ENHANCING INFORMATION LITERACY DURING THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC: THE ROLES OF LIBRARIANS
Abstract
With the high rate of Covid 19 transmission, it is evidenced that people may have not been properly informed about this scourge. This may be as a result of their poor literacy abilities to sort, search, evaluate and determine the reliability and authenticity of the health information on covid-19. This imminent poor information literacy (IL) ability has therefore provided a gap for the librarians to fill. This theoretical paper dealt on enhancing IL during the covid 19 pandemic: the roles of librarians. The paper discussed the history of libraries supporting IL; roles of librarians in enhancing IL during Covid 19; library-based ILP to combat misinformation on covid-19; implications of poor health IL on covid-19 pandemic on the people; advantages of IL on covid-19 infections to the people; challenges and solutions to enhancing IL. Conclusion and recommended were provided
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Adams S (2002) Libraries and Resource Centres: Celebrating Adult Learners every week of the year. Convergence XXV 2-3: 27-38.
Ajegbomogun FO and Ajegbomogun VO (2015). The library’s role in developing information literacy and societal growth. International Journal of Library and Information Science 7(7): 124-129
Allcott H, Gentzkow M, and Yu C (2019) Trends in the diffusion of misinformation on social media. doi:10.3386/w25500
American Library Association. (1998). Presidential committee on information literacy. Final report. Chicago: American Library Association.
Anyaoku EN, Ezeani CN and Osuigwe NE (2015) Information literacy practices of librarians in universities in South East Nigeria. International Journal of Library and Information Science 7(5): 96-102
Ashrafi-rizi H and Kazempour Z (2020) Information typology in coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis; a commentary. Arch Acad Emerg Medicine 8:1-9.
Association of College and Research Libraries Standards and Guidelines (2005). Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. From http/www.alace.orgala/acr/standards/information. Retrieved July 27, 2009
Au R (2020) Data literacy via COVID-19 - towards data science. Retrieved April 2, 2020, from Towards Data Science website: https://towardsdatascience. com/data-literacy-via-covid-19-38965538f390
Babalola ET (2002) Newspapers as Instruments for Building Literate Communities: The Nigerian Experience. Nordic Journal of African Studies 11 (3): 403-410.
Bertelsmann S (2004) Bundesverband Deutscher Bibliotheksverbünde e. V. (eds.) Bibliothek 2007: Internationale Best-Practice Recherche. Gütersloh, Bertelsmann Stiftung. 99.
Boberg S, Quandt T, Schatto-Eckrodt T and Frischlich L (2020) Pandemic populism: Facebook pages of alternative news media and the corona crisis—a computational content analysis. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2004.02566.pdf. Accessed April 12, 2020.
Bruce C (2003) Seven faces of information literacy: Towards inviting students into new experiences. http://kennison.name/files/zopestore/uploads/libraries/bruce-7-faces.pdf
Campbell L (1991) Victorian public libraries and adult literacy: a report of a project. South Melbourne, Vic., Victorian Ministry for the Arts, vii: 53-74.
Castro C (2020) Epidemia de histeria por el coronavirus: por qué nos volvemos locos y cómo vencer el miedo [online]. El Independiente; 2020 March 11. Available at: https://www. elindependiente.com/vida-sana/2020/03/10/epidemia-de-histeria-por-el-coronavirus-por-que-nos-volvemos-locos-y-como-vencer-el-miedo/ (Accessed 11 April 2020
Castro-Sánchez E, Chang PWS, Vila-Candel R, Escobedo AA, and Holmes AH (2016) Health literacy and infectious diseases: Why does it matter? International Journal of Infectious Diseases 43: 103-110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2015.12.019
DeLuca E (2020). Countries with lower literacy levels need different COVID-19 communication strategies. Retrieved April 1, 2020, from Translators without Borders website: https://www.translators withoutborders.org/blog/literacy-levels-covid-19
Doyle C (2001). Information literacy in an information society: A concept for the information age. Syracuse,NY:ERI
Dubicki E (2013). Faculty perceptions of students' information literacy skills competencies. Journal of Information Literacy 7(2): 97-125.
Fendos J (2020) Lessons from South Korea’s COVID-19 outbreak: The good, bad, and ugly. The Diplomat. Retrieved from https://thediplomat.com /2020/03/lessons-from-south-koreas-covid-19-outbreak-the-good-bad-and-ugly/
Fister B (2013) The Library’s Role in Learning: Information Literacy Revisited. Library Issues: Briefings for Faculty and Administrators 33 (4) http://www.libraryissues.com/pub/PDF3304Mar2013.pdf
Fitzgibbons SA (2000) Libraries and Literacy: A Preliminary Survey of the Literature. Paper presented at the 66th IFLA Council and General Conference. 13-18. August, 2000. http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla66/papers/122-139e.htm.
IFAP (2008) Information For All Programme: Strategic Plan (2008-2013): Discussion draft (17): (Online). Retrieved from http://porter.unesco.org/ci/en/file
Jogwu C (2010) Adult Illiteracy: The Root of African Underdevelopment. Education 130 (3).
Krolak L (2005) The role of libraries in the creation of literate environments. Paper commissioned for the Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2006, Literacy for Life. 2006/ED/EFA/MRT/PI/50
Ladan A, Haruna B and Madu AU (2020) COVID-19 Pandemic and Social Media News in Nigeria: The Role of Libraries and Library Associations in Information Dissemination. International Journal of Innovation and Research in Educational Sciences 7 (2): 125-133
Li Q, Guan X, Wu P, Wang X, Zhou L, and Tong Y (2020) Early transmission dynamics in Wuhan, China, of novel coronavirus-infected pneumonia. National English Journal of Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2001316
Lima MFG, Vasconcelos EMR, and Borba AK (2019) Instruments used to evaluate functional health literacy in elderly persons with chronic kidney disease: Integrative review. Revista Brasileira de Geriatria e Gerontologia 22(3): 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1590/1981-22562019022.180198
Lupton M, Glanville C, McDonald P, and Selzer D (2004). Information literacy toolkit. Brisbane, Queens- land: Griffith University. http://www.griffith.edu.au/centre/gihe/ Griffith graduate
MacLeod S, Musich S, Gulyas S, Cheng Y, Tkatch R, Cempellin D, and Yeh CS (2017). The impact of inadequate health literacy on patient satisfaction, healthcare utilization, and expenditures among older adults. Geriatric Nursing 38(4): 334-341. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gerinurse.2016.12.003
National Universities Commission (2007) Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards for Undergraduate Programmes in Nigerian Universities.www.nuc.edu.ng/nucsite/File/DASS/BMAS%20-%20Arts.pdf
Nussbaumer N (2020). Six essential media literacy skills for COVID-19 and other crises. Retrieved April 3, 2020, from Buffalo Rising website: https://www. buffalorising.com/2020/03/six-essential-media-literacy-skills-for-covid-19-and-other-crises/
Okan O, Sørensen K and Messer M (2020). COVID-19: A guide to good practice on keeping people well informed. Retrieved April 2, 2020, from The Conversation website: https://theconversation. com/covid-19-a-guide-to-good-practice-on-keeping-people-well-informed-134046#comments-container
Øvern KM (2014). Faculty-library collaboration: two pedagogical approaches. Journal of Information Literacy 8(2): 36-55. http://dx.d doi.org/10.11645/8.2.1910
Protheroe J, Whittle R, Bartlam B, Estacio EV, Clark L and Kurth J (2017). Health literacy, associated lifestyle and demographic factors in adult population of an English city: A cross-sectional survey. Health Expectations 20(1): 112-119. https://doi.org/10.1111/hex.12440
Ryu S and Chun BC (2020) Korean Society of Epidemiology 2019-nCoV Task Force Team. An interim review of the epidemiological characteristics of 2019 novel coronavirus. Epidemiol Health 42: e2020006. https://doi.org/10.4178/
Sokey PP, Adjei E and Ankrah E (2018) Media use for health information dissemination to rural communities by the Ghana Health Service. Journal of Information Science, Systems and Technology 2 (1): 1 - 18
Sørensen K (2020) Covid-19: Digital health literacy is a key to saving time, costs and lives. Retrieved April 2, 2020, from ICT & health website: https://www. ictandhealth.com/news/covid-19-digital-health-literacy-is-a-key-to-saving-time-costs-and-lives/
Sørensen K, Van Den Broucke S, Fullam J, Doyle G, Pelikan J, Slonska Z and Brand H (2012) Health literacy and public health: A systematic review and integration of definitions and models. BMC Public Health 12(1): 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-80
Srikanth C (2017) Role of public libraries: Information literacy in an information society. IMPACT: International Journal of Research in Humanities, Arts and Literature (IMPACT: IJRHAL) 5 (7): 55-60
Thelwall M and Thelwall S (2020) Retweeting for COVID-19: consensus building, information sharing, dissent, and lockdown life. https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2004/2004.02793.pdf. Accessed April 12, 2020
Villegas-Chiroque M (2020) Pandemia de COVID-19: pelea o huye. Rev Exp Med Hosp Reg Lamb 6(1). https://doi.org/10.37065/rem.v6i1.424
WHO (2020) Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic: Numbers at a glance. https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019?gclid=Cj0KCQjwreT8BRDTARIsAJLI0KL29TgTZBeet-BfaZJBO-zM97r2tgbUa50eundEV_e38rrTjF7QPO4aAj57EALw_wcB
WHO (2020a) Novel Coronavirus–China. https://www.who.int/csr/don/12-january-2020-novel-coronavirus-china/en/. Accessed 1 Feb 2020
WMHC (2020). Wuhan Municipal Health and Health Commission’s Briefing on the Current Pneumonia Epidemic Situation in Our City. http://wjw.wuhan.gov.cn/front/web/showDetail/2019123108989. Accessed 1 Feb 2020.
World Health Organisation (2020b), Coronavirus diseases 2019 (COVID 19), situational report - 66, 28th March 2020. https://www.who.int›docspdf
World Health Organisation (2020c), Modes of transmission of virus causing COVID-19: Implications for IPC precaution recommendations. who.int/health-topics/coronavirus. https://www.who.int.health-topics/coronavirus
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
ISSN: 3026-9407 (Online)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.