Digital Literacy

Digital literacy is the set of attitudes, understanding and skills to handle and communicate information and knowledge effectively, in a variety of media and formats

The concept of digital literacy, as the term is now generally used, was introduced by Paul Gilster, in his 1997 book of the same name. The term itself had been used occasionally during the previous decade, though with a more restricted meaning; the ability to deal with hypertextual information. Gilster's idea was much broader, and did not involve the enumeration of lists of particular skills, competences or attitudes defining what it is to be digitally literate. Rather, he explained the concept quite generally, as an ability to understand and to use information from a variety of digital sources, and regarded it simply as literacy in the digital age. It is therefore the current form of the traditional idea of literacy per se; the ability to read, write and otherwise deal with information using the technologies and formats of the time. In an 'information society' and a 'knowledge economy', it is plainly an essential life skill. This generic expression of the idea, although it has irritated some commentators, is one of the strengths of Gilster’s concept, allowing it to be applied without concern for the sometimes restrictive ‘competence lists’ which have afflicted some other descriptions of the literacies of information.

Despite some continuing inconsistency in the use of the term, we see that several authors, following Paul Gilster, are using ‘digital literacy’ to denote a broad concept, linking together other relevant literacies, based on computer/ICT competences and skills, but focused on ‘softer’ skills of information evaluation and knowledge assembly, together with a set of understandings and attitudes.

This is also referred to by other names, particularly e-literacy and, by some, information literacy. However, the former has not gained popularity, while the latter is strongly associated with various linear models, espoused particularly by the library community. It has also been adopted by UNESCO as an important tool for national and international development, as expressed in the Prague Declaration of 2003 and in the Alexandria Proclamation of 2005.

A typical explanation, from the American Library Association is:

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.

Information literacy is therefore seen as a linear series of sequential steps, typically:

* recognising a need for information
* identifying what information is needed
* finding the information
* evaluating the information
* organising the information
* using the information

Variations abound: 'communicating' may be included, for example, while 'deleting' and 'preserving' are given mention by those with a records management perspective. Greater granularity may be included, with 'finding' sometime broken down into sub-processes, such as 'choosing a source', 'retrieving' and 'acessing'.

While this is sometimes a useful concept, particularly for in planning training programmes, it is rather too prescriptive, and too limited to a 'library-style' formal information request, to be useful for describing all that is needed in dealing with the modern information environment.

Gilster’s idea of digital literacy, particularly as developed by a number of writers since, seems a suitable candidate. ‘Digital literacy’ seems an appropriate name, in an age where information comes mainly in this form; though with the caveat that an important part of digital literacy is knowing when to use a non-digital source.