Educators and public librarians: unwitting partners in the information literacy education of South African youth?

Abstract

The article reports on a study of the capacity of public librarians in South Africa for information literacy education. The first phase explores the conceptions of public library staff of their role in information literacy education. The second phase comprises a participant observation case study in two public libraries and interviews with teachers. The public librarians are found to have rather limited conceptions of information literacy. They tend to see their role as the provision of resources for projects on demand and the prevailing information literacy education is once-off library orientation. The teachers are positive about the role of libraries and are unanimous that the new curriculum means that children need access to more resources. Closer probing reveals that they make very little use of libraries in their personal and professional lives. They lack cognizance of the role of librarians in information literacy education and, in common with the public librarians, tend to see libraries as warehouses where their pupils are sent to “fetch” resources. Both groups see information as “something” that is stored and given out – rather than a subjective sense-making process. Paradoxically, these shared conceptions contribute to a gulf between the two sectors, which needs to be bridged if the needs of school learners are to be met.