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1. Background
The concept of Information Literacy, at least as it has become
more widely known beyond the library world, is not more than
about 45 or 50 years old. Paul Zurkowski, then President of the
Information Industry Association, a trade organization in the USA,
is generally credited with coining the term and elaborating the
concept beyond its traditional librarianship meaning, which was
used at the time in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. In this period, it
was identified a need for a new concept that placed a premium on
learning how to crystallize and articulate information needed to
solve a problem or make a decision, in easily searchable and
retrievable ways, then learn how to search for and retrieve the
needed information efficiently, organize and arrange it in
appropriate and convenient formats to suit the intended users,
communicate it quickly and easily to others, use it for the intended
purposes for which it was collected (and perhaps, serendipitously
for other purposes) and then index and archive it for possible later
use or dispose of it if no longer needed or any use for it
contemplated.
However, within the library world, while not having always been
referred to as “Information Literacy,” the concept has been known
and practiced for a much longer period than 45 or 50 years.
Librarians point out that the concept and practice has been
gradual and evolutionary, and was based upon, and expanded
upon a very long history of library orientation, library instruction,
and bibliographic instruction, dating back at least to the
nineteenth century and perhaps even longer. In the library world,
helping people learn how to identify, describe and articulate in
precise terms and language and an information need, and then
search effectively and efficiently for useful information to meet that
need, began way before the advent of use of ICTs that are
continuing to evolve and impact all of us in very dramatic ways.
Overview of Information Literacy Resources Worldwide |20