The controversy around information literacy seems to go on and on. Today, for the first time, I heard someone say that we really are, and should be, in a trend of passing information literacy on to professors to let them do it. They described librarians as stewards of the skill set, but professors as the teachers.
I was uncomfortable with this, but didn’ t have time to think about why until now. I believe this is yet another case of thinking in terms of your users and community. It might not make sense for every library to have a team of information literacy folks. Every library might not be able to have reference librarians participate in the curriculum. However, some places can, and do it well. I think about MPOW, where professors (at least seem) to be fully supportive of the program and encourage their advisees to take the classes. I think about how we’re experts in the resources we offer, so we can make sure to hit all the highlights. Perhaps it’s because we’re small. Maybe it’s because we’re liberal arts. But I think it makes a lot of sense for information literacy to take place in the library.
So I’m guessing that the discomfort really is nervousness. It makes me nervous to hear people loudly advocating giving over information literacy. In some cases I can see it, but I would hate to see an environment where librarians don’t support those who are in a teaching role.
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It’s gotta be a shared responsibility. I teach a professional development class on IL and librarians really resist giving up the complete and total ownership of IL, which is a huge mistake, in my opinion. Faculty are in a better position to hit at certain standards than we are–they know the literature of their field, etc., in most cases, better than we do. I also believe that this is something that must happen everywhere on our campuses… NOT just “in the library.” Do we, will we still have the biggest role in this? Yes. We create awareness, identify and assess, and ultimately, we know our stuff!
Posted 13 Feb 2007 at 10:05 am ¶Thanks for your comments! I’m not arguing against shared responsibility. I think that can be where the strongest programs are formed. I think that in having the biggest role (through creating awareness, identifying and assessing, and through our knowledge) we sometimes are in a position to have the larger impact. Like many trends and interests, I think that it’s most useful to look at the community and see what approach works best there. If the community is looking for IL leadership from the library, then, to me at least, it makes sense for the program to primarily reside there. If a faculty is in a position (and interested) in taking a lead on IL, then a collaboration is the way to go. Great comments, and worth further exploration. Thank you!
Posted 14 Feb 2007 at 11:48 pm ¶Post a Comment