Information Literacy beyond Library 2.0

Citation

Virkus, S. (2013), "Information Literacy beyond Library 2.0", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 69 No. 2, pp. 321-327. https://doi.org/10.1108/00220411311300110

The new generation of web‐based technologies, tools and services under the labels Web 2.0, social software or social media have dramatically changed the information and learning environment and our behaviour. The “Web 2.0” concept that emerged in 2004 does not have a strictly defined meaning; it has received lots of criticism, but still results in more than 1,600,000,000 hits in Google today. The 2.0 epithet has been added to the notion of web, learning, pedagogy, education, business, enterprise, organisation, library, information literacy and searching illustrating a major shift in practices influenced by new technologies.

Modern digital learning and knowledge ecosystems co‐evolve together with their user communities and provide new affordances for learning, creating, sharing and using information and knowledge. Social media is therefore a frequent topic of discussion in the educational literature and at conferences. The literature about social media in libraries is also growing rapidly; many library practitioners are working out how to use Web 2.0 tools in libraries in general and how to facilitate information literacy (IL) in particular. It is believed that the nature of social web itself has significantly magnified information overload and this new participatory information and knowledge environment demands more sophisticated information‐related competencies. As the Web 2.0's potential is clearly recognised by the educational community, there is no doubt that it affects the way we facilitate the development of IL.

This book is a follow‐up to Godwin and Parker's earlier book Information Literacy Meets Library 2.0 (Godwin and Parker, 2008) and explores what has happened to Web 2.0 and IL in the past three years. The book consists of 22 chapters written by 22 authors; Peter Godwin, one of the editors of this book, has written six chapters while Jo Parker, the other editor, has not written any chapters herself. The book clearly reflects the perspective of developed English‐speaking countries: 12 contributors represent the UK, five Australia, two Canada, one Ireland and two the US. Examples from other parts of the world are entirely ignored. However, this can possibly provide an opportunity for the next book. The book focuses predominantly on higher education (HE) and academic libraries. Only one chapter is devoted to school libraries and another to public libraries. Most authors are practicing librarians, but several academics and IL researchers are also contributors. The book is purposefully and predominately practice‐oriented as Godwin is concerned that “much of the research in IL never really permeates down to practitioners“ (p. 19) and is critical of the complicated language often used in scholarly publications. This clearly defines the target group of this book.

The 22 chapters are divided into three parts, which are preceded by an introduction that provides a general overview of the topics discussed in different chapters. The first part of the book explores some recent trends in technology, its impact on IL and provides background for further discussions in this book.

The first three chapters are written by Godwin. In Chapter 1 he explores the development of Web 2.0 and Library 2.0. He uses these concepts, however, interchangeably. The risks of social media (e.g. commercialisation, invasion of privacy, influence on concentration, threats of free tools, copyright issues, over‐enthusiastic use without justified need) and potential for librarians are highlighted (e.g. amplification of traditional service delivery; news and current awareness services; improvement of interaction with users, marketing and raising the profile; facilitation of collaborative project work, peer review, staff development, virtual reference and training/teaching).The increasing mobile dimension and changing information behaviours are highlighted. He concludes that social media in HE is being used only in diverse and fragmentary ways, knowledge of the extent of adoption of Web 2.0 in academic libraries is still quite limited and users are not using library resources to the full and therefore need training and encouragement from librarians.

In Chapter 2 he describes some approaches to IL; he agrees that IL is a context‐dependent and plural construct, criticises the sometimes complicated language of scholarly literature, joins the critics with the limitation of IL standards, especially in Web 2.0 environment and finds it useful to consider IL in the framework suggested by Lupton and Bruce (2010); this framework outlines three different perspectives that reveal literacy as: set of generic skills (behavioural); situated in social practices (sociocultural); and transformative, for oneself and for society (critical). He is convinced that the new social media have implications for IL.

Godwin begins Chapter 3 by questioning whether the IL and Web 2.0 connection might be overplayed. On the basis of the published literature he concludes that there are a plenty of success stories but a lack of research; we are a long way from fulfilling all the potential of Web 2.0 tools for developing IL. He also lists a number of social media tools that can be used in IL without going specific: for example, for content creation and publishing, content sharing, social networking and collaborative productions.

In Chapter 4 Bradley and Blakeman provide an overview of how search tools work in the web and give useful tips to achieve relevant results. They highlight the importance of context for interpretation of information in the social web, the role of personalisation, localisation and semantic search together with the issues of copyright and plagiarism.

In Chapter 5 Andretta presents three types of literature in the literacy timeline: print literacy, IL and transliteracy. The first operates in the printed environment, the second in Web 1.0 and the third in Web 2.0. The functional attributes of literacy are determined by its relationship with the information environment in which it operates. The functional attributes expand from reading and writing to evaluating and synthesizing information from different sources and finally to collective repacking of information. She believes that transliteracy is needed to function in a Web 2.0 world, but the transition from IL to transliteracy is yet to occur.

Hughes and Bruce describe in Chapter 6 the concept of “informed learning” as a pedagogic construct developed by Bruce (2008), and explore its potential to support learning across the HE curriculum, for Web 2.0 and beyond.

The second part of the book provides 11 case studies which share experiences and useful ideas about how social media could be used in library services and facilitating IL. This is a particularly valuable part of the book for library practitioners to find new ideas and approaches for their work.

McDonald and McDonald describe in Chapter 7 IL programmes based on active and game‐based learning at the University of Technology, Sydney Library. They provide multiple access points for clients to engage with online IL on their library website. InfoSkills bank, an open content system, houses learning objects and offers discovery of and access to handouts, lesson plans, podcasts, vodcasts and screencasts. Social media is used for content creation and publishing, content sharing, and social networking to make their IL instruction more visual and fun. However, librarians all are self‐taught in using these tools and arrange workshops for teaching each other.

In Chapter 8 Boyle discusses the potential of games to facilitate IL. She provides a case study of IL treatment games (“matching pairs”, “bin or basket” and “sticky databases”) for nursing students in the University College Dublin and believes that social media tools and devices, especially Twitter, smartphones, iPads provide significant opportunities for IL. However, she finds that librarians have not realised this educational potential yet.

In Chapter 9 Yarmey, from the University of Scranton, explores the effects of mobile devices on students' achievement on IL. Together with the increased flexibility to get customized information she also pinpoints areas in which smartphone use could hinder students' achievements in IL; for example, small screen sizes and slow connection speeds discourage the exploration of multiple sources and smartphones do not necessary facilitate the critical evaluation of information. She also presents the results of a survey of the students' mobile behaviour and explains how these results have influenced her IL approaches.

In Chapter 10 Walsh describes Web 2.0 experiences of the Computing and Library Services at the University of Huddersfield where textual online teaching materials were enriched with podcasts, videos and interactive tutorials, and the ratings, comments features, tweets and blog feeds were included in webpages. Mobile technology (text messaging, Text a Librarian service, teaching via SMS) and Quick Response (QR) codes were used in delivering IL education. Web 2.0 tools for mobile quizzes were used, and links to quizzes, videos and further help from printed help sheets were provided. A social online game “Lemon Tree” based around using the library's resources was initiated.

Taylor describes in Chapter 11 the referencing training at the Monte School in Sydney using reference management tools EasyBib and Zotero which rely on Web 2.0 capabilities. The training was informed by “guided inquiry” approach and enabled the identification of zones of intervention. Moodle was used as a learning platform and a Jing video on how to reference was produced.

Kazakoff‐Lane presents in Chapter 12 the ANimated Tutorial Sharing Project (ANTS), which enables librarians to collaboratively build, update and share large numbers of multimedia tutorials which work well in mobile devices. This volunteer driven initiative supports the philosophy of open educational resources in creating a critical mass of open source tutorials and supports the development of shared learning objects. Some issues related to the production of pedagogically sound screen casts and intellectual property are discussed.

In Chapter 13 Hughes provides a case study from the Queensland University of Technology about the application of Web 2.0 in the mainstream HE curriculum incorporating Bruce's (2008) informed learning principles. Both the commercial learning management system Blackboard and Web 2.0 tools were used. The study about cyberlearning was integrated with information‐using practices that could be transferable to students' personal, academic and professional life. There is a strong focus on the principles of good pedagogy in this chapter, especially in the online learning environment.

Giustini describes in Chapter 14 the development of an online course on social media at the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia. He discusses new social literacies and the concept of collaboration as literacy which builds on the idea of communities of practice by Lave and Wenger (1991). The theoretical framework that influences his pedagogical practice is informed by adult learning theory, social constructivism, situated learning theories and connectivism. The course content is devoted to Web 2.0 tools as well as digital pedagogies, but Web 2.0 tools are also used to deliver the course. Students can use a closed or open learning environment for their studies; they use wikis, and are involved in the development of learning objects and a video production.

In Chapter 15 Wilkinson describes the attempt to transfer students' pre‐existing search behaviours into their academic research at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He distinguishes between descriptive literacies tied to particular technologies (e.g. oral, print, visual, computer, web) and evaluative literacies that refer to a particular condition of education and are divided as specific (e.g. scientific, economic, health and other subject specific literacies) and non‐specific literacies (e.g. digital, critical, media). He proposes transliteracy as a unifying concept underlying the descriptive sense of literacy and IL as a unifying concept underlying the evaluative sense of literacy; transliteracy is a complementary concept for IL. Three pedagogical principles can be derived from transliteracy and should be taken into account in providing library instruction: effective information use requires several information sources; information resources should interact; and navigating the interaction between information resources requires transferable skills. The suggested model encourages the use of Web 2.0, facilitates the development of transferable skills and positions the library as complementary to existing search behaviours, rather than a replacement.

Secker and Coonan describe in Chapter 16 a project at the Cambridge University Library which developed a practical curriculum for IL. This curriculum should meet the needs of the undergraduate student entering HE over the next five years and could be used in face‐to‐face, blended and online learning provision. However, without consulting the documents on the project homepage it is difficult to achieve a clear understanding of the curriculum implementation, the theoretical and pedagogical foundations of it, concepts used and relations between them. This is definitely an interesting approach, but not very clearly related to social media.

In Chapter 17 Tumelty, Kuhn and Birkwood describe how librarians at the University of Cambridge have adapted the TeachMeet, an informal event in which like‐minded practitioners share tools, techniques and tips they have tried themselves with their colleagues. Social media tools were introduced in the events as well as used as means to publicize, record and disseminate the events.

The third part of the book examines the impact of technological developments on librarians and what skills and knowledge they must acquire to evolve alongside their users. In Chapter 18 Leech analyses the ways in which public libraries in the UK are employing Web 2.0 in their services and how these could be improved. She also acknowledges a huge range of training courses available from library organisations and forums where public librarians can update their knowledge and discuss social media issues. She highlights the need for a more co‐ordinated national strategy for Web 2.0 in public libraries.

O'Connell demonstrates in Chapter 19 the role of school librarians in the delivery of the curriculum and highlights the need to establish a culture of enquiry at the school which emerges as teachers become learners, and learners are self‐ and peer‐taught, and everyone becomes a researcher. She describes the Web 2.0 potential for librarians and presents a number of Web 2.0 tools that might be useful for students, teachers and school librarians adopting IL beyond Library 2.0.

Godwin concludes the book with three chapters. In Chapter 20 he suggests that we can no longer think just in terms of 2.0; we have to survey the whole information landscape to understand the variety of literacies that we have to experience. He argues that skill‐based literacies attempted to engage with the Web 1.0 world of static documents, but the Web 2.0 digital environment which is participatory, collaborative, distributed and less dominated by experts has changed the previous literacy models and information behaviour. Godwin believes that the transliteracy concept acknowledges the use of different tools and helps to understand the changing literacies in the context. Godwin finds that “informed learning” approach to IL seems to be similar to transliteracy.

In Chapter 21 Godwin highlights some important trends for IL practitioners:

1. 1.

   [b list]Information overload is going to increase and coping with the flow is important.

2. 2.

   New IL frameworks are emerging.

3. 3.

   Mobile technology (devices) development and changing information behaviour and services.

4. 4.

   The Global Positioning System and its potential for IL (game‐based learning).

5. 5.

   Augmented reality.

6. 6.

   Active learning and gaming.

7. 7.

   Cross‐device working and different social media tools.

8. 8.

   New ways of communicating with users.

9. 9.

   Development of discovery systems.

10. 10.

    Development of e‐books and their potential use.

He finds that social media is the biggest challenge for public and school libraries and to facilitate IL there can be much more difficult than in HE. Godwin concludes that the potential for use of Web 2.0 in instruction is still great and sharing ideas and resources will be fundamental to our future success. He notes: “Finally, if we have taken a transliterate approach that acknowledges shifting literacies, we will have found a winning formula for really helping people to cope in the twenty‐first century” (p. 252).

In Chapter 22 Godwin acknowledges that Web 2.0 has become social media and is here to stay offering new challenges and opportunities for all types of libraries and learning environments; it is important that libraries are reaching their users wherever they are, and whenever they want. Again, he highlights the contextual nature of IL and the importance of collaboration and partnership. He believes that an “informed learning” approach is the most helpful explaining how students can use information to learn, and then reflect upon their own learning.

The main theoretical approaches that have influenced and are referred to by the authors of this book are Bruce's (2008) informed learning, Lupton and Bruce's (2010) literacy framework, Thomas et al. (2007) transliteracy, Salmon's (2003) model of e‐moderation, Lave and Wenger's (1991) communities of practice, adult learning theory, social constructivism, situated learning theories, connectivism and “guided inquiry”. It is also clear that IL beyond library 2.0 is embedded in the framework of constructivism even it is not always explicitly stated by authors.

The social media tools presented in the book are mainly used for content creation, publishing and sharing (e.g. Animoto, Audacity, blogs, Camtasia, Jing, podcasts, vodcasts, Joomla, iGoogle, Prezi, WordPress, Flickr, YouTube, Delicious, VoiceThread, SlideShare, Twitter), social networking (Facebook, Glogster, Ning, Skype) and for collaborative productions (GoogleDocs, wikis). However, tools for social bookmarking (Diigo), reference managing (EasyBib, Zotero), for surveys and polls (SurveyMonkey), for online event registration (Eventbrite, Amiando), geolocation, immersive worlds such as Quest Atlantis and several other tools are mentioned as well. Social media has been the content as well as the tool for delivering IL.

The book clearly demonstrates that social media can be efficiently used to facilitate the development of IL. Knowledge of the extent of adoption of social media in academic libraries, however, is still limited and social media is being used only in diverse and fragmentary ways. Therefore, the book offers good food for thought about the challenges and opportunities social media bring to libraries and would be useful as a source of new ideas, inspiration, approaches and best practices to incorporate social media into IL practice. I have read this book with great interest because of my own interest in both IL and social media and recommend it as a good reading material to librarians as well as to students of library and information studies interested in this topic.