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- Description
- Table of Contents
- About the authors
- Reviews
Read an interview with the authors now!
The ideal text for acquainting LIS students and practitioners with this important cornerstone of librarianship, this book provides a comprehensive introduction to information literacy—spanning institutions, cultures, and nations—through the lenses of information, technology, education, employment, engagement, society, policy, democratic governance, and human rights.
It’s not hyperbole to conclude that in today’s world, information literacy is essential for survival and success; and also that, if left unchecked, the social consequences of widespread misinformation and information illiteracy will only continue to grow more dire. Thus its study must be at the core of every education. But while many books have been written on information literacy, this text is the first to examine information literacy from a cross-national, cross-cultural, and cross-institutional perspective. From this book, readers will
- learn about information literacy in a wide variety of contexts, including academic and school libraries, public libraries, special libraries, and archives, through research and literature that has previously been siloed in specialized publications;
- come to understand why information literacy is not just an issue of information and technology, but also a broader community and societal issue;
- get an historical overview of advertising, propaganda, disinformation, misinformation, and illiteracy;
- gain knowledge of both applied strategies for working with individuals and for addressing the issues in community contexts;
- find methods for combating urgent societal ills caused and exacerbated by misinformation; and
- get tools and techniques for advocacy, activism, and self-reflection throughout one’s career.
Examination copies are available for instructors who are interested in adopting this title for course use. This book is available in e-book format for libraries and individuals through aggregators and other distributors—ask your current vendor or contact us for more information.
Acknowledgments and Sanctuary
List of Acronyms
1 Searching for Information (Literacy)
2 Defining Information Literacy
3 Information Literacy in the Context of Information Behavior and Everyday Life
4 The Operationalization of Information Literacy, Part I: Academic and School Libraries
5 The Operationalization of Information Literacy, Part II: Public Libraries, Special Libraries, and Archives
6 Information Literacy Is a Human Right
7 Controlling Information Literacy
8 Literacy Politics and Literacy Policies
9 Why Libraries?
10 The Field Guide to Incorrect Information
11 A Brief History of Advertising, Propaganda, and Other Delights
12 Pandemic-Style Disinformation, Misinformation, and Illiteracy
13 Toward Lifelong Information Literacy
14 Advocacy, Activism, and Self-Reflection for Information (Literacy) Professionals
15 The Social Infrastructure for Information Literacy
16 The Lifelong Information Literacy Society
References
About the Authors
Index
"Library workers, information professionals, LIS faculty and graduate students seeking to understand current theories of information literacy should look no further than Taylor and Jaeger’s Foundations of Information Literacy. This engagingly written text provides a robust introduction to information literacy since its emergence in the 'information society' of the 1970s and its continued evolution to address the information disorder of the participatory Web."
— OIF Intellectual Freedom Blog
"Taylor and Jaeger declare libraries the community institutions to best help learners understand information literacy and contend librarians should 'own' the teaching of it and cultivate community collaborations to further their reach. This volume is for librarians charged with infusing information literacy into their teaching and public-facing work."
— Choice
"This is one of the best library and information science books that I have read in years. The authors cover a huge amount of theoretical and practical ground very successfully ... I found the plea to evolve the approach to information literacy to include contemporary issues such as privacy and surveillance timely. As our roles increasingly expand to research data, data governance, rights and data control, a new community requires education and processes that are built on the fundamentals of information literacy."
— Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association
"Taylor and Jaeger provide a well-researched and wide-ranging overview of the topic, grounded in a sense of urgency created by the epidemic of mis- and disinformation ... The definitions of terms as well as historical and policy information would make this a good textbook for information literacy courses, or perhaps a supplemental text for courses that address information literacy, instruction, or community engagement. The guiding questions at the end of each chapter could be useful for framing reflective writing assignments or class discussions."
— Journal of Education for Library and Information Science