Seldom one hears / read “Information
Literacy” in Media. I came across this word while reading interview of Carla
Hayden (14th Librarian of Congress) in The New York Times.
I don’t think, ever a librarian
name gets mentioned in Indian Newspaper / Media.
For many who don’t know what is
Information Literacy?
Information literacy is a set of
abilities requiring individuals to "recognize when information is needed
and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed
information."
It is supposed that Librarian job
is one of the dullest and lifeless professions an individual can think of.
I wish to reproduce (from Book: Still
a Man’s World: Men Who Do Women’s work by Christine L. Williams) here an
article appeared in Library Journal titled “The Male Librarian – An Anomaly”:
“…..Library work is fine, they
agree, but they smile and shake their heads benevolently and charitably, as if
it was unnecessary to add that it is one of the dullest, most poorly paid,
unrewarding , off beat activities any man could be consigned to. If you have a
heart condition, if you’re physically handicapped in other ways, well such a
job is a blessing. And for women there’s no question library work is fine;
there are some wonderful women in libraries and we all ought to be thankful to
them. But let’s face it, no healthy man of normal intelligence should go into
it.”
I think this assessment is held
about a librarian post even today. It is hard to believe that above article appeared
in 1959.
I enjoyed reading interview of
Carla and thank The New York Times for conducting it. The best part of interview is the
headline for this post i.e. Information Literacy. Information Literacy was
taken up when she was answering to an important question:
Do
you think libraries can help in this epidemic of fake news and lack of trust in
the media?
I think the good thing about the
discussion is that there’s a discussion about what’s fake and what’s real.
There’s awareness that there is such a thing. Librarians have been pounding on
this issue in a different way for a while — that just having computer literacy
is great, but as information professionals, we’re always looking at what’s the
most authoritative source for the information and teaching information
literacy. It’s great to have all this stuff, but you need to teach how to use
the library in schools. They need to be teaching information literacy as soon
as the kid can push a button.
It is far more important to teach
Information Literacy as it is completely absent in most of the adult not just
kid.
Reference:
Library Journal - https://books.google.co.in/books?id=3cXIvGbwWx0C&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=librarian+job+dullest&source=bl&ots=Ah1FqmRqK1&sig=n2lVdpvlggqxBGVSWhz3PbO5I-c&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj4wpSKqdHRAhUELY8KHUQXAcoQ6AEIOzAH#v=onepage&q=librarian%20job%20dullest&f=false
( Book : Still a Man’s World : Men Who Do Women’s work by Christine L. Williams)
Information Literacy definition: http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency
