Book Review: Teaching Information Literacy Reframed: 50+ Framework-Based Exercises for Creating Information-Literate Learners

Abstract

Burkhardt, J. M. (2016). Teaching Literacy Reframed: 50+ Frameworkbased Exercises for Information-literate Learners. Chicago: NealSchuman, an imprint of the American Library Association.In 2000, the Board of Directors of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) approved the Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, which were designed as a guide for information literacy instruction. Ten years later, ACRL appointed a task force update the Standards to reflect changes, improvements, and the expansion of the concept of information literacy in higher education (Burkhardt, 2016, p. 2). But rather than simply updating the language, the task force changed directions and crafted a new document, the Framework for Literacy for Higher Education (p. 2), which appears as an Appendix in this book and which was ratified by ACRL in 2015. The Framework develops what the task force described as a richer, more complex set of core ideas (p. 6) about information literacy and is based on what the task force described as six concepts. In alphabetic order these are: i) Authority is Constructed and Textual ii) Creation as a Process iii) Has Value iv) Research as Inquiry v) Scholarship as Conversation and vi) Searching as Strategic Exploration.In Burkhardt's view-a view likely be shared by anyone uninvolved in the creation of the Framework-the threshold concepts are not self-explanatory-further, the Framework does not offer any hints or examples of use in the classroom. Hence this book.Burkhardt herself is well qualified write it-now a senior administrator at the University of Rhode Island, she has been involved in instruction for over 30 years and is the lead author of earlier (bestselling) titles on the topic: Teaching Literacy: 50 Standards-Based Exercises for College Students (2003) and a Comprehensive Literacy Plan (2005).In addition a first chapter explaining the book's necessity, and an eighth and final chapter on Creating Exercises, Rubrics, Learning Outcomes and Learning Assessments, the remaining six chapters focus on each of the threshold concepts in the Framework although, unlike in the Framework, they do not appear in alphabetic order.In each chapter, Burkhardt clearly explains a threshold concept and then provides several exercises (58 in total) that could be used in a class aid students in grasping the concept. For example, on the concept Information Has Value, Exercise 52 (p. 129) (Citation Format Comparison) is designed help students learn the differences between APA and MLA citation styles. The instructor is invited prepare pairs of citations for books, journals, and websites in both and then students are required List as many differences as you can between the two citation styles and also think of and list reasons why the two formats are different. …