My aim today is to try and ‘problemitise’ Information Literacy. Assumptions made by many scholars is that IL comprises of skills which can be taught, that when imparted and learnt will make any given individual information literate.
1) Much of the literature deals with HE issues and professionals, who use specific information, for set purposes. As part of their training and experience they learn where to obtain and assess relevant information for their needs. Does this constitute literacy or simply a development of experiences which allows them to complete a task?
2) How far can the taxonomies, skills sets or lists of attributes that are used to define IL information literacy be seen as a general theory, which can be linked into people’s daily lives and existences away from education or professional roles?
3) Is information literacy simply library skills training – dressed up as something else? (a attempt by librarians to justify our [I am a UK Charted Librarian myself] existence)
4) Can individuals develop or display IL skills sets without being formally taught – if so how, and does this mean that IL is not so much a literacy rather a set of coping strategies to help individuals meet a need?
5) Can IL be categorised as simple common sense?
6) Is IL really a literacy?
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