Why Informationskompetenz is not equivalent to Information Literacy

Source 1: Piloiu, R.G. 2016. Rethinking the concept of “information literacy”: a German perspective. Journal of Information Literacy, 10(2), pp. 78-93.

1. The concept of information literacy

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Information Literacy

In the United States the concept of “information literacy” has been accepted as a norm.

The American notion of information literacy follows guidelines set forth by powerful professional organisations such as ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries) and ALA (American Library Association).

The earlier emphasis on the acquisition of skills such as finding and evaluating information is being assigned a subordinate role. The new concept emphasises metacognitive and conceptual understandings of information use and information creation.

Vermittlung von Medien- und Informationskompetenz

In Germany multiple concepts are competing for primacy. The concept of information literacy in the German academic world is still negotiated on an interdisciplinary market of ideas ranging from communication science to didactics and from cultural anthropology to epistemology. The concept of “Vermittlung von Medien- und Informationskompetenz” is widely accepted by German institutions of higher learning.

However, although the term “Vermittlung von Medien- und Informationskompetenz” is largely considered equivalent to the English “Information Literacy”, there is a considerable difference between them:

In the German expression, “media” is understood as a concept different from information, as the channels through which information is disseminated.

The emphasis of “Vermittlung” is on the pedagogical facilitation of the learning of these concepts, not the acquisition of a state (literacy). This might explain why many of the German-language conceptualisations of information literacy foreground questions of pedagogy, teaching methods, and didactics.

2. The concept of competency and of literacy

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With “information literacy” the emphasis is on the language of information and on the ability to successfully use this information by mastering its specific modes of deployment.

The overlap with “competency” is probably best conveyed by the English concept of “information fluency”, which is preferred by some American scholars over information literacy.

The British “competencies” (soft skills, hard skills) characterize labour market qualifications with an intermediate position between vocational qualifications and individual vocational, even company-specific knowledge. The focus is on the outcome, i.e. the certifiable results of learning processes with the aim of individual employability and collective securing of the business location.

With Medien- und Informationskompetenz, the emphasis is on competence.

The language of qualifications, which emphasised the acquisition of knowledge in the realm of information use (for instance, knowledge of information retrieval, organisation, and processing), has been replaced with the language of competencies in order to emphasise the ability to use and create information.

It should be pointed out that the German notion of Kompetenz (competency) expresses the educational goal of information literacy instruction, which can – as any goal – be standardized, measured, assessed.

The concept of qualifications

As early as 1974, Dieter Mertens expressed in his seminal report “Schlüsselqualifikationen: Thesen zur Schulung für eine moderne Gesellschaft” that “Informiertheit über Informationen” is a Schlüsselqualifikation (key-qualification) for the labour environment of the new Informational Age (1974, p.41).

3. The concept of the pedagogy of the library

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There is no distinctive pedagogy of the library as a place of learning and teaching even if a library supports “the spectrum of information literacy competencies: define information questions, find information to answer those questions, critically evaluate the information, and ethically use and communicate the information” (Weiner et al. 2010, p.202).

In Germany a different concept, Bibliothekspädagogik or “the pedagogy of the library” explicitly addresses these information literacy competencies.

The concept of the didactics of the library

A concept related and complementary to Bibliothekspädagogik is that of Bibliotheksdidaktik (the didactics of the library), which emphasises the teaching of library skills as a didactic process.

The concept of the didactics of information

Informationsdidaktik (the didactics of information) deals with the cognitive aspects of interaction with information (knowledge transfer), offering a conceptual model for the instruction of information literacy.

Through its emphasis on education in information retrieval, use, and creation, it stands in close proximity to the notion of information literacy, but the conceptual connection exists only insofar as information literacy or Informationskompetenz is understood beyond the confines of the library, as a comprehensive science of information research and organisation, analysis, and communication.

4. The concept of the teaching library

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In the American world the idea of “Learning Commons” offers an approximation of the German notion of “lehrende Bibliothek”, as such it promotes a view of the library as the onestop shop for many research, teaching and learning needs across the campus.

The concept of the “teaching library” has become a way of designating the library as a location that promotes teaching and learning (of the acquisition of competencies relevant for the interaction with scientific information), and as the institutional space in which the goals of Informationskompetenz can be best pursued.

5. Other concepts used as alternatives to Informationskompetenz

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user education

Benutzerschulung

library use

Bibliotheksbenutzung

research, library instruction

Informationsrecherche

bibliographic instruction

Literaturrecherche

6. The concept of the “culture of information”

The concept of “Informationskultur” (culture of information) in combination with the concept of “Wissenskulturen” or “cultures of knowledge” draws on the framework of modern understanding of information and the contextual nature of all knowledge creation and transfer. Being able to become competent in the cultural code that informs the vast processes of information creation and use is the foundational competency for any form of information literacy.

7. Information Literacy in United Kingdom Schools

Source 2: Streatfield, D., Shaper, S., Markless, S., and Rae-Scott, S. 2011. Information literacy in United Kingdom schools: evolution, current state and prospects. Journal of information literacy, 5(2), pp. 5-25.

The term ‘information skills’ (research skills, study/learning skills, library skills) was used to describe the skills needed by students to find, organise and use information (in their school libraries).

‘Information literacy’ has taken over from ‘information skills’ in the past few years as the preferred term used in schools to describe the skills and abilities that students need to develop to locate, obtain, evaluate and exploit information in all its forms.

From 2000 on ICT has been becoming increasingly important in libraries. Information literacy is considered as part of it.

(a) Using Google has been becoming more important than using the library.

(b) Social networking (the peer group) has become the preferred source of information. (Children rely on other children to get the information they need for homework or projects.)

IT skills, however, are more likely to be taught by the IT department (with access to the Internet).

 

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