Taxonomy of Information Literacy Competencies

Abstract

Executive SummaryPeople living within an information culture possess different expectations and abilities with technology and digital systems because of their use of and exposure to technology. The first section of the paper reviews the situation of IT education and the need to address the shortage of professionals in the information-related professions. The shortage of IT professionals generates an attempt by educational institutions to develop programs that may or may not adequately address the shortage. Along with the shortage problem, concerns about information literacy are being raised among educators and professionals.To model a connection between information literacy levels and IT education, Bloom's educational objective taxonomy is presented. In conjunction with Bloom's taxonomy, the five-component representation of information systems is presented. If an awareness of information systems enables one to be more information literate and if being more information literate enables one to handle IT situations better, then a representation connecting information systems and information literacy would offer insights to IT education. These two representations, Bloom's Taxonomy and the five-component representation of information systems, are combined to develop a relationship between growth in competency through education and the field of information systems.The second section proposes an information literacy competency taxonomy, (ILC taxonomy). The ILC taxonomy expresses the relationship between growth in competency and understanding of information systems. Educational programs can be represented through the ILC taxonomy in terms of the degree of attention committed to the content characterized by each area of the ILC taxonomy.The third section suggests how different programs can be expressed through the ILC taxonomy. Ultimately, the ILC taxonomy provides a tool for identifying what skills and behaviors within a spectrum of information literacy competencies individuals should be expected to possess, given an educational program.

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