Maria Jankowska: Information-communication literacy as an attribute of academic librarianship

University of Idaho Library, USA

Introduction
Modern librarianship is based not only on service oriented and cooperation models, but also strongly grounded in the educational model of academia. Education missions of libraries were born in the early seventies and became even more important in the era of new information and communication technologies through librarians active participation in information and communication literacy processes.
 
In this article the author defines information-communication literacy, used interchangeably with information literacy, as a conscious process of having and seeking information, presenting necessary skills in analyzing information, knowledge and evaluation of information sources, and the ability to use modern tools to find and present information. Proper use of Information Literacy can only be achieved through a command of the above skills along with and an understanding of the necessity of having and finding information. Those educated in information and communication technologies are called information literate students. These are people that are able to judge the quality of information, identify when and how they need information, find where to draw information from and what tools to use, and present the obtained information in a final product such as homework, a project, an essay, a paper, an article or a presentation. BR> 
The popularity of and demand for information literacy can be shown by the 5,000 plus articles written on this subject since the year 1973, with over 300 of these written during 2002. [1] The following article, besides discussing a theoretical deliberation of information literacy, will present preliminary results from the author's project funded by a grant from the Idaho State Board of Education, Idaho Technology Incentive Grant Program for the University of Idaho. The main outcome of this project was to build an information-communication portal to be used as an integrated teaching resource and assessment tool of information literacy program. Students and others by using the portal could gain the necessary skills in managing information, critical thinking and conducting research for the Course Discovery classes in literature, music, history, ethics, and environmental studies.

The need for education concerning information-communication
The need for educating students about information literacy is the result of the following processes:

• the information-communication revolution;
• the amount of available information;
• the need for a competitive market;
• the need for a modern information based society.

The information-communication revolution is apparent in the processes and methods of producing, storing, providing access to, and presenting information. Computerization, telecommunication, wireless connections, digitalization, the Internet, the World Wide Web (Web), and the wide fan of tools and electronic services changed methods of creating, distributing, sending, collecting, and archiving information. New digital tools and services connected to literate technology based on written manuals much as intermediate technology is based on analog information accessible through radio, television and telephone are essential to the affective teaching and functioning of universities as well as academic libraries. [2]

The result of active traditional as well as modern information-communication technology is the amount of generated information made available. According to a report by Peter Liman and Hal R. Varian, during the last three years the amount of new information kept on paper, film, and magnetic and optical tapes has doubled. [3] The mass of produced information, which David Shenk dubs "data smog" [4], creates a gigantic barrier in finding correct and high quality information. The ability to understand and manage information in the current world of information-communication technology is a key element in teaching students, conducting research, and creating new knowledge. The disturbing gap between the knowledge available to students and students' ability to use information technology provoked the American Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) to formulate standards that can judge the level of students' knowledge and ability achieved through information literacy. [5]

Today's competitive economic market expects graduate school graduates not only to posses knowledge in their field, but also critical thinking skills, the ability to find, evaluate, present, and master information, as well as the ability to utilize modern information-communication tools. The current conditions and demands of today's modern market need a graduate that has a wide knowledge base and knows how to function as an educated information-communication citizen. Acquiring a correct information-communication education is especially important for students beginning college; this is a time where their academic habits will be formed and continues to develop through graduation and beyond. The result of an information-communication education will be a foundation to today's necessary process of continued learning throughout life. The circumstances of a competitive economic market do not guarantee that a certain career or degree will suffice or provide security. As a result graduates planning to work within the new market economy must possess not only career knowledge, but also an ability to find and use information-communication sources and tools. This is crucial to making important life, societal, and community decisions.

Current information-communication education is a key element in the functioning of today's modern information society. Knowledge obtained by this education does not only relevant to information and communication, but also can be applied to utilizing various forms of information, multimedia, computers, or the Internet. The result of this education should be an information literate student ready for active functioning and participation in societal information.

Globalization of economy, new technologies and social processes have affected American schooling systems starting with grade schools up to universities by making information-communication education an imperative step in the development of students. In response, school and academic libraries have quickly carved out a meaningful role in realizing this educational goal. [6]

The role of information and communication in the process of academic institutions
The need for information literacy programs in higher learning institutions influenced the change in programs offered by academic libraries. These changes included adapting libraries to deal with information-communication education and strong enrichment of knowledge about computers, multimedia, and the Internet. Today, old bibliographic instruction programs teaching students how to use library and catalogs have been replaced by information literacy programs in most American libraries. These programs often support the current educational program of a certain institution. This phenomenon is strongly linked to current thinking that learning a subject can be furthered by introducing elements of effective finding and using academic information. At the same time, the efficacy of learning information literacy is conditioned by integration with the student's program of learning [7].

The above assumptions are the basis to the theoretical hypothesis of a study done at the University of Idaho. This study's goal was to create an information-communication program for seven courses mandatory to first and second year students at the UI. A correct integration of elements of this program demanded precise cooperation between professors, librarians, and specialists from the teaching innovation unit and computer media center. Two librarians and the coordinator of the UI Core Discovery Courses participated in obtaining funding for the project. The project is entitled "Immersion of Information Literacy and Technology into University of Idaho Core Discovery Courses" and received positive reviews from members of the education board of the State of Idaho as well as the administration of the UI.

Two main goals of the project were concentrated upon during research:

1. Constructing an information-communication portal allowing for the usage of technology toward developing essential information-communication skills. This portal will be available to students, teachers, professors, as well as interested citizens of the state of Idaho.
2. To allow for a comprehensive approach the creation of a group including teachers of Core Discovery courses, librarians participating in information literacy programs, and specialists from the computer media department was necessary. This group would work toward mastering the methods and techniques of effective searching, judging, presenting, creating, and evaluating information sources used by students. The effect of this cooperation will result in the development of the student and help them achieve a level of knowledge and skills in information-communication found acceptable by the standards set by the ACRL.

Communication-Information Portal - an example of realizing the information literacy program
The aim of the portal depends upon collecting theoretical and practical contents of the information-communication program, exercises in critical thinking, and tests verifying an increase in skill into one easily accessible place. [8] The portal consists of the following four modules: an information-communication module, an assessment module, an electronic resource module, and a critical thinking module.

The information-communication module is built of five complementary elements:

1. Identifying Information constitutes a theoretical introduction to academic information and presents various formats, types and sources of academic information.
2. Seeking Information, presents a variety of tools one can use in order to find academic information starting with the OPAC catalog, continuing with full text and bibliographic databases, and ending with free-based information accessible through the Web.
3. Using Information, portrays how to find necessary information in texts as well as defines information quality indicators.
4. Evaluating Information, presents criteria with which one can judge information obtained from a book, journal (printed or electronic), and free resources available on the Web.
5. Sharing Information, defines methods of selecting information, elements for a plan to academic research, as well as citing utilized information sources.

The assessment module checks knowledge and abilities gained through work with the information-communication module. Short tests with multiple choice answers allow users of the portal to independently judge obtained expertise and skills.

The electronic resource module functions as an archive of documents for six UI Core Discovery courses participating in the project: Contemporary American Experience; The New Wild West; Feel the Groove: The Generations of Jazz from Blues to Hip Hop; Sex and Gender: Women and Men in the 21st Century; Ethnicity, Race, and Identity; Monster We Make; and Cultural Encounters: the Latino Story. This module enables easier access to electronic sources needed not only by students, but also by teachers to prepare lectures, courses and homework.

The critical thinking module, completely created by a professor of philosophy, introduces stages of the critical thinking process. Critical thinking is indispensable in learning and analyzing literature. An advantage of this module is that its components are created in such an elastic manner that they are easily used for the intended courses as well as most any academic course.

Verifying realistic goals of the portals- helping students, teachers/professors and users from the state of Idaho in seeking, critiquing and presenting information as well as in obtaining information and communication competence as stated by the ACRL - will happen through the analyzing of statistical data conveying the portal's usage.

The effectivness of modern information-communication education
The effectiveness of teaching information literacy depends not only on strategic programs that define goals, sources and opinions on information-communication programs. It is also based in a large part on methods of realizing these programs. Successful modern information-communication education is centered on excerpts and the cooperation of its users - teachers, professors, librarians, computer specialists, and students.

The second goal of the research project was to create a comfortable environment of cooperation between Core Discovery course professors, librarians realizing the information literacy program and computer and media specialists. Mastering group methods and techniques that give results in finding, judging, creating applications, presenting and distributing information, as well as guiding students in a practical application of information is an important element to guaranteeing success for the information-communication program. The effect of correct cooperation between the groups will be the development of students, who can reach a level of skill and knowledge in information-communication in accordance to the standards put forth by the ACRL. The results from research done after one year's use of the portal presents the degree of information, computer and communication competence of students from the six UI Core Discovery courses.

Summery and final thoughts
In this modern world run by the competitive global economic market and constantly changing conditions for information-communication technology, current information literacy education is a necessity, not a choice. The effectiveness of teaching information literacy depends on innovative information-communication programs that use new visual and media technology. These programs must be properly integrated into the teaching contents of academic subjects. Success will depend on a high level of teaching and close cooperation between librarians and professors.

An enormous task is now placed before academic librarians. They must create and realize information literacy programs during the process of teaching. Modern information-communication education should be one of the educational teachings of academic libraries. This is especially important in light of the dominating popularity of Google and Amazon.com among the current and future generations of students.

EPoland - The Strategy on the Development of the Information Society in Poland , as a document of the Ministry of Scientific Research and Information Technology has four strategic ideas to act in the direction of building an information society. It names modern computer science education along with new high speed Internet for public schools, "Gateway to Poland" (public administration for an information society), Polish contents in the Internet, and information literacy as the last idea. [9] This first document relating to Polish administration of an information society does not define or state jobs and directors for this modern information literacy. The role of librarians in realizing this plan is also not mentioned. As a result, it is important that librarians ask themselves - how and who will realize this ambitious plan to introduce information strategies to Poland?

Translated by Marta Jankowska

References

1. Zabel, Diane. (2004). A Reaction to "Information Literacy and Higher Education." Journal of Academic Librarianship, 30 (1): 17.
2. Jankowska, Maria A. (2004). Identifying University Professors' Information Needs in the Challenging Environment of Information and Communication Technologies. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 31 (1): 51-66.
3. Liman, Peter i Varian, Hal R. (2003). How Much Information? Accessible: http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info-2003/ (January 11, 2005).
4. Shenk, David. (1997). Data Smog: Surviving the Information Glut. San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishers.
5. American Library Association. (2003). Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. Accessible: http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/informationliteracycompetency.htm (January 11, 2005).
6. American Library Association. (2003). Characteristics of Programs of Information Literacy that Illustrate Best Practices. Available: http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/characteristics.htm (January 11, 2005)
7. Quarton, Barbara. (2003). Research Skills and the New Undergraduate. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 30 (6):123.
8. A prototype of the Idaho Communication-Information Portal is available at: http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~majanko/sboegrant/index.htm
9. Ministry of Scientific Research and Information Technology. (2003). EPoland - The Strategy on the Development of the Information Society in Poland. Available: http://www.informatyzacja.gov.pl/scripts/detail.asp?id=78 (January 11, 2005).