We Can Teach That: Information Literacy for School Librarians

Information literacy is a complex subject that finally arrived at the doorstep of school libraries. For decades academic researchers have been trying to capture the essence of information literacy, its educational, cognitive and civic value.

The collection of book chapters offered in We Can Teach That is a handbook that can be used as an inspiration for teaching various types of literacy: visual, digital, multicultural, health and more. The book asks important questions: When do we start teaching information literacy? How do we teach it? How does it affect our students at their education level? How does it prepare them for their post high school adult life? Does it impact their transition to college or career?

Dziedzic-Elliott and her collaborators provide a range of best practices and concepts that inspire thinking about teaching information literacy at all levels. Although written with school librarians in mind, the book can be easily adapted by teachers, school administrators and even public librarians who are looking to incorporate information literacy elements in their daily practices.

The book challenges the reader to rethink what they know about digital or tech literacy, breaks some stereotypical concepts about multicultural literacy and highlights the importance of literacies even in adulthood.

Ewa Dziedzic Elliott has spent over 10 years as a K-12 school librarian in the state of New Jersey. As an executive board member and a president of New Jersey Association of School Librarians she stood at the helm of the association during the time when teaching information literacy became a law in January 2023.

She has exercised the state standards revisions and writing: NJDOE State Standards: Information and Media Literacy 2019-2020; NJ Students Learning Standards Review 2019; ELA Instructional Unit Standards 2019.

Dziedzic-Elliott recently published articles focus on college readiness and closing the research gaps between K-12 and college/ academic institutions, such as (Valenza, J. K., Dalal, H., Mohamad, G., Boyer, B., Berg, C., Charles, L. H., . . . Dziedzic-Elliott, E. (2022). First years’ information literacy backpacks: What’s already packed or not packed? The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 48(4), 102566. doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2022.102566).

Based on experiences accumulated through working on state standards and research, Dziedzic-Elliott strongly believes that information literacy instruction can be the response to the question of closing the college readiness and research gaps between K-12 and higher education.