The Information Literate Brain

Abstract

The Information Literacy (IL) literature generally looks no further for a rationale than the evident value and obvious practical justification of IL programmes. There is emerging a wealth of published, broadcast and online scientific popularisation of modern neuroscience, which allows the general reader to grasp the implications of the research. From this we discover that neuroscience has a great deal to tell us about humans and information (seeking, discovering, understanding, remembering etc.). We argue that a neuroscience-based view of humans and information suggests new approaches in information science generally and the practice of IL teaching specifically. This would respect the importance of the personal modes of interaction with information that originate in the unconscious areas of the mind and which have been neglected in favour of an emphasis on the more formal searching structures that has been given precedence in librarianship. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2013.