Information Literacy Meets Library 2.0

Citation

Parry, F. (2008), "Information Literacy Meets Library 2.0", The Electronic Library, Vol. 26 No. 6, pp. 926-927. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470810921709

Peter Godwin's introduction begins with the words “It's time to stop boring our users with … ” and goes on to list the components of traditional library information literacy programmes with which library professionals are all too familiar. The purpose of this book is to introduce new ideas grafted from Web 2.0 technologies for library purposes. Library 2.0 is the umbrella term for these ideas and has proved to be a controversial topic in the literature and on library blogs. Library 2.0 seeks to redefine the relationship and interaction between groups of information seekers and information providers and form new ways to create and share that information.

The introduction is followed by a useful run‐down by Brian Kelly of the most popular features of Web 2.0, including some interesting examples, particularly in the section on social sharing services. The following chapters are written by people who have been the “early adopters” of Web 2.0 technologies.

Sheila Webber gives a practitioner's eye view of educating the next generation of educators – in other words, making sure that library and information science students are clued up on Web 2.0 and how this affects the principles and definition of information literacy. This is followed by an enthusiastic chapter from Michelle McLean on catching them young in school libraries. McLean advocates collaboration with teachers to create innovative information literacy skills programmes using podcasts, RSS, blogs, instant messaging and social networking sites. There is mention in this and other chapters of a promotional video for St Joseph's County Public Library on YouTube using Madonna's “Ray of Light” as a musical background. This is interesting insofar as it advertises the day‐to‐day work of a library in a particularly novel way, but puzzling within the context of a book devoted to improving information literacy skills. Susan Ariew's chapter on the USF Tampa Library's presence on YouTube, however, more pointedly refers to the refreshingly different and sometimes amusing videos which can be used for training purposes. There is, however, a fine line to tread in providing content for social networking sites – particularly for libraries who want to avoid coming across as embarrassingly awkward, out‐of‐place figures to younger audiences. Decidedly uncool daddio!

Other chapters include an example of an information blog as an assessment tool at the University of Northampton, a very interesting podcasting project at Kresge Library in Michigan and an innovative use of Flickr to teach students the importance of keyword and subject searching through tag‐creating exercises. The final part is entitled “the future” and John Kirriemuir's chapter on digital games explores the ways in which gaming technology and ideas can be used for information literacy. Kirriemuir mentions three up‐and‐coming projects in American universities that will be well worth monitoring.

This book is a survey of current innovative practice rather than a manual and will serve as a useful introduction for library and information professionals who are new to Web 2.0 and want to find out what some libraries are doing with the technology. I was a little apprehensive with Godwin's use of the word “boring” to describe traditional information literacy skills teaching. There can be a tendency with advocates of Library 2.0 to throw the baby out with the bathwater in the rush to embrace every new bit of technology going. However, it turns out that this is not a problem. The chapters are well written and mostly from experience and show that with a little imagination most librarians will be able to integrate at least a few of these ideas into a wider information literacy programme. There is a related blog at http://infolitlib20.blogspot.com which appears to be fairly active.