April 2004 Volume 63, No. 8

Back to Top Information Literacy Submitted by Dilek Brown, dbrown1@imf.org According to the National Forum on International Literacy: Information Literacy is defined as the ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively use that information for the issue or problem at hand. In my organization, the Joint World Bank-IMF Library, Washington DC, fighting the digital divide has been a priority topic for a long time especially for the World Bank. However, I personally never paid conscious attention to the topic of information literacy until I attended a recent meeting of the DC/SLA International Relations Committee chaired by Barbie Keiser. After this meeting I joined the ranks of people who entered the “collective consciousness of information literacy”. Now I understand implementing an information literacy program is as challenging as adult literacy and other continuous education programs that attempt to alleviate the digital divide. If you haven’t already paid attention to this topic, I hope this article will help raise your consciousness of information literacy and encourage you to attend the DC/SLA Special Event Planned for International Special Librarians Day ( http://www.sla.org/chapter/cdc/events_files/apr2204.html), Thursday, April 22, “360 Degrees of Information Literacy: Information Literacy around the World” and learn how information literacy programs can improve your effectiveness as a special librarian. After conducting a mini-research project on information literacy, I am now aware that I see the examples of "information illiteracy" everyday. People wasting their time looking for information the "illiterate way," in other words not being able to know when there is a need for information, not being able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively use that information for the issue or problem at hand. Actually, I am now very aware of the fact that I myself have my “information illiterate” days even though I am an "expert" information professional. Because information is produced en mass and it changes every day, keeping up is a major challenge for everyone, including the information professionals, "the lucky few", or who know their way in the print and electronic information forest. We all have users visiting our libraries or sending requests daily looking for information they may or may not need. We learn from their information seeking and retrieval patterns and we try to tailor our services to satisfy their needs. To us Boolean is a piece of cake, we know where, why, and how to seek information from our own perspective using our collections in our libraries and online resources. It is our job to get the right information at the right time but we rarely know if it was indeed the right information the user needed or how the information we supplied benefited them in their projects! No matter how much we try to train and empower our users to do their own research, they still need our help to become information literate, even though some of our users are scholars to whom research is a second nature. The fact that even our expert researchers still need our help is one of the reasons why we need to keep this topic on our agendas. Unfortunately, the rest of the "educated" world struggles every day. The majority of the world’s population is not equipped to deal with expectations of daily changes and the majority of the “literate” populations are mostly information illiterate lacking methodologies to take advantage of opportunities offered by the global information society. Commonly, “fighting the digital divide” is the answer given to deal with this problem. First and foremost we need to conquer the digital divide, however, our challenge does not end there. Digital divide refers to the gap between those who can effectively use new information and communication tools, such as the Internet, and those who cannot. What about what happens when there are frequent electricity outages in villages which are supplied with PCs as a remedy to digital divide? How do you train people who have teachers who need training themselves? Who has time to become “information literate” when they have to worry about their daily bread? These common sense questions are asked over and over again and there are no easy answers. I encourage you to read Patricia Senn Breivik’s article on Information Literacy ( http://www.nordinfo.helsinki.fi/publications/nordnytt/nnytt4_01/breivik.htm). She does a wonderful job of discussing the myths that can obscure the vision for an information literate society, myths such as: technology and/or Internet access is all that is needed to solve our world’s problems; computer literacy is enough; that everything is on the web! This brings me to my daily struggles with my IT-oriented colleagues who try to resolve information/knowledge issues with technology quick-fixes. May be that is too big a topic to get into right now but the idea is the same. Many institutions still try to find solutions to information management via IT solutions, disregarding the human side of information seeking and usage, namely, the information literacy of our users. Human side of information management cannot be ignored. A sustainable training approach must be used to ensure that individuals can realize the technology's potential. When the digital divide is alleviated, people are able to access the information and opportunities that the Internet offers. The next fundamental step is ensuring users are information literate. They are able to analyze symbols and models, compare perspectives, and assess rhetorical context. All of this takes a lot of time. If you came this far reading this article, welcome to the “Information Literacy World”. To learn more please try to attend the International Special Librarians Day ( http://www.sla.org/chapter/cdc/events_files/apr2204.html) event and keep on reading and attending seminars and conferences on this topic, you might make a significant difference in the world. I will try to continue my lifelong learning. ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education The Big6: Information Literacy for the Information Age Bridges.org/spanning the international digital divide Critically analyzing information resources Directory of online resources for information literacy Evaluating Web Pages FIU Information Literacy on the WWW Information Literacy Conference, NY 2-4 June, 2004 Information Literacy: The Web is not an Encyclopedia Information Literacy and Learning Information literacy in Europe: a literature review Library Online Tutorials My DropBox NoodleTeach:Teaching Intelligently Observotary of the Information Society The Role of Collaboration Among Leaders from Various Sectors in Creating an Information Culture The Prague Declaration Towards an Information Literate Society Skovde Universary Library Social Responsibility in the Information Society Too much information The Virtual Chase The Web Research Guide World Bank Gender and Digital Divide Seminar Series Thanks to Barbie Kaiser, Sue O’Neill and Janet Kubalak for their critical input. Back to Top Welcome New Members! Submitted by Jill Konieczko, jkonieczko@usnews.com Please welcome the following new members to the Chapter: Erik Delfino, Library of Congress Catherine Fauver, Uniformed Services University, Student David Freeman Kristina Gabriel, Student Rebecca Mazur Jeff Meiczinger, TeleProductions International Danielle O'Brien, Student   Silver Spring Dine-Around Attendees Tour NOAA Library Submitted by by Ann Wakefield, awakefield@usnews.com On Wednesday, March 10th, Doria Grimes, Librarian at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Library in Silver Spring, gave a wonderful tour to attendees of the Silver Spring dine-around before dinner. NOAA is across the street from the dine-around restaurant. The library has a fascinating collection which includes historical materials from the days before there was a NOAA. A highlight of the tour was the library's climate-controlled rare book collection that has a volume from 1485 in Latin with vellum pages….and it's still in excellent condition! We were also shown a 1769 edition of a thick publication describing Ben Franklin's experiment with lightning. In addition, the rare book treasures include the daily weather records kept at Tuskegee Institute by George Washington Carver, documented and written in his own hand. Finally, as we left the rare book room and toured the rest of the library, Doria brought out an old folio-size, bound volume that contains daily weather maps coded by hand of the weather in the United States in 1871. This coding was done by staff at the United States Weather Bureau established in 1870, a predecessor to NOAA. The tour was a very interesting one of a very interesting library. We attendees were riveted, and it was a wonderful treat to have the privilege of seeing its unique collection. The NOAA Library has a terrific web site with a number of its treasures online: http://www.lib.noaa.gov. Take a look.

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Conference Stipend Award Submitted by Marilyn Bromley, mbromley@bna.com The DC/SLA Board of Directors and the Chapter Awards Committee are pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2004 Annual Conference Stipend is Anna Christine Hall. Anna is currently enrolled in library school at Catholic University, and is also employed as a research specialist at the National Defense University Library at Fort McNair. This will be her first SLA conference. After graduation this December, Anna plans to work in a special library, and hopes the conference will help her choose an appropriate career path among her many interests. Congratulations, Anna!

DC/SLA Scholarships The DC Chapter of the Special Libraries Association and Infocurrent are pleased to announce the availability of two scholarships for graduate study in librarianship/information science leading to a master's or doctoral degree at a recognized school of library /information science. DC/SLA Chapter's Catherine A. Jones Memorial Scholarship Fund for $1,500 will be awarded to an individual on the quality of a required essay, expected contribution to the information community, and financial need. The InfoCurrent scholarship for $2,000 will not require a demonstration of financial need. The scholarship will be awarded on the basis of the quality of the essay and expected contribution to the profession. The scholarships will be awarded at the DC/SLA Annual Banquet in May. More information can be found at this URL: http://www.sla.org/chapter/cdc/yp/scholarship.html For questions contact: Una Hildebrandt Booz Allen Hamilton 8283 Greensboro Drive McLean, VA 22102 703-902-6912 hildebrandt_una@bah.com

Information: The Critical Link Between CI and Information Managers Submitted by Barbie Keiser, barbieelene@att.net Information: The Critical Link Between CI and Information Managers was co-sponsored by the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) and DC/SLA. The presentation was developed jointly by Barbie Keiser, representing the information management perspective for SLA, and Melanie Wing, a competitive intelligence professional at Bank One (Chicago). Due to illness, Ms. Wing was not able to attend the session and Barbie Keiser delivered the talk at Marymount University (Ballston Campus) on Thursday, February 26. The evening began by defining Competitive Intelligence (a systematic program for gathering, analyzing and making actionable information about competitors’ activities, general business trends, and marketplace dynamics that is used to further your own company’s goals) and the critical role that information management plays in the process. A series of slides outlined the similarities and differences in responsibilities between CI professionals and information managers during the data collection stage, information compilation, and knowledge analysis. The evening ended with a discussion of new roles/responsibilities emerging for information managers within the CI profession and the competencies that are required for success.

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Time To Give Back To The Community! Submitted by Kenlee Ray, kenleer@aol.com Our next community project aims to tap the resources and skills of DC/SLA members to enrich and provide support for a library or media center that serves a local school or neighborhood. We need your help in finding worthy recipients for this project! Minimum requirements for nomination are: The recipient must be a library, community center, or information center serving a school, community, or neighborhood group. Someone at the location must currently be providing library services, whether as a professional or paraprofessional. Nominated locations need to show evidence of user support and involvement from the community. The lead manager, executive director or principal of the parent organization must actively support the library and be committed to its success. There must be a high likelihood for continuation of service by both DC/SLA and the community being served. For more details and/or to nominate an information center, please contact Kenlee Ray (202-483-2423, kenleer@aol.com) or David Snyder (703-575-5745, DSnyder@ascd.org).

DC/SLA Chapter Archives We would like to add photographs to our archive collection. It would be great to have pictures of past officers, chapter prize winners, final banquets, etc. If any members have photos of people or events, please contact Judy Grosberg at 301-496-6756 or grosberj@mail.nih.gov. DC/SLA Community Outreach: Sousa Loses Librarian Submitted by Kenlee Ray, kenleer@aol.com The Sousa Middle School, our first community outreach project, lost its part-time librarian in the latest round of DC Public School budget cuts made in order to finance the already approved increase in teachers' pay. We hope that the loss is only temporary and that the City Council, School Board and School Administration can work together to solve the funding crises that seem to plague the DC schools. The Chapter can be proud of the changes in the Sousa Library since we embarked upon the project in the spring of 2002. Our monetary contributions and book donations put a lot of new books on its shelves. Our weeding efforts helped to make it look more like a library and less like storage area for old textbooks. There were 7 working computers available for student and teacher use including 5 new computers with Windows 2000. The Follet Library Automation program is operational and the collection is partially cataloged online. Most importantly, it meant a lot to the teachers and kids just to see volunteers come into the school. Perhaps we came away changed too. The project provided an opportunity for us to learn more about neighborhoods "East of the River" and it certainly opened our eyes to the conditions of local schools.

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