Session Information
12 SES 09, Enabling Educational Research
Contribution
In the 1970th, the concept of information literacy was developed (Bawden 2001, 5). With the development, libraries answered on developments in society, considerably the increasing relevance of knowledge and the increasing use of digital technologies in the context of the cold war. Due to the increased number of publications and the growing military, political and economical relevance of knowledge, slip boxes an similar tools became inexpedient and the problem of assessing papers became relevant. Thus new tools to find and retrieve information were developed. These tools were mainly based on digital technologies.
Since the structure of digital technologies was not familiar to most librarians and to most visitors of libraries, teaching librarians how to document, search and retrieve informations with digital technologies becomes an issue. Soon, library users were identified as a relevant target audience as well. But information literacy was not only considered as relevant for librarians and library visitors, but understood as relevant for the development of society at large (Tyner 1998, 98). Still, information literacy has hardly been established in pedagogical institutions (Basil 2003).
In the 1980ies, the meaning of the term information literacy was extended by concepts from literacy. To make literature tempting for a hardly literate audience becomes a challenge for libraries. This challenge was expressed in the term library literacy. In this concept, the protection against influences of mass media or concepts of critical thinking was not picked up (Barnes et. al 2007).
With the increased use of online informations by a vast audience after the turn of the century, library services, the relevance of libraries for a public access to knowledge and the function of libraries in society has changed considerably. At the same time, the ability to citizens to read and write has become a major topic in public debates (UNESCO 2003).
As a reaction to the change of the function of libraries for the public and to the changed requirements, the concept expressed in the term library literacy was extended. Libraries have started to define themselves as an educational institution. This is reflected in the term teaching library (Schultka 2005).
With this extended understanding, pedagogical issues like the creative design of media (Buckingham 2003, Fieldhouse & Nicolas 2008) became relevant for libraries. Among this issues are topics like curricula, learning strategies, pedagogies (Dannenberg 2008) or multimodal literaceis (Kress & Jewitt 2003) that extend the concept of literacy behind print. Facing these challenges, Schultka (2003) suggested to understand teaching in libraries as educational activities by individuals in the context of libraries as spaces for intellectual work in a democratic society that assists institutions like schools or universities with free access to sources and opportunities to create content.
While Schultka developed a theory for the objectives of teaching libraries, he did not suggest teaching and learning methods. Some teaching and learning methods have been developed by Dannenberg, Herzig and Renger (2004). Suggestions for elementary schools have not been developed yet.
Thus we focused our research on elementary schools. Due to the structure of the theory-practice-transformation in education (Swertz & Mildner 2015), we did not try to develop suggestions for teaching and learning methods in this emerging field by theoretical considerations, but by empirical observations. Our research question was: How do librarians define the educational role of libraries in their practice when teaching pupils from elementary schools and which teaching and learning methods are applied?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Basili, C. (Hg. 2003): Information literacy in Europe: A first insight into the state of the art of information literacy in the European Union. Rom: Scuola Tipografica.
Barnes, C., Flanagan, B., Corcoran F. & O' Neill, B. (2007): Critical Media Literacy in Ireland. The Radharc Trust, Dublin - Online: http://www.mediaconference.ie/files/Radharc.Report.pdf.
Bawden, D. (2001): Information and digital literacies: A review of concepts. Journal of documentation. Online:
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