INFORMATION COMPETENCY(1) :
AN INITIATIVE FOR INTEGRATED LEARNING

A POSITION STATEMENT
OF THE WASHINGTON STATE LIBRARY/MEDIA DIRECTORS COUNCIL

"It is supremely ironic that people living in the Information Age feel more, rather than less, ignorant."

William Halal. "The Information Technology Revolution."
Futures, Jly/Aug, 1992.

"Knowledge is of two kinds: we know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it."

Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-1784).
Boswell’s Life of Dr. Johnson

These two statements illuminate the problems of the information age and their solutions, compelling us to rethink how best to educate our students. Today a vast amount of information is available for those who know how to find and use it. Many problems, however, accompany the advent of an information society: distinguishing the wheat from the chaff is more difficult when such an overload of information exists; more and more current information is required to fuel dicision-making in an increasingly complex world; and we are forced by this vast amount of information to focus on narrow and specialized aspects of questions.

As the amount of information in our society grows exponentially, a shift in curricular focus is needed from textbooks and the accumulation of facts to further incorporation of resource-based learning. Through this latter method, students practice and apply in an educational setting those strategies they will be asked to employ in the workplace, in a four-year institution and in their own lifelong learning. Information is a tool for understanding and action. If one is able to use information sources effectively, learning and mastery of a subject do not have to cease upon class completion or graduation but will be a lifelong pursuit. Information Competency - a tool for learning how to learn - is the key.

This document presents the philosophy and methods by which an Information Competency curriculum can be integrated into all Washington state community and technical colleges.

INFORMATION COMPETENCY

Information Competency is the ability to access, evaluate, and apply information from a variety of sources and in a variety of contexts. An information competent student can demonstrate the ability to:

• Recognize the need for information
• Recognize that accurate and complete information is the basis for effective decision-making
• Formulate questions based on information needs
• Understand information structures in different sources and different contexts
• Identify potential sources of information
• Develop successful search strategies
• Retrieve information using a variety of technologies and methods
• Analyze information critically
• Organize, store and manipulate information for practical application
• Integrate new information into an existing body of knowledge
• Use information in critical thinking and problem solving
• Recognize public policy issues relating to information, e.g. copyright, privacy, privatization of government information, etc.

This definition describes the process of Information Competency and extends beyond desired outcomes to produce potential rubrics for a model curriculum.

The growth of technology has radically altered the information landscape. But technology itself is only one dimension of Information Competency. Format and medium are secondary to the information message itself, which remains the substance. The ability to use technology to retrieve vast amounts of data must go hand-in-hand with the ability to evaluate critically the retrieved information.

Information Competency empowers students with the confidence, skills and strategies to face these realities and to meet workforce and educational expectations. Library/media faculty are prepared to provide leadership through creative teaching methods and curricular integration of Information Competency.

JUSTIFICATON:

Information competency is a survival skill for life. It contributes to a successful educational experience and enhances careers, personal life and citizenship.

I enhances curricular endeavors by:

• heightening initiative for personal involvement in the learning process and setting the foundations for lifelong learning
  
• engendering confidence and interest in experimentation and exploration, including multiculturalism and alternative or divergent views in the teaching/learning process
  
• expanding dialogue and collaborative aspects inherent in the teaching/learning process
  
• providing the necessary skills to progress in a discipline and recognize information structures within disciplines

It enhances careers by instilling confidence to meet job expectations and providing a foundation for advancement and continuing education in an information-driven economy.

It improves personal life by promoting thoughtful judgment and decision-making.

It enhances citizenship by fostering informed participants in a democracy and in a global society.

CONSIDERATIONS:

Several factors may affect a student’s ability to fully achieve Information competency. Assumptions concerning cultural, physical, and psychological access, as well as basic literacy skills, are fundamental to curriculum formation and integration.

Access is a function of those circumstances that can affect a student’s capacity to enter into and fully participate in the learning environment. These include:

• cultural and socio-economic barriers, such as race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age and sexual orientation
  
• physical barriers that impact persons with disabilities and distance-learners
  
• psychological barriers related to educational background and learning styles that may affect a student’s perceptions

Information Competency must be viewed as an essential component of a comprehensive education. Foundational skills such as reading and writing prepare students for the Information Competency curriculum, but do not themselves prepare students for the information age. Computing skills must be integrated with information retrieval strategies to facilitate access to information, as well as its storage, manipulation, processing and analysis. The literate individual of today must be confident with traditional forms of expression as well as new realms of communicating, learning and knowing.

INCORPORATION MODELS:

Integrating Information Competency into the general curriculum will require a shift in current approaches to instruction. The transition and incorporation will be best accomplished through new paradigms, re-ordering priorities, and innovative teaching methods. While teaching the value of information is the responsibility of the entire faculty of our individual institutions, library faculty bear particular responsibility for providing leadership in methods, content and curricular integration.

Through evolutions in content, planning and pedagogy, Information Competency can be fully integrated into the curriculum. Models of accommodation include:

Resource-Based Learning: incorporating a library research component into the curriculum, using seminal works and other subject related materials rather than textbooks.

Inquiry-Based Instruction: using discovery models of teaching, which emphasize the student as learner. Students rely on their own information-based discoveries.

Small Group Instruction: teaching focused Information Competency strategies and methods to small groups of students at their request.

Course-Integrated Instruction: presenting information-seeking strategies and methods in the context of course content. Library faculty instruct a class one or more times during the quarter as students become ready to apply specific abilities.

Linked Courses: teaching subject content in tandem with a library research course which guides students through the research process to fulfill the research requirements of the content course.

Team Teaching: integrating Information Competency strategies and methods into the curriculum of a course.

Curriculum Design Consultation: designing course syllabi which include research assignments that develop Information Competency strategies and methods. Library faculty work as consultants with a content course instructor.

PLAN FOR IMPLEMENTATION

Information competency must be added as an integral component of the majority of our courses and throughout all disciplines. It should be progressive and include the analytical, conceptual, and synthesizing processes for defining what information is required to support the questions raised in the course. Building on the current bibliographic instruction programs in our institutions will facilitate the implementation of Information Competency across the curriculum. It is important that all campus groups be actively involved in the development and promotion of resource-based learning programs.

Since accrediting agencies are increasingly interested in the demonstration of Information Competency on individual campuses, it should become a college objective to have Information Competency reflected in our educational requirements and in a minimum percentage of courses. Outcomes Assessment of Information Competency objectives should be designed.

Library faculty are prepared to take the initiative on individual campuses to educate faculty and administrators on the value of Information Competency, provide professional development opportunities for their faculty colleagues to make the transition to this new model of teaching, and provide leadership on curriculum committees that work to incorporate Information Competency. Accrediting bodies are setting standards(2) regarding Information Competency and the centrality of the library and Information Competency to the teaching and learning process. Support of presidents and deans is vital to achieve Information Competency as a student learning objective.

SUMMARY

The college’s goal is to instill in students the knowledge and skills essential for their individual development and their useful contribution to society. Achieving this requires that our students know how to find and use information. Learning how to learn depends upon a knowledge base, a recognition of the need for sufficient evidence before drawing conclusions and the understanding that application, analysis and synthesis of information underlie thoughtful judgment. These concepts should be part of each student’s community college experience. It is the unique role of library faculty to teach Information Competency skills and strategies and to collaborate with and advise classroom faculty colleagues on curricular integration.

The establishment of Information Competency as in instructional priority means a commitment to educating the full person for today’s world, and fulfills the community college mission of comprehensive education for lifelong learning.

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1 While the term "Information Literacy" has been commonly used to describe the ability to locate and retrieve information, Information Competency extends beyond informaiton literacy. Information Competency requires the critical thinking and evaluation strategies that enable an individual to identify an information need and to evaluate, utilize and manage inforation successfully.

2 Standard 4m Library and Learning Resources and Educational Policy 25. Accreditation Handbook. Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges. Seattle, WA, 1988.

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This document was authored by a committee of the Library Media Directors Council (LMDC), comprised of library directors and library faculty representing community colleges from throughout the state of Washington. Accepted by the LMDC September, 1993.

Converted to HTML format February 17,1998 by
Dana Franks, MLS, Faculty Librarian
Highline Community College Library, Des Moines, WA
Last revised 06/15/06

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