Critical Information Literacy

Abstract Critical information literacy seeks to challenge forms of oppression by identifying issues with and taking action upon the social, political, and economic dimensions of information. Critical information literacy is rooted in critical theory and most often critical pedagogy, and opposes traditional formulations of information literacy that fail to account for complexities and inequalities in the production and distribution of knowledge. While critical information literacy is not limited to education, it is most often applied by library workers to their educational efforts with library users, including information literacy instruction. Being a theory and practice concerned with information broadly, particularly as related to libraries, critical information literacy overlaps to some degree with critical media literacy, with a shared interest in encouraging learners to critically evaluate, use, and create information.