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Teaching Information Competencies

I am hearing this quite a few times recently. Some folks are saying that calling our training activities “Information Literacy” does not ring the bell with the people we want to train. Apparently, some think it implies that they are illiterate and we, therefore, end up digging oursleves out of a hole with the very people we want to empower.
Hmmmm, someone suggested that ‘information fluency’ might work better.
Anyone have any other good phrases or words? We must have evolved past the ‘bibiographic instruction’ or worse, “BI” of my youth!
Stephen

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Posted on: May 9, 2006, 3:18 pm Category: Uncategorized

By: stephen

rev="post-286" 3 comments

3 Responses

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  1. Ann Owens said
    on May 10, 2006 10:36 am

    Remember the flurry of “… effectiveness training” titles published in the ’70s and ’80s? Perhaps some variation of “library effectiveness training” might better describe our objectives to users.

  2. Bruce Jensen said
    on May 10, 2006 9:32 pm

    “Fact-finding” skills, maybe? True, it has the sour ring of a Congressional investigation, but ‘facts’ are tangible & desirable; ‘finding’ is an active verb that kinda sounds like fun. Recall Tennant’s “librarians enjoy searching, everyone else enjoys finding.” I agree that ‘information literacy’ probably strikes some as pompous & abstract, lacking much promise of real rewards.

  3. Lisa Hinchliffe said
    on May 16, 2006 8:44 pm

    I’d suggest we work hard not to confuse what we are hoping to bring about (learning — information literacy or whatever) and what means we use (instruction — plus many other methods like reference, signage, building layout, materials, websites, etc.).