Dijital Yerlilere Bilgi Becerilerinin Kazandırılmasında Çocuk Kütüphaneleri / The Role of Children’s Libraries in Gaining Information Skills to Digital Natives

Abstract

The information that gives the name of the society and age we live in is your lifeblood for people and society. Technological facilities have facilitated the production, access and sharing of information, thus it becomes more and more indispensable every day. Successful individuals in today’s society are those who skillfully perform access, acquisition, use and share of information for decision making and problem solving in everyday, professional and academic life. The ultimate profit is the advanced society and the developed country. Education and instruction are among the most affected areas of information-based development and change. The goal of raising appropriate individuals for information society has led to fundamental changes in the education-training system and institutions. Teacher-centered, curriculum and textbook based, space and time-limited education understanding of the past has left the place to a system that aims to be an independent and lifelong learner with the knowledge that the student can obtain from a variety of types and formats of information sources. Such an understanding of education requires awareness of the information need, the ability to search for and access appropriate information effectively and competently, to use this information in decision making based on knowledge in personal, academic and professional life, to transform into a product and to share it with others in all medium for the benefit of the society. These skills, referred to as information literacy, are considered as the key to an understanding of education based on research, inquiry and critical thinking. Information literacy and its the manifestion of learning based on information source are the indispensable elements of teaching curriculum and lifelong learning. In the standards for students of the 21st century prepared by the American School Librarians’ Association while the importance of independent learning is pointed out, are presented as basic arguments for reading, questioning, ethical behavior in using information, technology skills and school libraries for equal access to information (AASL, 2018). The transformation of information obtained from information sources into learning by evaluating it with an independent, critical and questioning approach requires intensive information consumption, in other words, to be an effective and competent user of information. When an information-intensive training environment is mentioned, libraries that support the achievement of the aimed education by means of information services are inevitable as an indispensable element. Libraries that are obliged to acquire and provide appropriate types and sources of information in the past that education is a static structure, are at the center of learning nowadays and they contribute to active learning with dynamic information services. For this reason, for example, school libraries have turned into school media centers, starting with places where books are located. Taking into account the rapid development in information technologies, it is important that the bases of information literacy skills are taken from childhood. The skills gained in the use of effective information in pre-school and primary school will be transformed into effective and independent learning in the next period, and an educational environment targeted by the information society will be formed. The earning of information skills at an early age is an important task for the public, children and school libraries. In the new era of visual learning, public and child libraries are required to serve as both information and technology centers in acquiring independent learning skills. The general aim of this study is to demonstrate the importance of the public and child libraries in gaining the independent learning skills required by the 21st century education system. Within this aim, firstly the changing paradigm of education in the information society is explained and in this paradigm is discussed the relation between lifelong learning and information literacy skills. With the digital revolution, in order to meet the information needs and gaining information literacy skills of the changing generation, service planning and implementation of public and child libraries is emphasized. Finally, suggestions have been developed on what needs to be done in Turkey about for libraries to be centers that digital natives need. Some of these are those: • Libraries should be at the center of life for all kinds of users. Public and child libraries have an important role in providing early-age information-based learning skills for children. Libraries should act with this idea in service planning. • It should be known that information literacy instruction is implemented as part of formal instruction and that libraries are indispensable elements of this practice. • Public and child libraries should conduct planned and continuing information literacy programs in cooperation with parents and teachers. • The libraries should cooperate with child development specialists, pedagogues, teachers and technology experts in the development and implementation of information literacy programs for children. • The content of information literacy programs should be prepared “for child” and “suitable for child”. This means additional skills for librarians as well as cooperating with them