Sonja Špiranec
Sveučilište u Zagrebu
Filozofski fakultet – Odsjek za informacijske i komunikacijske znanosti, Zagreb, Hrvatska
sspiran@ff zg.hr

doi: 10.19090/cit.2018.32.3-11
No. 32 (May 2018), p. 3-11

Critical Information Literacy in the Academic Context

Summary

Although there is a wide consensus on theoretical concepts and the pragmatic focus of IL, specifi cally in academic librarianship, many initial premises in the fi eld have lately been discussed and questioned. The re-examination of wide-held assumptions in information literacy, the critique of its proclaimed purpose and practical manifestations led to the shift towards critical information literacy.
The aim of this paper is to determine whether critical information literacy provides a distinctive theoretical contribution to the contemporary discourse in information literacy. Based on qualitative literature analysis the authors will examine some basic ideas and conceptual assumptions of critical information literacy and contrast and compare the dominant instrumentally-focused approach to information literacy with critical approaches. Specifi cally, the authors will try to determine to what extent core concepts of critical information literacy refl ect on questions, dilemmas and problems identifi ed in information literacy theory and praxis in the last decades, and whether critical information literacy off ers a viable framework for perceived weaknesses, with an explicit outlook to the context of higher education.

Keywords:

critical information literacy, higher education, standards, Framework in information literacy in higher education, workplace, skills-based approach

Submitted: 22nd March 2018
Accepted for publication: 11th April 2018

Critical Information Literacy in the Academic Context by Sonja Špiranec is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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