Reframing Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy Thomas P. Mackey and Trudi E. Jacobson Social media environments and online communities are innovative col- laborative technologies that challenge traditional definitions of information literacy. Metaliteracy is an overarching and self-referential framework that integrates emerging technologies and unifies multiple literacy types. This redefinition of information literacy expands the scope of generally understood information competencies and places a particular emphasis on producing and sharing information in participatory digital environments. he emergence of social media technology. As part of a metaliteracy and collaborative online com- reframing, we argue that producing and munities requires a reframing sharing information are critical activities of information literacy as a in participatory Web 2.0 environments. metaliteracy that supports multiple liter- Information literacy is central to this acy types. Social media environments are redefinition because information takes transient, collaborative, and free-flowing, many forms online and is produced and requiring a comprehensive understand- communicated through multiple modali- ing of information to critically evaluate, ties. Information literacy is more signifi- share, and produce content in multiple cant now than it ever was, but it must be forms. Within this context, information is connected to related literacy types that not a static object that is simply accessed address ongoing shifts in technology. and retrieved. It is a dynamic entity that is Through this overarching approach to produced and shared collaboratively with information literacy, we examine the term such innovative Web 2.0 technologies as within a new media environment. Met- Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, Second Life, aliteracy promotes critical thinking and and YouTube. Several competing concepts collaboration in a digital age, providing of literacy have emerged including digital a comprehensive framework to effectively literacy, media literacy, visual literacy, and participate in social media and online information technology fluency, but there communities. It is a unified construct that is a need for a comprehensive framework supports the acquisition, production, and based on essential information proficien- sharing of knowledge in collaborative on- cies and knowledge. New media literacy line communities. Metaliteracy challenges and transliteracy have also responded traditional skills-based approaches to in- to the rapid and ongoing changes in formation literacy by recognizing related Thomas P. Mackey is Interim Dean in the Center for Distance Learning at SUNY Empire State College; e-mail: [email protected]. Trudi E. Jacobson is Head of User Education Programs in the University Libraries of University at Albany, SUNY; e-mail: [email protected]. © Thomas P. Mackey and Trudi E. Jacobson 62 crl-76r1 Reframing Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy 63 literacy types and incorporating emerg- the information knowledge required to ing technologies. Standard definitions participate in these new environments. of information literacy are insufficient In 1989, ALA issued the Presidential for the revolutionary social technologies Committee on Information Literacy: Final currently prevalent online. Report, which states that students must play an active role in knowing, identify- Literacy Frameworks ing, finding, evaluating, organizing and We begin with an exploration of tradi- using information.2 While these elements tional information literacy frameworks are generic and applicable to a variety of defined in the most common profes- situations, they do not address the now sional standards. The standards reflect pervasive online environments in which how information literacy is generally many forms of information are fluid understood within the field of library and and information seekers might become information science and they continue to information contributors at almost any inform the learning outcomes mandated time and in a public setting. While using by accrediting agencies and developed information in this standard definition by course instructors. This examination suggests a range of author practices, it leads to a review of multiple literacy exists independently from the act of cre- types in relation to metaliteracy. Over ating and sharing information through time these competing literacy frameworks collaborative ventures. The definition ad- have developed in response to emerging opted by ACRL eleven years later expands technologies, but the connections to in- upon the ALA definition by emphasizing formation literacy have not always been the depth of the information needed, the fully developed or recognized. We are ability to find the information effectively interested in locating similarities among and efficiently, the incorporation of new different literacy definitions to support a information with existing knowledge, cohesive metaliteracy framework, with a and an understanding of the information particular emphasis on the overarching environment. competencies that define literacy in new The Society of College, National and media environments. University Libraries in the United King- dom developed the SCONUL Seven Information Literacy Pillars Model for Information Literacy Information literacy was the term used in 1999. The Briefing Paper: Information most frequently in the United States from Skills in Higher Education3 outlines seven the late 1980s through most of the 1990s headline skills or pillars that are similar and is still used regularly.1 Professional to those identified by ACRL the following and educational organizations, such as year. SCONUL included “the ability to the American Library Association (ALA), construct strategies for locating informa- the Association of College and Research tion”4 and “the ability to synthesize and Libraries (ACRL), the Society of Col- build upon existing information, contrib- lege, National and University Libraries uting to the creation of new knowledge.”5 (SCONUL), and the Middle States Com- These two skills do not appear in ACRL’s mission on Higher Education (MSCHE), definition, but they are identified in their have developed definitions of information standards, performance indicators, and literacy and outlined characteristics of outcomes.6 The SCONUL model also information-literate individuals. These specifically addresses increasing levels definitions share numerous, but not all, of competence in each of the seven skills, of the elements. However, they were all and it is only when individuals are more developed prior to the astonishing rise expert in their abilities that they reach the of social media and collaborative online level of being able to synthesize and cre- communities and do not fully address ate information.7 MSCHE’s information 64 College & Research Libraries January 2011 literacy component goals also address accrediting agencies and for the develop- increased abilities from first-year under- ment of learning outcomes within courses graduate through graduate student.8 and programs. At the same time, however, In discussing information skills, SCO- these institutional frameworks are not on NUL differentiates between study skills, the cutting edge of emerging trends; they such “as being able to use an institutional lag behind the innovations of Web 2.0 library and its resources to further one’s and social media. Metaliteracy expands study,”9 and a more advanced skill set that the scope of information literacy as more allows people to be prepared for activities than a set of discrete skills, challenging us and jobs following higher education. This to rethink information literacy as active second set includes understanding how knowledge production and distribution information is produced and being able to in collaborative online communities. evaluate it. Specifically referred to is the Several literacy frameworks have fact that “it may be textual and published emerged that relate to information and information but will also include other technology in a digital age. Many of these forms of information communication, related literacy types share the same skills formal and informal, designed and fortu- with information literacy, although in itous, interpersonal and via information some instances the connections are not a technologies in a much more encom- part of the literacy definition. This review passing way.”10 SCONUL has recently of related literacy types illustrates many expanded upon the seven headline skills, of the inherent connections to information including examples that acknowledge the literacy, supporting a metaliteracy model changing information environment.11 RSS based on a comprehensive construct for feeds are listed as a way to update infor- multiple literacy perspectives. mation searches, while emphasizing the importance of understanding the source Media Literacy of information and the need to evaluate In 1992, the Aspen Institute defined it carefully. media literacy as “the ability of a citizen Social media and online collabora- to access, analyze, and produce informa- tive communities are not specifically tion for specific outcomes.”14 In 2008, the addressed in the standard definitions, Center for Media Literacy expanded its but many of the highlighted skills are definition considerably in Literacy for the pertinent to today’s information environ- 21st Century: An Overview and Orienta- ment. The new media context, however, tion Guide to Media Literacy Education.15