What is visual literacy?

What is visual literacy? This opening presentation will begin by examining what is meant by visual literacy and why it is of growing importance. Within our educational institutions and society, how are we preparing young people and students for the visually saturated world we inhabit and what role should librarians play? Visual critique has traditionally been seen as within the domain of Art and Design, but should elements of this skill set be shared outside the Arts? Conversely, are there elements of visual literacy currently not factored into Arts programmes? The issues range from our ability to consciously critique visual data that is presented for consumption, including mass and social media images, through to how we consciously produce and encode our own diagrams, images and films. In 2010, Georgina was funded by ARLIS to attend the 2010 International Visual Literacy Association Conference (IVLA), an organisation made up of professionals from a diverse range of subject disciplines, each with their own slant on visual literacy. Georgina will discuss the differing attitudes and approaches taken to visual literacy by the conference delegates and what the experience taught her about the role of librarians. Finally, a number of current visual literacy interventions with Business and Design students at the University of Northampton will be outlined