Monday, April 12, 2010

CIL2010: Information Literacy: Life Cycles & Economic Benefits

Information Literacy: A Driving Engine for Economic Success
Barbie E. Keiser, Unesco

A current work/project in progress, this presentation is based upon study determining what nations, schools, and individuals could do for information literacy. Research Agenda included:
  • Characteristics
  • Evidence
  • Necessary elements and contributory factors
Benefits (Presentation Slides):

Citizenry that can actively participate in government decision-making and ability to make use of e-government opportunities. Easy access to industry from abroad and informed potential form of investors.

Value Analysis (Presentation Slides):

Media-literate and informed voters, more productive government workers. Increased trade and foreign direct investment.

Larger, growing countries tended to have more information literacy standards and evidence thereof in place. Countries doing well financially had similar results. What makes regions attractive? They looked at educated population, demographics, real disposable income, and immigration/emigration rates as the population determined where to target the information literacy program.

Did having a successful library college/university program in the country make a difference in the success of the project? Information technology and Internet users were key to the study, growth rates have been significant in the last few years for many regions.

The Library Lifecycle
Derek Badman, Springshare Inc.
Nathan Flinchum, Roanoke Public Library

The traditional library lifecycle, why don't the students know more? How can we work together to foster literacy at all levels - school, public, and academic. Looking at library use (slide information)
  • Childhood - passive use of materials
  • Teens - school libraries, used when told to not want to
  • College - bibliographic instruction for assignments
  • Adults - public library use for job search & technology help
  • Family - go back to the library for books ...

Talking about literacy; "literacy means knowing how to communicate by using all the representations that information can take. - Neil Gershenfeld

There are many kinds of literacy's involved - being literate across many medias! Patrons can be more than passive users of the library. Think of them as "active creators" instead of consumers. Move forward and change lifecycle.
  • Childhood - provide earlier education
  • Teens - create in an environment that is beyond grading (fun)
  • College - participatory, research and make something new (mashup)
  • Adults - teaching basic skills, but do more allowing creation of community content
  • Family - teaching parents adjust to what their children can do

Create a safe area, somewhere to work in a pleasant environment with the tools necessary to support the literacy and lifecycle of literacy. Highlight the content that the community creates; it helps to make users "curators of content."

No comments: