Critical information literacy as a criticism to information literacy

Abstract

This article aims to formulate a critique of the notion of "literacy" that underlies the concept of "information literacy", through an analysis of the institutional notion of the term in historical perspective - since its proposition in a US government document in the 1970s until its development by international institutions relevant to the fields of librarianship and information science, such as the Association for College and Research Libraries (division of the American Library Association) and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. At the methodological level, the research is developed through: a) a diachronic diagnosis, observing the context of formation of the institutional discourses that will develop the concept in the future; and b) a synchronous diagnosis, oriented to the critical analysis of the context of the emergence of "information literacy" as an independent category. From this evaluation, which meets one of the main objectives of the studies of "critical information literacy", we seek to contribute to a reflection that allows overcoming the semantic obstacles that instrumentalize the precepts of information literacy (often adapting them to governmental and market interests) and the conquest of the ethical-political horizons of freedom and informational autonomy of individuals and communities in the contemporary information regime.