Critical Information Literacy in Practice: A Bibliographic Review Essay of Critical Information Literacy, Critical Library Pedagogy Handbook, and Critical Literacy for Information Professionals

Recent publications demonstrate that librarians are actively developing a critical practice, a critical information literacy (CIL). The early threads of CIL scholarship are found in the work of Pawley (1998, 2003), Luke and Kapitzke (1999), Kapitzke (2003), Swanson (2004), Doherty (2005, 2007), Simmons (2005), Anderson (2006), Doherty and Ketchner (2005), Elmborg (2006), Whitworth (2006), Jacobs (2008), and others who point out the “social, political, and ideological construction of knowledge” (Luke & Kapitzke, 1999, p. 481) and the power of praxis in developing a transformative practice. Texts such as Critical Library Instruction: Theories and Methods (Accardi, Drabinski, & Kumbier, 2010) and Critical Theory for Library and Information Science: Exploring the Social from Across the Disciplines (Leckie, Given, & Buschman, 2010) mark a growing interest among librarians in bringing critical theory into practice. Subsequent texts, such as Feminist Pedagogy for Library Instruction (Accardi, 2013), Information Literacy and Social Justice: Radical Professional Praxis (Gregory & Higgins, 2013) and Informed Agitation: Library and Information Skills in Social Justice Movements and Beyond (Morrone, 2013), all limn the social justice orientations of critical librarianship. CIL scholarship has been further developed by Reale (2012), Beilin and Leonard (2013), Hicks (2013), Smith (2013), Beatty (2014), Drabinski (2014), Nicholson (2014), Schlesselmann-Tarango (2014), Schroeder (2014), and #critlib conversations.1 We are seeing a quickening of scholarship on CIL and Eamon Tewell, in “A Decade of Critical Information Literacy: A Review of the Literature,” (2015) remarks that “the literature of critical information literacy and librarianship gives no indication of slowing its pace” (p. 36)

Medical Information Literacy and the Quality of the Medical Services.

Information Literacy is the library operation which makes the library user able to search, retrieve, evaluate, select and use the information resources. Information Literacy is the capability of critical thinking; it is the basis of the continuing education and self -education of the professionals. This skill is more important for Medical Scientists, as they face the continuing change of their discipline. The paper proves the significance of information literacy for the staff of the hospitals, as prerequisite of the qualitative services and the organisation of hospital libraries too. It uses comparative data of the state of the art of the Greek medical libraries and proposes the important items for the success of that innovative and cost-effective service

Introducing Critical Librarianship to Information Professionals: Using Critical Pedagogy and Critical Information Literacy in an LIS Graduate Course

Critical librarianship, which critiques the role of libraries and information professionals in maintaining systems of oppression, has been growing in popularity in the profession, and instructors in Library and Information Science (LIS) have begun to address critical librarianship in their coursework. While critical pedagogy and critical librarianship have influenced approaches to LIS education, the intersection of these two has not been as thoroughly addressed. Additionally, the literature on critical information literacy focuses largely on library instruction. This case study explores a critical pedagogy approach in a critical librarianship class that prepares students for critical information literacy instruction. The instructor implemented student-led presentations and discussions, self-grading, and collaboratively setting course expectations. Student responses were overwhelmingly positive, and student performance in the course indicated the approach and content of the course were effective

Introducing Critical Librarianship to Information Professionals: Using Critical Pedagogy and Critical Information Literacy in an LIS Graduate Course

Critical librarianship, which critiques the role of libraries and information professionals in maintaining systems of oppression, has been growing in popularity in the profession, and instructors in Library and Information Science (LIS) have begun to address critical librarianship in their coursework. While critical pedagogy and critical librarianship have influenced approaches to LIS education, the intersection of these two has not been as thoroughly addressed. Additionally, the literature on critical information literacy focuses largely on library instruction. This case study explores a critical pedagogy approach in a critical librarianship class that prepares students for critical information literacy instruction. The instructor implemented student-led presentations and discussions, self-grading, and collaboratively setting course expectations. Student responses were overwhelmingly positive, and student performance in the course indicated the approach and content of the course were effective

Health Literacy in the Everyday Lives of Older Adults in Greece, Hungary, and the Netherlands

Health literacy (HL) encompasses someone’s knowledge and abilities to access and use health information in order to make appropriate health decisions in life. HL is particularly valuable in later life when health challenges grow. An individual’s HL is typically considered a fixed and skills-based characteristic, without taking into account how these are situated in the context of everyday life. Also, lay perspectives on health literacy are relatively scarce. Therefore, the aim of this article is to explore the context-specific perspectives of older adults and health professionals on HL in later life in Greece, Hungary, and the Netherlands. We adopted a qualitative methodology and conducted 12 focus groups: seven with 50 older adults and five with 30 health professionals to gain insight into individual perspectives on HL as situated in the health care and everyday life contexts. An informed grounded theory approach was used in analyzing the data. The results are structured in three themes: (1) interactions with health professionals, (2) perceived quality of the health care system, and (3) managing health in the context of everyday life. An overarching finding is that, for older adults, HL reflects the demands placed on them when managing their health. In the experience of older adults, these demands are placed upon them by healthcare professionals, the healthcare system, as well as their everyday lives. Our findings underscore the importance of Critical Health Literacy (CHL) as that concept foregrounds that HL is context specific. Also, CHL has been argued to be a community characteristic, which is why we call for community-based approaches to improve H

A Strategic Approach to Curriculum Design for Information Literacy in Teacher Education – Implementing an Information Literacy Conceptual Framework

This paper details a conceptual framework that situates curriculum design for information literacy and lifelong learning, through a cohesive developmental information literacy based model for learning, at the core of teacher education courses at UTAS. The implementation of the framework facilitates curriculum design that systematically, consistently and incrementally develops information literacy capabilities across entire teacher education course structures, thereby facilitating teacher education students to graduate as critical thinkers, problem solvers, informed decision makers and independent, self-directed lifelong learners. As education professionals, these graduates have the potential of developing these capabilities in the children they teach. The paper discusses the development of a conceptual framework and identifies areas for future research

Medical Information Literacy and the Quality of the Medical Services.

Information Literacy is the library operation which makes the library user able to search, retrieve, evaluate, select and use the information resources. Information Literacy is the capability of critical thinking; it is the basis of the continuing education and self -education of the professionals. This skill is more important for Medical Scientists, as they face the continuing change of their discipline. The paper proves the significance of information literacy for the staff of the hospitals, as prerequisite of the qualitative services and the organisation of hospital libraries too. It uses comparative data of the state of the art of the Greek medical libraries and proposes the important items for the success of that innovative and cost-effective service

INFORMATION LITERACY AND INDIGENOUS LIBRARIANSHIP, CHALLENGES BEFORE INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS

Information literacy is a set of skills required recognizing the need for information, finding, Evaluate and use of generated information in legal, economic, cultural and ethical manner. To achieve information literacy an individual should have critical evaluation abilities and also need to acquire required skills of handling latest information technology in information seeking process Indigenous librarianship is a professionalism which required patriotic professionals to protect knowledge of aboriginal peoples of the country. Implementation of information literacy through the indigenous librarianship will develop the local, national and international bibliography. This paper focused on the importance of librarianship in the implementation and growth of information literacy as well as the possible problems or challenges need to be faced by the information professionals in society. Keywords: Information literacy. Indigenous librarianship, Indigenous knowledge; Information professionals, Literacy standards

Workplace Information Literacy: Current State of Research Published from South-Asia

This paper intended to provide and critical and analytical review of research on workplace information literacy published form South-Asia with a view to inform policy and practice. Library, Information Science and Technological Abstracts (LISTA) was searched to identify the key studies published in the proposed research area using multiple keywords. The search process resulted in 384 citations which was screened for duplication and relevance. As a result, 375 citations were excluded due to duplication and non-relevance. Only nine citations remained to deal with for review. The reference lists of these citations were also examined to identify more related citations which resulted in 3 more citation to be included. Thus, there were only 12 citations included in this review. The results indicated the dearth of studies on workplace information literacy in South-Asia. Most of these studies focused on library and information professionals, followed by scientists, and university teachers using survey research design. There was only a single study that addressed information literacy in visually impaired teachers. The respondents of the reviewed studies were competent to basic levels of information literacy where they were less comfortable in advanced levels of information literacy. There was a critical necessity for a need-based IL curriculum for workplace environments. These results indicated the need for more research on workplace information literacy in South-Asia to information policy and practice. This study would be a great contribution to the existing literature as it can be used a foundational study for workplace information literacy in South-Asia