Please read the following article, summary, and critical
analysis and post comments answering the discussion topics.
Eisenberg, M. B.
(2008). Information Literacy: Essential skills for the information age. DESIDOC Journal Of Library & Information
Technology, 28(2), 39-47.
Information and technological
literacy is one of the most important sets of skills in the 21st Century.
Everyone in every possible setting in society today is affected by both
information and technology. Because information is so important, everyone needs
to be educated on how to effectively seek and use information regardless of
what format it is presented. It is the responsibility of the librarian more
than any other individual to teach people how to find, evaluate, and make use
of information in the many different print, electronic, and digital contexts
that it is presented in. In this article, Eisenburg gives us three contexts that
he feels are key to the successful teaching and learning of information
literacy skills: the information process itself, technology in context, and
implementation through real needs in real situations. He then devotes three
sections of the article to further explaining each of these contexts and how
the proper teaching methods can create an opportunity to teach information
seekers information literacy skills in any of these three contexts. In the end,
librarians must embrace the fact that meeting the needs of information seekers
in not just a matter of providing the proper services, resources, and
facilities but also providing them with the opportunities to learn information
literacy skills and taking the time to actually teach them the skills.
This article displays the necessary
skills librarians need to recognize in order to assist users who do not know
how to use their computer skills in order to increase their information
literacy skills. Today’s generation is more
technologically advanced than its predecessors. Because more people are
familiar with computers and know the basics, such as sending and receiving
email and using a word processor; they believe they have the necessary
information literacy skills needed for today’s information world. This confusion
between computer and information literacy is discussed in Eisenburg’s article
and was one of the main reasons our group found this article useful for
teaching about information literacy in the 21st century. Additionally, the
computer skills needed to complete the Big6 process are discussed by Eisenburg,
which helps to highlight how librarians can transfer users’ computer skills
into information literacy skills. By breaking down one of the more commonly
accepted approaches to information literacy, the Big6; Eisenburg helps to
illustrate how technology can be used to complete the process. This information
similarly increases the importance of the article for readers interested in the
future of information literacy. Overall, this article is very beneficial to
librarians who want to help users transfer their computer skills into
information literacy skills.
Discussion:
1) How can Eisenburg's three contexts apply to a specific
situation you have seen at a library?
2) What do you think about the difference between computer
and information literacy, or do you think they go hand in hand?
