In order to more fully understand what critical information literacy is, it is important to understand what information literacy (IL) is as it is generally defined. According to the Association of College and Research Libraries, information literacy is “the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning” (8). Taking this a step further, “critical information literacy refutes the neutrality of traditional IL and asks library educators and students to engage with the social and political dimensions of information, including its production, dissemination, and reception” (Tewell 292). When applied in the classroom, critical information literacy can take on a critical pedagogical stance. As Swanson writes, “a critical pedagogy directs us to understand information in a humanistic sense, as an extension of a person. This means that all information … contains the inherent biases and limited worldview of the author. From this point of view, [educators] and students would recognize that much–some would say all–of the information in our society flows from the points of power, economic and political” (72). Critical information literacy makes explicit the impact of power--social, political, economic-- in shaping the creation, access, and use of information.
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