From observer to participant: teaching music information literacy using the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education

Abstract

Helping music students see the relevancy of information literacy has been both a long-standing goal and challenge for music librarians. Despite the preconceptions of the typical music student, information literacy is key to students’ development as scholars, performers, and composers. Information literacy is as critical for music students as it is for students of all other majors. Amanda Maple, Beth Christensen, and Kathleen Abromeit’s 1996 article for this journal is one of many illustrating this imperative. Maple et al. address music students’ unique information needs, highlighting the necessity for music students to understand the differences between varying types of scores and recordings, as well as the importance of learning to think critically about the possible uses of these score and recording types. As they state, “Information literacy informs more than scholarship for music students; it promotes success in performance as well. . . . The world of music is open to them in a way it was not before.”