Rochester."
--
Alice Yucht, aka Alice in InfoLand
Library Management / Information Skills consultant, writer, and
presenter somewhere in New Jersey ayucht at gmail dot com
www.aliceinfo.org
"We may be service-oriented, but we don't have to be servants.
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