Scholarly Article #2

Scholarly Article #2 Canada: An Information Literacy Case Study

I chose this article because I was interested in the overview of information literacy in Canada. This paper was prepared for UNESCO in 2002. It provides background information on the approach Canada has taken as a nation toward access of information. There are also recommendations for ways to enhance and embrace change so that Canada makes progress in this area to benefit all Canadians.
One thing that surprised me as I was reading the report is that Canada was the first nation in the world to provide internet service for its public schools and libraries. This happened in 1999-only 10 years ago and now the information highway has become jammed almost beyond comprehension. The problem with this service was that there was not education to go with the access. It seems to me that this hasn’t changed too much. We are still lamenting the fact that some schools do not have trained teacher-librarians and there is not sufficient time set aside for development of effective research skills.
Another recommendation from the International Information Technologies Panel in 2002 suggested that information literacy is best achieved through integration of “cognitive and technical learning”. In other words it is important that the skills are taught in practical situations where the student has to compare and evaluate the information that is accessed. It is important that authentic experiences are provided in conjunction with information skills. It has always been my opinion that skills taught in isolation do not become part of the learner’s understanding until there is meaning.
One factor that makes a federal initiative difficult is the fact that education is a provincial jurisdiction and there are no national education policies. It was interesting to note that one of the fundamental employability skills was the ability to manage information-access, analyze and apply knowledge.
So where does that leave libraries? Always looking for ways to prove their worth and justify their existence. So often you hear comments about not needing libraries because everything is on-line. That may be true but who is going to be left to help students assess and evaluate all this information? I don’t understand why the justification is necessary when there is research that demonstrates that academic progress is related to the strength of the library program.
Some of the recommendations of this paper included a call for more research and that Information Literacy policies are developed. Educators, administrators must raise awareness to further the support for information literacy.


Martha J. Whitehead, Catherine A. Quinlan, ”Canada: An Information Literacy Case Study,” July 2002, White Paper prepared for UNESCO, the US National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, and the National Forum on Information Literacy, for use at the Information Literacy Meeting of Experts, Prague, the Czech Republic.
http://www.nclis.gov/libinter/infolitconf&meet/papers/quinlan-fullpaper.pdf