“From Teaching to Consulting: Librarians as Information Literacy Designers. An Interview with Carrie Donovan” by Brian Mathews.  Posted to The Ubiquitous Librarian blog.

http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/theubiquitouslibrarian/2015/06/08/from-teaching-to-consulting-librarians-as-information-literacy-designers-an-interview-with-carrie-donovan/

“Library instruction and information literacy is poised for a transformation that will be groundbreaking and inspiring.” (Donovan)  It was heartening to see that Donovan was troubled and inspired by Susanna Cowan’s “Information Literacy: The Battle We Won That We Lost?” (portal: Libraries and the Academy, 14(1):23-32; online at https://muse-jhu-edu.libproxy.stcloudstate.edu/journals/portal_libraries_and_the_academy/v014/14.1.cowan.pdf).  “The question is not about information literacy’s validity. The question is whether we must cling to information literacy as a narrower concept and practice within educational (and now many other) institutions that rely, still, on librarians as key purveyors of this knowledge.” (Cowan)

“Something that has helped me [to begin to transition to a place where “I can leave behind my sense of ownership of information literacy”] was not to hang on to how I have done things in the past and to seek out new ideas and to consider all the options – even those that really challenge my way of thinking, my professional identity, and what I think I know to be true.” (Donovan)

“If we care about information literacy, let us be brave enough to let it go and find innovative ways to further the educational underpinnings of the concept without the bulky and perhaps untimely programmatic weight.” (Cowan)

Keith

Keith Ewing

Professor, Library Systems & Digital Projects