Information And Media Literacy: Integrating Literacies Into Library Instruction

Media literacy is a critical skill, a subset of information literacy, that at this point in history is more important than ever. Students entering higher education generally receive information literacy instruction at the lower division level. However, the skills taught at this level are rudimentary and geared toward introducing students to scholarly and peer-reviewed sources. Conversely, students have relied upon more popular resources in K-12 education and may not have the evaluative skills to more responsibly consume, and ethically use, popular, news, and social media content. Current instruction methods silo instruction between scholarly and peer-review sources for academic use separately from media consumption in everyday life. This separation is problematic as students may achieve academic information literacy and still fall prey to misinformation, they find online and in social situations. While the Association of College and Research Libraries Framework addresses the need for a set of information literacy abilities, the National Association for Media Literacy Education takes this further with their core principles. At California State University, Bakersfield, media literacy is integrated into several information literacy opportunities. However, it is in full-term information literacy instruction, where we most fully develop the concepts and techniques specific to media literacy