Close Look at the Concept of Authority in Information Literacy

Abstract

The concept of authority—its definition and the consequences thereof—receives intense scrutiny in library scholarship. This article intervenes in that conversation by arguing for a particular approach to authority within librarianship. The article begins by reviewing the significant areas of contention within library scholarship on authority. It then analyzes the theoretical literature on authority—specifically cognitive authority, or the question of where we place our intellectual trust—from philosophy and information studies in order to explicate the concept. Finally, it builds on that explication to argue that librarians should embrace a fully constructionist view of cognitive authority, because committing to constructionism will make information literacy pedagogy both more rigorous and more just.