LIS 505D Multiple Literacies
Information literacy has been a defining focus for libraries for several decades. Academic and public libraries draw on information literacy standards and definitions to organize their instruction, and to make direct connections between their work and the educational mission and goals of their parent institution or community. The ACRL competencies are in the midst of a major revision will which greatly impact how these standards are understood and applied. In the meantime, a host of new literacies (digital literacy, financial literacy, health literacy, archival literacy/intelligence, media literacy, metaliteracy, etc.) have been developed. Information professionals need to understand each of these literacy areas-from their various definitions and conceptualizations, to the frameworks that organize them, to stakeholder expectations related to them, to how they are applied in the field-in order to develop instruction programs, services, and collections to support them. This course will delve into these multiple literacies, examining the frameworks that underpin them, analyzing their relationships to one another as well as to related fields such as education and psychology, and determining how information professionals can respond to and support learning around these literacies. There is also a social justice aspect to supporting the development of multiple literacies. This course will examine the idea of information literacy as a human right, and explore the potential of various literacies to affect socio-economic status, self-efficacy, and democratic/participatory government.