Information Literacy

What is information literacy?

Information literacy is the ability to think critically about information. It is a fundamental part of critical inquiry in the Information Age.

The information literate student can: 1

• Determine the extent of information he or she needs
• Access the needed information effectively and efficiently
• Evaluate information and its sources critically
• Incorporate selected information into his or her knowledge base
• Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose
• Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and be able to access and use information ethically and legally

Although the term ´information literacy´ is spreading throughout the library literature today, it is not a new idea. Faculty have been concerned about teaching these concepts and skills for a long time.

Why is Information literacy important?

The ability to locate, evaluate and use information has always been important, but in today's Information Age, with the explosion of online library and Internet resources, these abilities take on a new urgency. Having more information from which to choose can make research more difficult rather than easier. Often the easiest information to find is unfiltered or unreliable, making information literacy skills more important than ever. 

Information literacy skills are important for students´ academic, work and personal lives. In academia, discipline specific information is constantly changing, and much of what students learn in class will become outdated. An information literate student is a lifelong learner, with the skills necessary to continually find and evaluate information about new developments in an academic discipline. In an information economy, students will need information literacy skills to succeed in the work force, whether they are creating a marketing proposal for a new product or looking for current medical research to treat a patient. Information literacy skills also enrich students personal and civic lives. For example, students will draw upon these skills to apply for government services, buy a car, participate in elections, make informed health care decisions for themselves and their families, and manage their finances.

How is information literacy taught?

Students are more likely to learn the concepts and skills in the context of an academic course when they have an information problem to solve. For that reason, information literacy best practices recommend integrating the teaching of information literacy into the curriculum. Ideally, information literacy competencies are sequenced and integrated into the curriculum of an academic department. As students move through their major, they master increasingly sophisticated competencies.

1 (Adapted from the Association of College and Research Libraries "Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education")

The Evolution of Traditional to New Media

EVOLUTION OF MEDIA

•PRE-INDUSTRIAL AGE (Before 1700)

People discover fire, developed paper from plants, and forge weapon and tools with stone, bronze, copper, and iron.

Papyrus In Egypt (2500BC)

first papyrus was only used in Egypt, but by about 1000 BC people all over West Asia began buying papyrus from Egypt and using it, since it was much more convenient than clay tablets(less breakable, and not as heavy!). People made papyrus in small sheets and then glued the sheets together to make big pieces. (craft project?)

http://www.ancient.eu/Egyptian_Papyrus/

Cave Paintings (35,000BC)

In prehistoric art, the term “cave paintings” encompasses any parietal art which involves the application of colour pigments on the walls, floors or ceilings of ancient rock shelters. A monochrome cave paintings is a picture made with only one colour (usually black)-see, for instance, the monochrome images at Chauvet

http://www.visioninconsciousness.org/Ancient_Civilizations_25.htm

Clay Tablets In Mesopotamia (2400BC)

In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (Akkadian ṭuppu) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay tablet with a stylus often made of reed (reed pen).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_tablet

Acta Diurna in Rome (130BC)

Acta Diurna were daily Roman official notices, a sort of daily gazette. They were carved on stone or metal and presented in message boards in public places like the Forum of Rome. They were also called simply Acta. History[edit]. The first form of Acta appeared around 131 BC during the Roman Republic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acta_Diurna

Dibao In China (2nd Century)

The Chinese “Dibao” is the earliest and oldest newspaper in the world. During West Han time, Han government carried out the “Jun xian zhi” 郡县制, the eparch and county system which is helpful in concentrating the central power. The country was divided into many eparches and counties but governed by the central government as a whole. Every eparch sets up its office in the capital Chang’an, which has the same function as the provincial office in today Beijing. These offices were called “Di”s. “Di” Officers are selected by the eparchial government. Their responsibilities included collecting the messages announced by the administrative agents or even the empire, then writing them on the bamboo placard or the damask, and deliver them to their shire leaders via the early post station for reading. So these placards or damasks with information were called “Dibao”s

http://chailibrary.com/dibao-chinese-first-newspapers/

Codex In The Mayan Region (5th Century)

Maya codices (singular codex) are folding books written by the pre-Columbian Mayacivilization in Maya hieroglyphic script on Mesoamerican bark cloth. … The Maya developed their huun-paper around the 5th century, which is roughly the same time that the codexbecame predominant over the scroll in the Roman world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_codices

Printing Press using wood blocks (220AD)

Woodblock printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. Prior to the invention of woodblock printing, seals and stamps were used for making impressions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodblock_printing

•INDUSTRIAL AGE

The Industrial Age is a period of history that encompasses the changes in economic and social organization that began around 1760 in Great Britain and later in other countries, characterized chiefly by the replacement of hand tools with power-driven machines such as the power loom and the steam engine, and by the concentration of industry in large establishments.

While it’s commonly believed that the Industrial Age was supplanted by the Information Age in the late 20th century, a view that’s become common since the Revolutions of 1989, as of 2013 electric power generation is still based mostly on fossil fuels and much of the Third World economy is still based on manufacturing. Thus it is debatable whether we have left the Industrial Age already or are still in it and in the process of reaching the Information Age.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Age

A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. Typically used for texts, the invention and spread of the printing press was one of the most influential events in the second millennium.

The printing press was invented in the Holy Roman Empire by the German Johannes Gutenberg around 1440, based on existing screw presses. Gutenberg, a goldsmith by profession, developed a printing system, by adapting existing technologies to printing purposes, as well as making inventions of his own. His newly devised hand mould made possible the precise and rapid creation of metal movable type in large quantities. The printing press spread within several decades to over two hundred cities in a dozen European countries. By 1500, printing presses in operation throughout Western Europe had already produced more than twenty million volumes. In the 16th century, with presses spreading further afield, their output rose tenfold to an estimated 150 to 200 million copies. The operation of a press became synonymous with the enterprise of printing, and lent its name to a new branch of media, “the press“.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_press

Newspaper the London Gazelle (1640’s)

The London Gazette is one of the official journals of record of the British government, and the most important among such official journals in the United Kingdom, in which certain statutory notices are required to be published. The London Gazette claims to be the oldest surviving English newspaper and the oldest continuously published newspaper in the UK, having been first published on 7 November 1665 as The Oxford Gazette. This claim is also made by the Stamford Mercury and Berrow’s Worcester Journal, because The Gazette is not a conventional newspaper offering general news coverage. It does not have a large circulation. Other official newspapers of the UK government are The Edinburgh and The Belfast Gazettes, which, apart from reproducing certain materials of nationwide interest published in The London Gazette, also contain publications specific to Scotland and Northern Ireland, respectively. In turn, The London Gazette carries not only notices of UK-wide interest, but also those relating specifically to entities or people in England and Wales. However, certain notices that are only of specific interest to Scotland or Northern Ireland are also required to be published in The London Gazette.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_London_Gazette

Typewriter (1800)

A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for writing characters similar to those produced by printer’s movable type. A typewriter operates by means of keys that strike a ribbon to transmit ink or carbon impressions onto paper. Typically, a single character is printed on each key press. The machine prints characters by making ink impressions of type elements similar to the sorts used in movable type letterpress printing. At the end of the nineteenth century, the term typewriterwas also applied to a person who used a typing machine.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typewriter

Telephone (1876)

A telephone, or phone, is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into electronic signals suitable for transmission via cables or other transmission media over long distances, and replays such signals simultaneously in audible form to its user.

In 1876, Scottish emigrant Alexander Graham Bell was the first to be granted a United States patent for a device that produced clearly intelligible replication of the human voice. This instrument was further developed by many others. The telephone was the first device in history that enabled people to talk directly with each other across large distances. Telephones rapidly became indispensable to businesses, government, and households, and are today some of the most widely used small appliances.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone

Motion Picture Photography / Projection (1890)

The history of film technology traces the development of film technology from the initial development of “moving pictures” at the end of 19th century to the present time. Motion pictures were initially exhibited as a fairground novelty and developed into one of the most important tools of communication and entertainment in the 20th century. Major developments in motion picture technology have included the adoption of synchronized motion picture sound, color motion picture film, and the adoption of digital film technologies to replace physical film stock at both ends of the production chain by digital image sensors and projectors.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_film_technology

Commercial Motion Pictures (1913)

1913 was a particularly fruitful year for film as an art form, and is often cited one of the years in the decade which contributed to the medium the most, along with 1917. The year was one where filmmakers of several countries made great artistic advancements, producing notable pioneering masterpieces such as The Student of Prague

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1913_in_film

Motion Picture with Sound (1926)

A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before sound motion pictures were made commercially practical. Reliable synchronization was difficult to achieve with the early sound-on-disc systems, and amplification and recording quality were also inadequate. Innovations in sound-on-film led to the first commercial screening of short motion pictures using the technology, which took place in 1923.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_film

Telegraph

Telegraphy (from Greek: τῆλε têle, “at a distance” and γράφειν gráphein, “to write”) is the long-distance transmission of textual or symbolic (as opposed to verbal or audio) messages without the physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas pigeon post is not.

Telegraphy requires that the method used for encoding the message be known to both sender and receiver. Many methods are designed according to the limits of the signalling medium used. The use of smoke signals, beacons, reflected light signals, and flag semaphore signals are early examples. In the 19th century, the harnessing of electricity led to the invention of electrical telegraphy. The advent of radio in the early 20th century brought about radiotelegraphy and other forms of wireless telegraphy. In the Internet age, telegraphic means developed greatly in sophistication and ease of use, with natural language interfaces that hide the underlying code, allowing such technologies as electronic mail and instant messaging.

souce: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegraphy

Punch Card

A punched card or punch card is a piece of stiff paper that can be used to contain digital information represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. The information might be data for data processing applications or, in earlier examples, used to directly control automated machinery.

Punched cards were widely used through much of the 20th century in source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card

•ELECTRONIC AGE

The invention of the transistor ushered in the electronic age. People harnessed the power of
transistors that led to the transistor radio, electronic circuits, and the early computers. In this age, long distance communication became more efficient.

Example Forms of Media:
• Transistor Radio
• Television (1941)
• Large electronic computers
• Mainframe computers - i.e. IBM
704 (1960)

• OHP, LCD projectors


•NEW / INFORMATION AGE

The Internet paved the way for faster communication and the creation of the social network. People advanced the use of microelectronics with the invention of personal computers, mobile devices, and wearable technology. Moreover, voice, image, sound and data are digitalized. We are now living in the information age.

Web browsers: Mosaic (1993), Internet
Explorer (1995)
• Blogs: Blogspot (1999), Wordpress
(2003)
• Social networks: Friendster (2002),
Multiply (2003), FB (2004), Instagram
• Microblogs: Twitter (2006), Tumblr
(2007)
• Video: YouTube (2005)