Developing Information Literacy Skills for Tomorrow’s Music Industry Leaders

Abstract

IntroductionWe live in an age in which the amount of available to students, educators, business persons, and the general public is at an all-time high as more and more is made available in various forms on a daily basis. In 2012 it was reported that each minute 571 new websites are created, Facebook users share 648,478 pieces of content, YouTube users upload forty-eight hours of video, and Twitter users send more than 100,000 tweets.1 Additionally, newspapers, magazines, journals, television networks, music companies, recordings artists, and film studios all have online presences and many have developed specialized online products and services. With all this readily at the fingertips of anyone with internet access, one might think that we are in a potential golden age of knowledge and learning. In fact, the opposite is true.The plethora of freely available to students on the internet creates three major problems:1. Many students come to college believing that all is freely available on the internet; however, many resources (such as ComScore, SoundScan, and LexisNexis) require costly subscriptions;2. Students have a difficult time knowing when to stop looking for information;3. Students are unsure when a source is credible and appropriate for their research.Due to the tidal wave of that is readily accessible and the highly variable quality of much of this information, students, educators, business leaders, and the general public run the risk of finding and using data or that might be inaccurate, outdated, intentionally misleading, or incomplete. To help reduce the likelihood that students and future music business persons will fall into such habits, educators may wish to consider the topic of literacy in reviewing their degree learning objectives as well as specific courses and assignments. Since music industry studies programs rely largely on the study of current trends, news, and events, the field presents an opportunity for educators to intentionally design activities, discussions, and assignments that can help students become savvy users of credible information.In this article the authors report on their efforts to incorporate assignments and experiences into the music management curriculum that are designed to build student awareness of literacy and improve skills in finding, evaluating, and using data and information. If successful, such learning may help students avoid the pitfalls mentioned earlier.Information Literacy - What Is It?Information literacy is defined by the National Forum on Literacy as ...the ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively use that for the issue or problem at hand.2 literacy is sometimes known as information competency, information fluency, research skills, or critical thinking skills, but all have roughly the same definition. literacy is a multidimensional set of skills. In 2000, the Association of College and Research Libraries published a document entitled Information Literacy Competency Standard for Higher Education, which provides a helpful outline for this set of skills and includes practical outcomes.3 4Librarians have championed literacy as a set of skills for many years. In the last decade, literacy has gained greater recognition in all areas of education. For example, at the authors' institution, University of the Pacific, the learning objective Critical & Creative Thinking specifically addresses literacy. The three applicable outcomes of this objective are:1. Apply reasoning and evidence to judge and support claims;2. Effectively analyze, integrate, and evaluate information; and3. Construct well-reasoned arguments and solutions. …