Teaching Information Skills: Theory and Practice

Citation

Wallis, J. (2005), "Teaching Information Skills: Theory and Practice", Library Review, Vol. 54 No. 4, pp. 279-280. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530510593470

As information becomes more directly accessible, a set of skills is required to enable people to manage information effectively in their work, leisure and social lives. The unlimited access to information of varying quality, facilitated by the internet, requires an understanding of the issues surrounding the authenticity, accuracy and currency of online information resources. This has been recognised with the formulation of the concept of information literacy. This term is widely used to define the combination of ICT and media literacies that enable people to interact with the modern information environment. The importance of information literacy is gradually being recognised within educational systems. Training in information literacy falls most naturally to information professionals, whose traditional expertise in the management of access to online and offline, authoritative information resources, equips them with an intuitive understanding of the issues involved.

The authors, Webb and Powis, are both academic librarians with direct experience of providing information skills training within the higher education sector. They note that whilst information professionals have a well‐defined understanding of the information environment, and the skills needed to navigate through and interact within it, often they have had little preparation for their role as trainers. In this context their book does exactly what it sets out to do, by providing a grounding in the theory and concepts of learning, as well as examples of techniques that can be used to put these ideas into practice. Sensibly the authors build from the theory up, starting with the key concepts and readings in information and digital literacies, learning and learning styles. The structure of the book itself replicates the format of a hypothetical information skills session; covering planning, delivery, assessment, feedback and evaluation.

Each chapter deals with an area relating to the learning experience and ends with discussion of relevant case studies. Again the structure of each individual chapter reflects the learning experience, as it might be in an information skills training session, by discussing the theory and techniques, before drawing the reader into real world scenarios. The analysis of these scenarios is made as interactive as a book can be, with questions and a discussion section.

In the context of the current political agenda of lifelong learning, information professionals can play a vital role in social empowerment through their involvement in information literacy work at all educational levels. With learners empowered to find their own information resources directly, the use of online learning environments in education and the shifting of government services online, information literacy will be a vital skill set for the citizen of the 21st century information society. Many professions are having to adapt to a process of disintermediation in their traditional business and service models, for which widespread internet access has been the catalyst. Information professionals may well become more directly embedded in educational curricula as a result of their additional roles as providers of information skills. This book provides information professionals with the background theory, and a range of techniques, that will enable them to deliver well founded and effective information skills sessions for a variety of audiences.