Book Review: Teaching Information Literacy in Higher Education

Abstract

Continuing on the previous theme of exploring books that are not specifically written for faculty but still involve teaching and learning, I picked up Teaching Information Literacy in Higher Education. Information literacy, always important, is even more important for today's students because they have access to so much information but don't always have the skills to be able to filter, critique, and summarize what they find. This book addresses this issue, giving a comprehensive overview of why information literacy is important and how to teach it to undergraduates.

The authors (Lokse, Lag, Solberg, Andreassen, & Stenersen) are all librarians at universities and so have firsthand knowledge of why information literacy is so important. Interestingly, this book is written for university library staff, who usually offer short sessions to students—maybe an hour or two per semester—on information literacy and related topics, like using citations and creating a reference section in a paper. However, many university courses have a writing component, so faculty can also benefit from reading this book and incorporating elements of information literacy into their courses.

The book is divided into seven chapters. The first chapter explains why information literacy is important and the intentions of the book, providing a framework for teaching information literacy. This chapter makes an excellent case for the need to teach information literacy to students. Information literacy and its uses are defined in the second chapter. Although it has a number of definitions, information literacy can be considered to be the knowledge and skill set needed to locate, evaluate, process, summarize, and synthesize information. Students need firm grounding in all of these abilities for proper information literacy. Unfortunately, there are several obstacles related to teaching information literacy, including lack of resources and student disinterest. But Lokse and others point out that information literacy is critical for students because it is integral to learning: students need to be able to properly absorb, evaluate, and integrate information for deep learning.

Chapters 3 and 4 discuss fundamental principles of how learning works and learning strategies, respectively. Readers of educational literature will find the information in these chapters familiar, but the chapters do contain a good summary of how information is processed by the brain, how working memory operates, and what study strategies are and are not effective. Although the processes of learning are not discussed in great detail, these chapters are a good crash course in the process of learning for those unfamiliar with the topic. After laying this foundation, Lokse and others present an argument on how information literacy impacts critical thinking and academic integrity in Chapter 5. This chapter reinforces the importance of a solid grounding in information literacy for developing critical thinking, since developing information literacy requires critical evaluation of information. Is the source of the information sound? Are established facts used to make the points? How does this information fit in with my understanding of the subject? Do I need to change something about the way I think about this subject? As students work to answer these questions while developing information literacy, they sharpen their critical thinking skills. They also develop a better understanding of why academic integrity, including proper attribution of information, is important for creating sound conclusions and well-supported arguments.

Chapter 6 was my favorite chapter in this book because Lokse and others put together a wonderful roadmap of how to construct a learning session for information literacy. The chapter, entitled “Teaching It All”, covers how to set up learning outcomes and develop activities and assessments to achieve those outcomes. Lokse and others provide a number of examples of outcomes, activities, and assessments, which can be tailored to students with different levels of information literacy and sessions of different length. I love seeing practical applications of educational strategies, and this chapter provides great guidance for building educational sessions on information literacy from the ground up. After getting the reader excited about teaching information literacy, the book ends with a short epilogue chapter restating the importance of this topic and encouraging the reader to try out some of the strategies and learn more about the subject.

Overall, this book is a good read for anyone concerned with student information literacy and needing a bit of guidance on how to help students become more information literate. Those familiar with education pedagogy can skim the chapters on those topics; Chapter 6 is the chapter that helps you put a plan into action. But the chapters on why this subject is important are also useful, particularly for student questions about why information literacy is important (or even why instructors are so fussy about proper citation). This book can also be used to prompt collaboration between faculty and library staff. Having everyone on the same page about why information literacy is important is critical for helping students develop the skills they need to process the vast amount of information on their discipline and in their everyday lives.