Metaliteracy: Reinventing Information Literacy to Empower Learners

by Thomas P. Mackey, Trudi E. Jacobson

Today's learners communicate, create, and share information using a range of information technologies such as social media, blogs, microblogs, wikis, mobile devices and apps, virtual worlds, and MOOCs. In Metaliteracy , respected information literacy experts Mackey and Jacobson present a comprehensive structure for information literacy theory that builds on decades of practice while recognizing the knowledge required for an expansive and interactive information environment. The concept of metaliteracy expands the scope of traditional information skills (determine, access, locate, understand, produce, and use information) to include the collaborative production and sharing of information in participatory digital environments (collaborate, produce, and share) prevalent in today's world. Combining theory and case studies, the authors This cutting-edge approach to information literacy will help your students grasp an understanding of the critical thinking and reflection required to engage in technology spaces as savvy producers, collaborators, and sharers.

Genres: Nonfiction, Librarianship, Teaching, Education

248 pages, Paperback

First published April 4, 2014

Reviews

[Elaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, this book was published in 2014 -- not so long ago. This is not to suggest it's out of date, because it mostly isn't (besides the Arab Spring being optimistically mentioned, Second Life* being mentioned as an interaction avenue, and a bit of twee optimism about the role of social media in facilitating a serious exchange of ideas that's all the more unpleasant in light of the rampant disinformation campaigns that are basically the inverse of the Arab Spring and also not much consideration for the massive privacy concerns therein...). At least in terms of wide-eyed hopefulness, 2014 actually was a very long time ago.

Rather, I feel the ideas discussed are at a point of being taken for granted at this stage in the game. Multiple literacies, check; information issues with web and social media and creative media, check. One chapter just goes through defining related literacies (media, health, critical IL, cyberliteracy, visual, mobile...) and all I could think was gosh, that's a lot of people trying to make names for themselves by making up/describing a *literacy niche. (To some extent I feel this "metaliteracy" idea/concept is the same, though at least it's trying to unify -- I think? -- all these little things.) I did agree with a survey response they included that all these things seem to fall under just the "information literacy" umbrella rather than adjacent to it.

Chapter 1: metaliteracy
Chapter 2: social media trends, participation culture, openness
Chapter 3: defining other literacies
Chapter 4: "Global Trends in Emerging Literacies" - i.e. here's what some other organizations have to say
Chapter 5: Survey of the Field - describes the results of a survey they sent out to other librarians in the field
Chapter 6: here's some learning activities we incorporated into an info lit course required at U of Albany -- which is awesome, and the activities were interesting, but not, I think, applicable to my own job (freshman and sophomores at a community college, mostly one-shot instruction)
Chapter 7: digital storytelling -- basically felt like more of chapter 6, and again, a little passe in that this feels rather old hat and overblown for the common reality



*In other news, Second Life does actually still exist and was even updated 4 months ago, per Wikipedia. Who knew? Man, the early aughts were such a different time for academic-web-culture ideas.

[Elizabeth]

School read. And not a great one. Very theoretical with lots of big words strung together. Hard to follow and it seems like the authors really want their study to be the next big thing in Library and Information Sciences. When it's really just reclassifying and assigning terms to actions that are already a part of information literacy and/or are changing so fast, its hard to know how relevant they are or will be. Plus it's already outdated in certain aspects of fast moving social media and cyber literacy.

[John Marino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adds metacognition to more familiar conceptions of Information literacy. Complements a multidisciplinary application of The Big6.

[Doni · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the list of MOOC's and chapter six useful.