Information Literacy: Roles of Libraries and Librarians

Information literacy is the adoption of appropriate information behaviour to identify, through whatever channel or medium, information well fitted to information needs, leading to wise and ethical use of information in society.


Information literacy is critically important because we are surrounded by a growing ocean of information in all formats. Not all information is created equal: some are authoritative, current, reliable, but some are biased, out of date, misleading, and false. The amount of information available is going to keep increasing. The types of technology used to access, manipulate, and create information will likewise expand.

Information Literacy is the ability to identify what information is needed, understand how the information is organized, identify the best sources of information for a given need, locate those sources, evaluate the sources critically, and share that information.

Roles of libraries and librarians:

• Moving away from librarians – as- expert towards librarians as teachers

• Moving away from the library as a place that provides specific services towards the library as the place that facilitates lifelong learning

• Librarians are the natural in-house experts for teaching its clientele how to find , evaluate and use information effectively

• Moving away from general training toward specific user interest

• Moving away from librarians as the ‘handmaidens to research’ towards librarians as partners with faculty in creating critical thinkers and competent researchers.

• Moving away from basic teaching skills towards information problem-solving skills that may or may not involve technology

• Librarians are often encouraged to research, explore new issues and create new programmes

• Creating information access tools

Since librarians work in a service-oriented organisation, the new roles being played now should also be integrated with total quality service.
Thus libraries and librarians are truly and significant contributors to the success of their organisations or institutions, as well as active partners in information literacy education for lifelong learning

http://dis.shef.ac.uk/literacy/definitions.htm

http://www.slideshare.net/plaistrlc/the-role-of-libraries-and-librarians-in-information-literacy

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