Concluding comments

Information literacy is a powerful concept with pedagogic, economic and social implications. However, with a few notable exceptions in the education field (Bruce, 1996; Lupton, 2008) this recognition has not translated into attempts to theorize information literacy as an overarching information practice that has the power to explain the interplay between information, people and context. Instead a more applied approach that is centralized around the operationalization of library and computer skills has been the focus.

Wiegand (1999) has previously noted that librarians (and I include information literacy researchers) tend to be trapped within the discursive formation of their profession, a profession that is largely atheoretical and inward looking. In relation to information literacy, the profession is more focused on developing generic library skills rather than understanding the nature of information literacy practice and the ongoing social processes that enable it. If information literacy is truly a prerequisite for lifelong learning and a core literacy in the twenty-first century (Garner, 2006) then serious attention needs to be paid to other circumstances, settings and ways of knowing that do not reflect the textually bound conceptions of information literacy currently dominating the literature. Subsequently, discussions about information literacy need to acknowledge the co- participatory processes that draw members towards situated knowledge within a setting, and the reflexive and embodied learning that occurs when people co-participate in practice.

Information literacy is bound and made visible through its situatedness, suggesting that it is inextricably tied to context. It gains meaning through the way it manifests as actions and activities, centred on information, which are shaped and prefigured by historical, social, cultural, economic and political dimensions. To understand information literacy requires us to understand how context is prefigured and how this prefigurement shapes information and knowledge and the activities that are used to access and share these. It requires us to understand the interconnections between people, practice, information, knowledge and the world as constructed. In this respect information literacy is a situated practice that is shaped through the interactions between people. This explains why it is so difficult to articulate a single definition for information literacy because each definition is a product of its particular setting with its underlying discourse about what information is and what forms of knowledge are legitimate.

Therefore, although important to an overall understanding of information literacy, we should abandon attempts to define the phenomenon with reference to a generic suite of skills. Instead, information literacy should be explained with reference to its outcomes and to the socio-cultural features that operationalize the constellation of activities and skills that have been recognized and sanctioned according to the social, historical, political and economic arrangements that are heritaged within a particular site.

This book has approached information literacy from a specific theoretical framework and introduced social and practice theory in order to frame it as a socio-cultural practice. It has explored information literacy across a number of landscapes to illustrate the various ways in which the phenomenon has been conceptualized by library and information researchers and practitioners. In doing so, it has attempted to identify some of the themes that prevail in literature. In addition to this, it has also attempted to highlight the problematic nature of our current ways of describing this complex phenomenon and has advocated the need to adopt a contextualist approach to our research into this area. By framing the critical features that influence information literacy, an architecture is proposed that accounts for social process and features that should be considered as an integral part of research. These features should also be considered when developing pedagogy around information literacy and included in teaching as a way of encouraging students to think critically not just about the search for information but also how information is constituted through the settings that are searched.

To understand information literacy, we need to think about it holistically, not simply in terms of how an individual engages with the written word, but more broadly, in recognizing that other modalities of information are important and lead to the development of practical understandings and knowledge. We also need to recognize that information literacy is not an individual pursuit. It is performed in consort with situated others who have a vested interested in ensuring that information activities and skills reflect sanctioned socio-cultural, technical and material practices. It also ensures that a new member’s experience with information produces intelligibility and understanding of the situated practices required as part of the enactment into practice.

To this end, we need to account for the types of information and knowledge that are valued within a setting and how they are valued. We need to account for the activities that are used to impart the value of information and knowledge to members and for the information activities and skills that are sanctioned. Finally, we need to consider the outcomes of information literacy practice.

By reframing information literacy through socio-cultural and practice theory this book attempts to theorize information literacy by demonstrating its complex nature as a situated practice that produces specific ways of knowing, and accounting for the collaborative and contextual nature of information literacy as a situated practice. Through this frame information literacy can be seen as a suite of affordances and information activities that facilitate engaging with information located within discourse, other practices and tools of particular settings. By interaction with others in the setting, members are able to share and negotiate an understanding of and about information, leading to the development of intersubjectivity. As a holistic practice, becoming information literate necessitates not only access to codified sources, but also access to embodied information.

Put simply, information literacy is a way of knowing about the sources of information that inform practice. However, in reality information literacy practice is underpinned by a rich complexity because the concept of information is not simple nor is it unproblematic and ways of knowing are not always easy but are often contested and fraught with tension. Our job as information literacy researchers, as librarians and as educators is to develop our understanding of this complexity, and the way it influences information literacy as a situated socio-cultural practice within a landscape, so we can reconceptualize our own practices and pedagogy.