Information literacy as professional legitimation

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to determine how the professionalization of school and academic librarianship contributed to the establishment of information literacy as a form of legitimation. Design/methodology/approach -Historical analysis via Abbott. Findings -The need to obtain and maintain professional status did place school and academic librarians in a vulnerable position during a time of change that forced them to seek a new jurisdiciton of expertise. Originality/value -Important for the profession to examine the context of the emergence of a current and important framework.

A Seat at the Table: Information Literacy Assessment and Professional Legitimacy

“…These findings suggest that the professional identity crisis that O'Connor points to as a major factor in the early information literacy movement continues to linger in librarianship today. 27 While assessment provides an opportunity to bring librarians closer to the status of traditional teaching faculty, many librarians still feel marginalized and/or misunderstood on campus and may lack the necessary resources and training to improve their status, despite a well-established educational mission. Thus, instruction librarians' relationship with assessment remains dynamic and, following Drabinski, reveals the professional tensions of particular moments in time.…”

“…15 Starting in this period, information literacy serves as a rationale whereby academic librarians "elevate themselves to equal status with the teaching faculty" and advocate for equal collaborative partnerships in the educational enterprise. 16 However, librarians and teaching faculty often have very different educational backgrounds, experiences, and ranks, which may contribute to lingering uncertainties regarding librarians' status as educators. 17 Many of the challenges that librarians continue to experience with instruction and assessment in the present, especially those challenges related to campus relationships and support, can be situated within this ongoing evolution of the librarian teaching identity.…”

Crossing the threshold:

“…While Schön's (1983;1987) conception of reflective practice has been the main entry point into reflection for teaching librarians via the guidebooks published in the past two decades, another parallel strand of literature on library instruction has promoted Freire's (1970Freire's ( , 1973 conception of critical reflection and given rise to an increasingly prominent critical pedagogy movement in the library and information community, encouraging alternative perspectives on both library instruction and IL. A series of papers by Kapitzke (2003), Swanson (2004), Simmons (2005), Elmborg (2006), Doherty (2007), Jacobs (2008), andO'Connor (2009) argue for librarians to use critical pedagogy, critical literacy, and critical theory to reform (and reframe) IL by shifting from a functionalist, technological, skills-based and product-oriented approach to a situated, ecological, context-and process-oriented approach that embraces higher-order thinking and empowers students as knowledgeable critical information users, and also asssumes a serious commitment to "use theory as a means toward critical self-reflection and contextualization" (Jacobs, 2008, p.260), and develop "a critical practice of librarianshipa theoretically informed praxis" (Elmborg, 2006, p.198) "and a practice informed theory", in which "the instructional practices and the pedagogical theories inform and are informed by each other to create praxis (Jacobs, 2008, p.261). Troy Swanson (2004, pp.259, 264) suggested it was time for "an evolutionary step, perhaps a radical step", and asserted that "Critical literacy pushes students toward self-reflection, interpretation, understanding, and ultimately action".…”

Unique or ubiquitous: information literacy instruction outside academia

“…Information literacy (IL) is the ability to recognize the need for information, to effectively find information to meet that need, and to use information for some purpose or goal. Historically, information literacy was important for well-informed, civic discourse, as well as for preparing people to be productive workers (O'Connor, 2009). More recently, critical perspectives have emerged that view IL as a way for learners to understand systems of power around information and develop a critical consciousness of learning (Elmborg, 2006).…”