Information Literacy Commons^™

Innovative Information Literacy Landscapes: Leveraging The Specialized Knowledge Of Lgbtq+ Communities In Research And Practice, Vanessa Kitzie

Faculty Publications

This paper examines how Knowledge School principles can help libraries develop a more nuanced understanding of how social and cultural differences shape knowledge production and dissimi-nation within LGBTQ+ communities. I focus on information literacy (IL), in which practitioners teach individuals to seek, evaluate, and use information. IL can empower communities by enhancing education, confidence, and decision-making. However, libraries often approach IL from a deficit, skills-based perspective by envisioning communities as lacking the requisite knowledge to fulfill their information needs. As a Knowledge School, we need to move away from one-size-fits-all approaches to librarianship. Through research, we can understand how communities …