The information landscape is a vast space that is constantly changing. As seen in ‘Most Popular Social Media- Growth Evolution (2004-2020)’ (Global Stats, 2020) use of social media applications change rapidly over time, can become quickly outdated and in lots of cases defunct. This is also true for the physical devices that access these applications. With such a rapidly changing information landscape it is important for teacher librarians to have a broader understanding of the topic. With changes to technology and constant new introductions of various applications; policies, guidelines and laws around the access and use of information change as well. Having a broad knowledge of the information landscape and laws, rules, policies and guidelines that surround it allows teacher librarians to make the most appropriate choices when guiding students through the amount of information available to them.
The information landscape affects the role of a teacher librarian by creating a need for the explicit teaching of digital literacy skills. Students need to know not only how to access information, but information that is relevant, and then how to critically analyse its usefulness for their intended purpose. The teacher librarian needs to have knowledge of a broad range of credible sources of information to be able to pass this onto their school community.
Teacher librarians don’t need to hold all of the answers about the changing information landscape (that would be impossible!), but they do need to be open-minded about new technology and information sources as well as have the desire to constantly update and evolve their own digital literacy skills.
References:
Global Stats. (2020). Most Popular Social Media- Growth Evolution (2004-2020) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPj-TT8K5vA