Critical Information Literacy

What is your role as an information consumer and creator?

What should you pay attention to when you’re [confronting] these voices and perspectives (within sources of information)?

How do you want to engage with and contribute to the conversations?

Reference
Downey, A. (2016). Critical Information Literacy : Foundations, Inspiration, and Ideas. Library Juice Press.

Libraries have social spaces of learning, thinking, and reading, where people can share their experiences and knowledge. People could go to the library to check out books, use the Internet, read a book or a newspaper, or watch a documentary.

Social advocacy covers functions such as the dispersion of library resources in society. This role relates to the document task of the library, effective services, inclusion of socially sensitive groups to social and cultural activities, and other functions (Juchnevič. 2014).

Information culture explains attitudes and values of information and therefore is related to the effectiveness and performance of the organization. Information culture also explains how information is communicated and used and possible measures to assess information culture and performance are addressed.

References

Laura Juchnevič. (2014). Library Roles in Changing Society. Social Transformations in Contemporary Society, 2014(2), 120–130.

Critical Information Literacy sees information-seeking as situated within particular contexts (relationships to power determined by social characteristics such as class, ethnicity, gender, etc.) and in particular societies with their attendant constraints, pressures, and structures.

References

Cope, J. (2010). Information literacy and social power. Critical library instruction: Theories and methods, 13-27.

Creation, Presentation, Storage, Retrieval, and Accessibility

Whether the action of acquiring information is undertaken by an individual, or by multiple actors in a group, it is individuals who still must seek out the information. As individuals are limited in their cognitive abilities to process information, the information they attend to at any given time is likely to be limited or selectively filtered (Jones & Baumgartner, 2005; Lindblom, 1959; Ostrom, Gardner, & Walker, 1994; Simon, 1945). Selective attention may result in particular knowledge being biased or favored in the acquisition phase (Holcomb, Ireland, Holmes, & Hitt, 2009). Another way individual-level characteristics might shape information acquisition is through the tendency toward routinized behavior, which can reduce active thinking (Cohen et al., 1996), or the ability to search for new information.

Power can either promote or restrict both the availability of information and the translation of information.

Reference
Downey, A. (2016). Critical Information Literacy : Foundations, Inspiration, and Ideas. Library Juice Press.

Heikkila, T. and Gerlak, A.K. (2013), Lessons for Public Policy Scholars. Policy Stud J, 41: 484-512. https://doi.org/10.1111/psj.12026

Referent Information Power is derived through charisma, charm, admiration, or appeal. 

Legitimate Information Power comes from leadership or the head of organizations, societies, or groups (A president, prime minister, or monarch). 

Expert Information Power comes from group members’ assumptions that the power holder possesses superior skills and/or abilities.

Coercive Information Power is the ability of the power holder to remove something from a person or to punish them for not conforming with a request. It is often physical although other threats may be used. It is the power of dictators, despots, and bullies (information to shame, discredit, or dehumanize).

Reward Information Power derives from praise and recognition. This type of information power seeks to acknowledge, award, or praise a person, service, entity, or group (acknowledgment of awards, promotion, or raises).