10

The Practice and Promise of Critical 
Information Literacy: Academic 
Librarians’ Involvement in Critical 
Library Instruction

Eamon C. Tewell*

Critical information literacy is a way of thinking and teaching that examines 
the social construction and political dimensions of libraries and informa-
tion, problematizing information’s production and use so that library users 
may think critically about such forces. Being an educational approach 
that acknowledges and emboldens learners’ agency, critical information 
literacy has much to offer librarians. Using a survey and follow-up inter-
views with thirteen librarians practicing critical information literacy, this 
paper illustrates some of the many ways that librarians incorporate this 
vital approach to teaching the complexities of information, as well as the 
potential advantages and difficulties of doing so. 

Portions of this paper’s findings have been included in “Putting Critical Informa-
tion Literacy into Context: How and Why Librarians Adopt Critical Practices in 
Their Teaching,” published by In the Library with the Lead Pipe.

Introduction
The educational activities of libraries are a vital component in pursuing their missions, 
whether conducted through the lending of collections free of charge, providing refer-
ence services in person and online, or developing instructional programs designed 
to teach library users how to find and evaluate information. In the United States, the 
concept of information literacy was first introduced in the 1970s, developed through 
the 1980s, and formalized and broadly adopted in the 1990s, particularly in academic 
libraries. Information literacy has widely served as a means to argue for the importance 
of librarians’ roles as educators within an ever-changing information landscape. As 
information literacy has developed through the professional discourse and influential 
documents such as the American Library Association’s Presidential Committee on Infor-
mation Literacy Final Report (1989), the Association of College and Research Libraries’ 
Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (2000), and the newly 
adopted Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (2016), until recently, 

 Eamon C. Tewell is Reference & Instruction Librarian at Long Island University, Brooklyn; e-mail: 
eamon.tewell@liu.edu. ©2018 Eamon C. Tewell, Attribution-NonCommercial (http://creativecommons.
org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) CC BY-NC.

doi:10.5860/crl.79.1.10

mailto:eamon.tewell@liu.edu
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.79.1.10


The Practice and Promise of Critical Information Literacy  11

predominant conceptions of information literacy have been rooted in and expressed 
as mechanistic notions of information access and use. One collective response to infor-
mation literacy’s failure to address the social and political dimensions of information 
and education in libraries calls for a critical information literacy. This call to recognize 
the importance of social justice to libraries and librarians’ work has gained visibility 
in the scholarly literature and profession as a whole since first making its appearance 
fifteen years ago.1

As a theory and practice, critical information literacy (critical IL) aims to understand 
how libraries participate in systems of oppression and find ways for librarians and 
students to act upon these systems. Critical IL applies critical theory and most often the 
aims of critical pedagogy to libraries, daring to imagine education as a site for generat-
ing social change. Critical information literacy is not limited to instruction; instead, 
it is a way of thinking about information literacy as a whole as it is expressed across 
various sites, from libraries’ educational efforts to the professional and societal forces 
that shape these activities. Critical IL has much to offer librarians seeking to rethink 
not only their approach to instruction, but also the goals and actions of libraries more 
generally. As stated by Lua Gregory and Shana Higgins in Information Literacy and Social 
Justice: Radical Professional Praxis, critical information literacy “takes into consideration 
the social, political, economic, and corporate systems that have power and influence 
over information production, dissemination, access, and consumption.”2 

For the purposes of this study, critical information literacy is defined as an approach 
to education in library settings that strives to recognize education’s potential for social 
change and empower learners to identify and act upon oppressive power structures. 
For this ambitious goal of fostering critical consciousness to take place, librarians must 
be equipped with an understanding of how to enact this change. This knowledge could 
include why people who feel critical information literacy is important identify it as such, 
and how these individuals incorporate the ideas of critical IL into their instructional 
practice. The development of librarians’ critical understandings can occur in many 
ways, but the perceived theory-into-practice problem can be a common impediment, 
and that is an obstacle this paper wishes to address.3 Using an online questionnaire 
followed by interviews with thirteen academic librarians practicing critical informa-
tion literacy, this research illustrates some of the possibilities for librarians to integrate 
this vital approach to teaching the complexities of information into their practice. In 
particular, this research explores how academic librarians make critical information 
literacy part of their classroom instruction and in what ways they find this to be a 
challenging or beneficial undertaking. The findings will in turn help other librarians 
to apply strategies for questioning dominant culture to their own work. 

Literature Review
A number of important studies have critiqued information literacy and attempted to 
situate academic librarianship within larger paradigms shaping the ways its work is 
conceived of and carried out. The concept of information literacy, which is subject to 
cultural, geographical, and temporal contexts, has been examined as containing two 
inherently contradictory terms connoting control and democratic empowerment that 
may nonetheless be able to produce a creative tension for librarians willing to embrace 
this dualism,4 as a set of assumptions that not only lack the complexity needed to 
prepare learners for engaging with information but “present a hindrance to critical 
and transformative literacy practice,”5 and as an attempt at legitimizing the profession 
in the face of technological changes that increased the ease of information access.6 In 
recent years, researchers have considered information literacy and libraries in relation 
to the imperatives of neoliberalism, a set of economic policies based upon the rule of 



12  College & Research Libraries January 2018

the market that are increasingly applied to not just economics but all spheres of life, 
including education.7 These analyses of the aims of information literacy and the ideolo-
gies it is embedded within have done much to inform the ideas of critical information 
literacy, which itself critiques information literacy from a variety of perspectives.

The scholarly literature of critical information literacy as well as the broader literature 
of critical approaches to librarianship has increased considerably over the past decade, 
taking issue with the notion of libraries as ideologically neutral spaces, arguing for an 
understanding of information literacy that accounts for sociopolitical dynamics, and 
seeking ways to involve library users in the politics of information access and use. One 
researcher observes that, when she “started studying critical information literacy in 
2009, there was only a very small body of work to draw from.”8 Many of the works of 
critical IL have been reviewed by Eamon Tewell and Beth McDonough.9 McDonough 
discerned practice implications from a body of 41 articles, book chapters, and disserta-
tions addressing critical information literacy. The synthesis revealed several findings 
in relation to library instruction, including that the existing literature asks librarians to 
build upon students’ existing understandings of information, to incorporate problem- 
or question-based instruction, and to teach about all types of information in relation to 
its purposes and uses. McDonough found from her personal experiences that, “when 
I give students control, and begin with their experiences, they are much more willing 
to dialogue with me about information context and uses.”10 

One foundational work of critical information literacy is James Elmborg’s 2006 es-
say, which followed a handful of articles discussing critical IL in libraries and played 
a large role in bringing attention to the concept.11 Elmborg draws upon the work of 
radical educator Paulo Freire in his consideration of critical IL as an approach to edu-
cation that focuses on cultivating a critical consciousness in students, with the goal 
of facilitating students’ abilities to “take control of their lives and their own learning 
to become active agents, asking and answering questions that matter to them and 
the world around them.”12 Elmborg also considers the difficulties in defining critical 
IL, which is a useful starting point for exploring the term’s implications.13 Early in 
its development, critical IL was also advocated for by Michele Holschuh Simmons, 
Troy Swanson, and John Doherty, each of whom address critical information literacy 
from various positions: adopting genre theory to help students adapt to disciplinary 
discourse while recognizing the contested nature of information,14 integrating a criti-
cal IL model into a first-year composition course at a community college,15 and using 
critical pedagogy to inform library instruction.16 A major cornerstone of the critical IL 
literature is the 2010 volume Critical Library Instruction: Theories and Methods, which 
features chapters exploring the intersections of critical pedagogy and library instruction 
and is a valuable resource for librarians interested in how critical information literacy 
might be attempted in the library classroom.17 The working definition of critical IL that 
this study adopts is based on the author’s engagement with the critical IL literature 
described above; it is particularly influenced by key works of critical pedagogy by bell 
hooks, Paulo Freire, and Henry Giroux. 

Librarianship informed by social justice and activism has a long tradition, high-
lighted recently by a number of books relating to critical and activist librarianship.18 
Of particular interest to this discussion is Annie Downey’s Critical Information Literacy: 
Foundations, Inspiration, and Ideas, wherein she interviews academic instruction librar-
ians involved in critical IL work and draws upon her own experiences as an educator 
to examine how critical IL is practiced in a variety of settings, providing a wealth of 
insight.19 The literature of critical IL is becoming increasingly robust as its ideas are 
applied to credit-bearing courses,20 subject-specific library instruction,21 the political 
understandings of young adults,22 and its correlations with participatory information 



The Practice and Promise of Critical Information Literacy  13

environments.23 A recent survey found that a number of librarians have familiarity 
with one of a number of critical theories, from postcolonialism to queer theory, and 
moreover, that many librarians are concerned with social justice issues as they relate 
to libraries.24 At the same time, examples of how critical IL is and can be practiced, as 
well as how different factors facilitate or inhibit critical IL work, are lacking from the 
existing literature. The gap between an increasing interest in critical IL and its applica-
tion to one’s work is what this research intends to address. 

Methodology
The primary objective of this study is to investigate two research questions:

1. In what ways do academic librarians incorporate critical information literacy 
into their instruction? 

2. What benefits and challenges do academic librarians identify in making critical 
information literacy part of their instruction?

As an exploratory study intended to gain understanding into the ways academic 
librarians practice critical information literacy in group instruction settings, this research 
uses an online questionnaire combined with in-depth interviews. A mixed-methods 
approach was adopted to combine two distinct approaches to the research questions 
in mutually informative ways, as well as to triangulate and improve the meaningful 
interpretation of the data. The questionnaire was designed to elicit brief responses 
from a larger number of librarians on how and why they make critical IL part of their 
instructional practice and recruit volunteers for potential in-depth interviews, while 
the interview questions were intended to elicit more detailed information regarding the 
benefits and challenges academic librarians encounter in this type of teaching. The sur-
vey responses informed the development of interview questions in that queries suited 
to in-depth discussion but difficult to describe in a brief survey format, such as first 
learning about the topic or theoretical and conceptual understandings, were created. 

The population for this study is librarians employed by academic institutions who 
self-identify as incorporating critical IL into their classroom instruction. Because the 
research’s purpose is to learn about the thoughts and actions of librarians practicing 
critical IL as opposed to obtaining a sample representative of the profession as a whole, 
the methodology uses convenience sampling, a nonprobability sampling technique. 
The research project was approved by the Long Island University Institutional Review 
Board, which protects the rights of human subjects in research studies affiliated with 
Long Island University.

The online questionnaire was distributed in November 2015 to the ili-l and collib-l 
e-mail listservs and through Twitter, remaining open for three weeks. The 12-item 
questionnaire was developed in SurveyMonkey and was open to “all individuals 
employed by an academic library, providing classroom instruction in some capacity at 
their library, and who identify as incorporating critical information literacy into their 
instruction.” The survey concluded with the opportunity for interested respondents 
to be contacted for the possibility of participating in a follow-up interview. The full 
questionnaire is included as appendix A. 

After the survey’s conclusion, thirteen potential interviewees were contacted accord-
ing to institution type, years of experience in the profession, and job responsibilities, 
to obtain data representing individuals from a variety of professional backgrounds 
and working environments. While not intended to necessarily be representative of 
the profession as a whole, these demographic characteristics were selected to uncover 
different types of experiences dependent upon one’s setting. All thirteen respondents 
agreed to participate, and their preference for conducting the interview was obtained 
along with a brief demographic questionnaire and a form indicating their consent. 



14  College & Research Libraries January 2018

Eight interviews took place asynchronously via e-mail over the course of January and 
February 2016, and five interviews between 30 and 75 minutes in duration took place 
via the video chat service Skype. The set of eight interview questions are included in 
appendix B.

In total, data collection took place from November 2015 to February 2016. The in-
terviews conducted via Skype were recorded and transcribed by the author to build 
greater personal familiarity with the interviewees’ responses. The interview transcripts 
and open-ended survey questions were subsequently exported to Microsoft Word and 
Excel for analysis. The survey and interview data were analyzed with a grounded 
theory approach using the constant comparative method. Survey and interview data 
were coded separately but with similar processes, beginning with open coding that 
used a combination of descriptive and in vivo coding, followed by memoing in separate 
documents, the identification of themes generated by each data collection method, and 
finally a comparison to determine shared themes. Due to the relatively small scale of 
the dataset, the aforementioned hand coding and a word search analysis in Microsoft 
Word and Excel were satisfactory in determining salient themes and findings for this 
primarily qualitative investigation. This was confirmed through the subsequent use 
of the qualitative data analysis program Dedoose for the interview transcripts, which 
did not reveal additional cogent or substantial themes.

Participants
The online questionnaire received 154 responses to the first five questions, which were 
closed-ended and gathered information regarding demographics. The responses sum-
marizing participants’ number of years of post-MLS experience working in libraries, 
type of academic institution where they are currently employed, and approximate 
student enrollment at their institution are summarized below. Though the survey 
asked for certain demographic information regarding participants, no correlations 
between participant demographics and one’s critical information literacy practice were 
intended to be drawn. The data are provided so that the findings may be considered 
with participants’ levels of professional experience and work settings in mind. 

When asked “How many years have you worked in a library of any type after re-
ceiving your MLS or its equivalent,” 58 participants indicated 0–4 years of experience 
(38%), 41 with 5–9 years (27%), 29 with 10–14 years (19%), and 25 with 15 or more years 
of post-MLS experience working in a library (16%). A majority of participants currently 
work in a university setting (104; 67%), followed by a college (29; 19%), community 
college (12; 8%), or other type of academic institution (9; 6%). The institution sizes in 
terms of enrollment were relatively evenly distributed, with six participants selecting 
“under 1,000” students (4%), 41 participants with 1,000–4,999 students (27%), 27 par-
ticipants with 5,000–9,999 students (17%), 38 respondents with 10,000–19,000 students 
(25%), 18 with 20,000–29,999 students (12%), 22 with 30,000 students or above (14%), 
and two respondents who were unsure (1%). 

Question 6 asked whether respondents incorporate critical information literacy into 
their classroom instruction. Because the survey was advertised as and intended to gather 
the input of librarians currently practicing critical IL in their classroom instruction, 
the number of those responding that they do incorporate critical IL was accordingly 
high, at 70 percent (68). Other responses included “No” (15; 15%), “Unsure” (12; 12%), 
and “Other” (2; 2%), who specified that their practice of critical IL is in consultations 
with small groups of students and “it depends on the group.” The remaining survey 
questions were open-ended and received between 60 and 73 responses each. These 
responses varied greatly and required analysis to determine broader themes; they are 
described in the Findings and Discussion section. 



The Practice and Promise of Critical Information Literacy  15

Before in-depth interviews were conducted, the 13 interviewees were asked to 
complete a demographic questionnaire. The interviewees held a variety of job titles 
primarily related to instruction, outreach, or the department they primarily liaise with 
(such as “Education Librarian”). Three job titles indicated a departmental director or 
coordinator role, such as “Coordinator of Instruction.” In terms of geography, four 
interviewees reside in the Pacific region, with two interviewees each in the East North 
Central, South Atlantic, and Mountain regions, and one interviewee each in the New 
England, West North Central, and East South Central regions. All but two of nine 
regions in the United States are represented by at least one interviewee.

Nine interview participants indicated that their gender is best identified as female, 
and four specified their gender as male. In terms of racial or ethnic heritage, one inter-
viewee indicated their ethnicity as “East Asian or Asian American,” three interviewees 
as “Latino or Hispanic American,” and nine interviewees as “Non-Hispanic White 
or Euro-American.” Regarding years of post-MLS experience working in a library, a 
majority of interviewees had 0–4 years (6) or 5–9 years of experience (5), while one 
interviewee indicated 10–14 years and one indicated 15 or more years. A variety of 
academic settings were well represented among interviewees, including university (6), 
college (4), community college (2), and a library jointly serving three institutions (1). 

Findings and Discussion
A synthesis of the primary concepts that surfaced in both the survey and interviews 
reveal a number of themes within four different categories: Teaching Content, Teaching 
Methods, Challenges, and Benefits. Each of these categories, which follow below, emerged 
through being mentioned most frequently in the data. No significant subcategories or 
subthemes were identified. While some themes are documented in other studies and are 
identified as such, they were done so after being identified as opposed to prior to analysis. 

Teaching Content
Librarians who self-identified as practicing critical information literacy in their class-
room instruction contributed a wealth of examples through which they exercise this 
approach to teaching. After carefully reading these examples, considering their likely 
method and intent, and grouping them according to underlying ideas, five primary 
themes in terms of teaching critical information literacy topics emerged: 

 □ Classification
 □ Search Examples
 □ Academic Conventions and Access
 □ Corporate Media
 □ Alternative Media

These themes do not represent the range of possibilities for the content that is taught 
in critical IL instruction; instead, they serve simply as summaries of several ways that 
some academic librarians have found it useful to teach. A common difficulty for aca-
demic librarians who teach, and in particular those who wish to use a critically informed 
approach, is finding ways to address broader conceptions of information within the 
constraints of a brief standalone session. Moreover, for non–credit-bearing classes, 
the content a librarian addresses may be in large part determined by the suggestions 
of teaching faculty. This makes collaborative relationships with faculty a substantial 
factor in successfully incorporating critical methods. The following themes can serve 
as inspiration to the librarian seeking to make critical ideas more prominent in their 
classroom, whether it is a single session or a semester-long course. 

The use of library classification systems as a text to be read is one way librarians 
are able to problematize the white hetero-patriarchal foundations of how knowledge 



16  College & Research Libraries January 2018

is arranged in libraries while drawing attention to the constructed nature of these and 
other organizational schemes, as has been investigated since the 1970s.25 Teaching 
classification systems has the potential for showing students how tools such as subject 
headings contribute to the discovery or obfuscation of information while also reifying 
dominant ideologies and the oppressive representations this entails. Several partici-
pants used Library of Congress (LC) Classification as a starting point for discussions 
on information discovery, with one instance described here: 

One example is a “close reading” of the main headings in the LC classification 
system, where students are asked what they notice and what they wonder as 
they look at the subject headings; this usually sparks interesting conversation 
about which “subject areas” seem to have more significance than others in the 
LC system, as well as how these subjects are labeled.

Another librarian developed a creative approach to discussing classification, which 
they found leads to the potential for much larger ideas to take root: “I’ve had students 
look at LC and Dewey classifications as ‘anthropologists from the year 2815’ and they try 
to hypothesize values the cultures that produced these ways of looking at information 
had—thereby opening up the idea that knowledge is conditional on time, place, and 
power.” Teaching using classification as a point of departure can give librarians the 
ability to describe concrete examples with their students while allowing discussions 
to progress into larger ideas of how knowledge is organized in ways that reflect and 
maintain dominant belief systems. 

Search examples were brought up consistently by participants, who made use of 
search terms related to racial justice, gender discrimination, and other issues likely 
to affect college students or transpiring in society at large. As described by Maria Ac-
cardi, search examples have the potential to act as a form of consciousness-raising by 
drawing attention to social issues and potentially making marginalized students feel 
that their struggles are recognized.26 One librarian explains the use of search examples: 

I also make use of search terms that also have the effect of consciousness rais-
ing, like if it’s a business class, or a session where they have some sort of career-
exploration topic, using something about the gender wage gap or something like 
that as a search example can be interesting and powerful. 

Other librarians mentioned using Freddie Gray or Black Lives Matter as search 
terms, while also noting why most library databases are unlikely to be an ideal source 
for obtaining the most recent information on rapidly developing topics. Part of par-
ticipants’ enthusiasm for search examples related to social justice issues may be due to 
the need for flexibility, considering course instructor demands and time constraints, as 
well as the ability to set the stage for more demanding pedagogical approaches. These 
examples can be used to bring important and timely questions to the fore of even the 
most inflexible one-shot session, as alluded to by one librarian: “Even in sometimes 
restrictive one-shots, I use example topics related to social justice issues.”

One particularly rich area for discussing issues of power and control is located within 
academe itself. Librarians practicing critical IL are bringing to the surface a variety 
of academic conventions and issues related to information access. As one respondent 
notes, their classes may “look at the economic power structures that limit access to 
academic information (overpricing, password protection). We consider how peer re-
view can lead to quality control or suppression of newer or more radical views.” This 
troubling of not just ingrained academic conventions, but the economic basis for how 



The Practice and Promise of Critical Information Literacy  17

traditional scholarly information is produced and often made available only to affiliates 
of higher education institutions through exorbitantly priced proprietary databases, is 
addressed by another librarian through the lens of information privilege: “I am really 
trying to focus my instruction/outreach on information privilege. This gets students 
to question what ‘quality’ is, how they cite and engage with privileged sources, and 
how/why marginalized voices might not be present in those conversations.” For an 
introduction to libraries and information privilege, see Char Booth’s excellent discus-
sion.27 One librarian’s aims were to not only problematize key components of academic 
information and its access through their teaching efforts, but to consider the entire 
enterprise of academe and scholarship:

One of my main focuses in teaching is to get students to understand how and why 
academia is structured the way it is, and to dispute the notion that this model 
is ideal for society. One way I teach towards this principle is by having students 
examine for whom academic scholarship is authored. One exercise I use is to have 
students compare different mediums (peer-review articles, newspapers, blogs) 
and ask guided questions to generate discussion around audience, authority 
and accessibility.

Being something that is used or encountered on a daily basis in many peoples’ 
lives, a number of librarians developed activities and questions based on corporate 
media. While such topics may seem oversized for library instruction sessions that are 
frequently an hour to an hour and a half in length, one participant had success with 
interrogating popular media in this format: “I frequently design one-shot class sessions 
built around a few open-ended questions, and hope for students to drive the discus-
sion. The topics have included bias in search algorithms and how editorial processes 
in popular media are designed to perpetuate the status quo rather than truly ‘report 
the news.’” Participants designed their lesson plans most frequently in relation to 
Safiya Noble’s extensive research on Google and other corporate search products28 
as well as other researchers’ important work on the discriminatory effects of search 
algorithms.29 Another librarian offered specific resources that they use to examine the 
profit structures underlying corporate media:

I encourage students to think about the profit structures behind the media. For 
example, with certain first-year students, I will show them the site “Who Owns 
the Media” to talk about bias and monopolies. For another example, in some 
political science or policy classes, we investigate www.opensecrets.org, to see 
which organizations lobby on behalf of legislation.

Just as some librarians found that focusing on corporate media processes and motives 
was a productive way to talk about information literacy with their students, others were 
interested in focusing on alternative and counterculture media. Actively incorporat-
ing alternative media into one’s instruction is likely to have the effect of information 
being taught in a broader sense than that which is found within a library’s holdings 
and subscriptions. Centering alternative media is one way of introducing questions of 
who gets to publish, as well as a means of bringing in marginalized perspectives while 
showing students that their own voices could also be heard through various channels. 
One librarian used zines to accomplish this: “I do a lot of teaching with zines, focusing 
on self-publishing and the amplification of frequently marginalized voices—this always 
includes opportunities for students to make and share their own work.” Accompanying 
this shift toward discussing counterculture resources is the discussion of mechanisms 

http://www.opensecrets.org


18  College & Research Libraries January 2018

within different types of publishing. The teaching of various types of information, 
not just academic, and not making value judgments based on where information is 
retrieved, is reflected in McDonough’s synthesis of the critical IL literature.30 

Fewer librarians addressed credit-bearing courses than those teaching one-shot ses-
sions, but these extended instructional modes offer opportunities for powerful ideas 
to be explored in much more depth and detail. A model very much aligned with the 
critical pedagogy methods of problem-posing and taking action in one’s community was 
described by one participant: “In my credit course, students choose a topic related to 
an issue facing their community (self defined) and write an advocacy letter suggesting 
a course of action based on their research. I also have them participate in a class action 
research project (develop a topic and survey question together).” The uses of student-
directed learning, community advocacy, and action research are all promising modes 
of critical pedagogy in higher education settings. One interviewee addresses issues 
of whiteness in academe and source credibility by examining their own institution:

In a credit bearing course, I showed the video “Why is my curriculum white?” 
then challenged students to find demographic information on our university’s 
student population and faculty. After discussing how they found this and exam-
ining which source seemed more credible, I asked them to consider why there 
is such a disparity (35% African American students, but close to 90% of faculty 
are white) and how that affects what information & perspectives get published 
in books and journal articles.

While many librarians who participated in this study naturally felt a degree of 
comfort with these teaching approaches and developing new instructional ideas, a 
number of survey respondents expressed difficulty with incorporating critical IL into 
their instructional practice, or that they have found only small ways to do it due to 
faculty expectations to have them show the library’s resources. Importantly, critical 
approaches to libraries are not limited to teaching, and several participants noted how 
critical pedagogy informs their work in reference services or collection development. As 
one individual underscored: “[C]ritical theory and critical pedagogy inform all aspects 
of how I do my work in addition to my work in the classroom. It underpins my one-on-
one work with students, training for reference assistants, collection development, etc.”

Finally, survey participants related a number of interesting things they would like 
to investigate in their instruction. These topics included race (“I would love to get 
students thinking more about racial disparity among faculty in higher education and 
how that affects who creates knowledge within the disciplines”), disciplinary integra-
tion (“I would also like to address how publishing and knowledge creation legitimates 
disciplines…I briefly touched on this when my first-year students discussed Chicano/a 
studies, but I would like to get into it more”), using resources other than the library (“I 
love the idea of spending time focusing on [W]ikipedia in sessions”), and open access 
(“I would like to bring more about the Open Access movement and its ideological 
foundations into my instruction”). 

Teaching Methods
The content of critical information literacy instruction and its methods are necessarily 
intertwined, and so the topics addressed above are important to consider in light of 
the methods used to explore them. Key teaching methods that librarians who practice 
critical IL report as using most often include: 

 □ Discussion and Dialogue
 □ Group Work



The Practice and Promise of Critical Information Literacy  19

 □ Skipping the Database Demonstration
 □ Reflection
 □ Problem-Posing

Each method acts as a way to eschew the deficit model of student learning that per-
meates education, aiming to position students as active mediators in the interpretation 
and creation of information. The recognition of students’ lived experiences, existing 
understandings of information, and potential of their contributions to their classmates’ 
and the teacher’s learning are important foundations of these methods. 

Creating opportunities for dialogue and discussion was central to the instructional 
practice of many study participants. bell hooks describes the use of dialogue in the 
critical classroom as such: “To engage in dialogue is one of the simplest ways we 
can begin as teachers, scholars and critical thinkers to cross boundaries, the bar-
riers that may or may not be erected by race, gender, class, professional standing, 
and a host of other differences.”31 One librarian offered an encapsulation of their 
dialogic approach: 

I lecture as little as possible and like to have students work together, present find-
ings/ideas/reactions/etc. to the class, and then engage in a whole-group discus-
sion. Again, I attempt to engage students in material that (a) they can relate to; 
and (b) will get them thinking. This ranges from group work exploring a variety 
of sources surrounding the murder of Trayvon Martin to acting out a scholarly 
debate on the coming out process.

While many librarians not using an intentional critical information literacy approach 
make discussions part of their instruction, the difference lies in the intentionality and 
social justice aims of critical librarians’ classroom discussions, which are often carefully 
framed around issues of power, privilege, and inequality. “While learner-centered ap-
proaches to teaching,” such as discussion, “are concerned with what the learner ends up 
learning,” Accardi states, critical and feminist approaches care about “what the learner 
does with the knowledge gained in and outside the classroom.”32 The popularity of discus-
sion and dialogue as a method for critical librarians is reflected in Downey’s study, where 
half of the 19 interviewees used it as the primary device to teach critical IL concepts.33 

Sometimes in tandem with discussion, participants indicated the frequent use of 
group work in their classrooms. For one librarian, group work functioned as a mecha-
nism to establish an understanding of students’ aims and interests as well as a means 
to have students share their ideas more openly:

It is difficult to establish trust in a one-shot lesson—I need student input to 
understand where they’re at, what they are working towards, what gets them 
engaged. With group work, they are feeding off of an energy or a mood that’s 
already been established. I find group work then allows students to be more open 
in their ideas and more open to error. 

Both survey respondents and interviewees identified the facilitation of conversa-
tions between students and between the students and instructor as important to their 
teaching. With group work in particular, students collaborate and use one another’s 
knowledge to complete an assignment or activity. When introduced with purpose 
and planning, small groups also have the possibility to shift the control and focus 
from the instructor to the students, thereby potentially destabilizing this traditional 
hierarchy and the teacher-dominated content that so often defines what students are 
encouraged to know.



20  College & Research Libraries January 2018

The demonstration of how to access and search library databases, often a staple of 
information literacy instruction, was avoided by critical librarians in favor of methods 
that promote student contributions and agency. One interviewee described a particu-
larly creative approach to the topic of representation in scholarly publishing: 

Instead of simply demo-ing a database, I facilitated a role-playing activity in 
which [students] assumed the roles of scholars, and we then had a discussion 
about who gets to be a scholar and thus who has a voice in the literature. This 
was all new to them, and I think they were able to both understand what “the 
literature” is and problematize academia in ways they hadn’t before.

In trying instructional methods different from lecturing and demonstrating the access 
and retrieval of information from library resources, critical librarians found it useful to 
go beyond this familiar mode of teaching and have discussions about the resources they 
would otherwise simply explain to students. McDonough’s investigation of the critical 
information literacy literature similarly found that the authors advocate for centering 
student experiences in library instruction, something quite difficult to achieve through 
the demonstration of resources.34 Furthermore, students have important contributions 
to make in respect to information access and use. As Pamela Martin notes, it is quite 
likely that “our patrons have been searching online for years, so to assume they know 
nothing about information seeking is offensive and naïve.”35 

An important component of critical IL practitioners’ work is the use of reflection. 
Reflection was mentioned both in terms of in-classroom practice and providing oneself 
time before or after teaching to reflect on one’s pedagogy. One librarian describes their 
integration of reflection as such: 

Allowing students time to reflect or posing questions that ask them to consider 
how/if the lesson is meaningful to them is [an] important part of the classroom 
experience for me. Ideally, it adds a small jolt to their experience and communi-
cates to students that I’m here for them, that I want to be a useful and purposeful 
addition to their classroom, not some intruder with my own agenda.

Reflection and dialogue can be particularly powerful teaching methods when com-
bined, as critical pedagogy or critical IL is not something that can be imported wholesale 
into one’s own context without reshaping it. As Downey states, “Teachers involved in 
the project of remaking critical pedagogy—or information literacy—for their context 
should consider the students they are working with and then remake their pedagogy 
with those students through dialogue and reflection.”36 This project of remaking criti-
cal approaches to teaching for one’s own setting is considered by Joshua Beatty in the 
application of Paulo Freire’s methods to first-world librarianship.37 Additionally, Emily 
Drabinski offers the ancient Greek notion of qualitative time, kairos, as a way to under-
stand and focus upon the contextually embedded nature of teaching while directing 
attention away from “universal” standards developed by professional bodies.38 

A fifth critical teaching method employed by academic librarians is that of problem-
posing. Researchers have previously suggested that critical IL take a problem-based 
approach, due to its modeling of “constructing meaning through active engagement 
with the ideas and asking questions surrounding the information itself,”39 and its paral-
lels with Freire’s problem-posing method that involves the development of knowledge 
through dialogue on issues important to learners.40 Problem-posing is often applied 
by librarians through centering an entire class session upon the examination of a real 
problem that is of concern and interest to the students. One interviewee has done exactly 



The Practice and Promise of Critical Information Literacy  21

this in class, asking faculty to help think of a problem the class could investigate: “I 
have started asking the faculty to help me think of a problem the class could work on 
together, which I think is the best thing to have happened for my teaching in a long 
time.” For this librarian, a small demand of faculty has led to large gains in authentic 
student involvement and learning. Given that the development of critical conscious-
ness in relation to information cannot happen solely through a librarian’s efforts, this 
participation of faculty in the design of meaningful classes appears to be both reward-
ing and necessary, pointing to the importance of strong collaborative relationships.

Challenges
Because a great deal of one’s work is determined by institutional expectations, profes-
sional norms, and other demands and considerations, these boundaries very much 
shape how librarians conceive of and are or are not able to realize their critical IL 
practice. For that reason, the possibilities of critical library instruction are important to 
consider in relation to the challenges faced. As Ian Beilin observes, “critical librarian-
ship has proposed that information literacy take up the methods and praxis of critical 
pedagogy to transform library instruction. But this must be negotiated within the spe-
cific local contexts of the contemporary neoliberal academy.”41 Within these contexts, 
what challenges do critical IL practitioners contend with? The primary barriers faced 
in teaching critical IL include: 

 □ Time
 □ The One-Shot Model
 □ Student Expectations
 □ Faculty Expectations
 □ Teaching the Basics
 □ Institutional Roadblocks

Each of these challenges is explored in further detail below. Downey found three 
of these themes present in her interviews with critical librarians, including a lack of 
time, mismatches between critical teaching methods and the structure of institution-
ally defined library instruction, and lack of alignment between librarians’ goals and 
professors’ or classes’ goals.42 

The issue of time, whether in the classroom or in preparing for teaching, is a major 
consideration. Five interviewees specifically mentioned time or the lack thereof. The 
issue of scalability with a preparation-intensive teaching approach like critical IL is 
mentioned by one librarian: “Another concern, primarily for the larger-scale projects, 
is the amount of time and preparation; I certainly couldn’t engage at that depth with 
more than a handful of the 30+ instructional sessions I do per semester.” Another 
participant views time, the one-shot format, and connecting with students as being 
related challenges: “Time is a problem. It’s hard to dive deeply [into] any issue in 50 
minutes. The lack of rapport with students can also be an obstacle. They expect me to 
talk about library resources and don’t always understand what I’m attempting.” One 
individual insightfully recognizes the barrier they face is not entirely that of time, but 
of how time with students is arranged and determined by other factors: “I’m tempted 
to say that I don’t have sufficient time with students, which is at least partly true. But 
beyond strictly a sufficient amount of time, the structure of my time with students and 
what kind of contact feels negotiable with disciplinary faculty is really more the issue.” 

Closely related to the challenge of time are the constraints imposed by the one-
shot session, temporal and otherwise. Six interviewees and nearly half of the survey 
respondents mentioned this barrier. One participant memorably likens one-shot 
instruction sessions to a trash receptacle: “Well, one-shots are such a garbage can, 
really. Even the most sophisticated pedagogy is really, really limited in that format.” 



22  College & Research Libraries January 2018

Others expressed frustration with the lack of intentionality behind library instruction 
opportunities, stating that their “main challenges center around the way in which 
librarians typically are afforded the opportunity to provide instruction: whether at the 
reference desk or in the classroom, the majority of instruction opportunities are ad hoc 
and one-off.” This in turn leads to the difficulty of knowing if one’s teaching efforts 
have made an impact, described by an interviewee: “Given the one-shot model, it’s 
not always possible to see the long-term impact of your work. If you don’t personally 
witness conscientização [critical consciousness] in a student, then how do you know 
it’s working?” The constraints within a one-shot session, then, presented significant 
difficulties for librarians seeking to delve deeply into information structures as well 
as work more intently with students.

Student expectations were another challenge encountered by critical instruction 
librarians. “Quite often, this approach to instruction is wildly different from what 
students encounter in other classes,” one participant replied, “to the point that they 
don’t know how to react when they’re asked ‘What’s your opinion about this? OK, 
why do you think that?’” Another librarian reiterated these comments, connecting 
student expectations with the limited space of the one-shot session: “They’re used to 
recitation, not critical discussion. This problem is exacerbated when relying on one-
shots, because there’s no chance to build a rapport and reframe student expectations.” 
Participants pointed out that the problem is not with students themselves, but an 
educational system that tells them their viewpoint is not valued and that passivity is 
the “easiest” way to get through a class. Noting student discomfort with pedagogical 
methods that do not rely on lecturing or other forms of teaching that are immediately 
recognizable to students, one respondent observed, “Students can be uncomfortable or 
view the librarian as ‘not teaching’ when asked to draw on their own experiences and 
knowledge.” Another issue is that of questioning academe, a balancing act approached 
with caution by one librarian: “I feel as though I am walking on thin-ice when asking 
students to challenge the inner-workings of academia.”

As with students, course instructors and faculty are likely to have their own set 
of expectations regarding library instruction, making it imperative that if critical li-
brary practice is to flourish, changing these expectations and working collaboratively 
with faculty is required. One interviewee identified a lack of faculty understanding 
concerning the scope of librarians’ goals in their teaching: “Faculty don’t know that 
librarians actually think about these things and have a pedagogy and theory that 
drive our work. They think we just show databases and that is the extent of our value. 
Changing that perception is very hard and often demeaning.” Faculty requests for 
instruction often characterize this misunderstanding, with these requests frequently 
being “of the ‘just teach the databases’ variety.” Embedded in this asymmetrical power 
distribution between librarians and teaching faculty is not just librarians’ status as 
instructional “support,” but other factors such as seniority and tenure. “The regular 
course instructor can also be a big challenge,” one respondent explained. “It is not 
always clear what their attitudes/approach to pedagogy are and as a young, tenure-
track librarian I often feel like I need to ‘play it safe.’” This becomes even more of a 
concern when librarians with marginalized identities face these power dynamics and 
must question whether the risks posed by critical instruction are worth the potential 
advantages. Another librarian found the redefinition of faculty expectations to be key 
for a critical IL approach to take place: “Many instructors, and some of my colleagues, 
assume that library instruction equals a demonstration of the catalog or of a specific 
database, so redefining expectations is essential for incorporating critical information 
literacy.” While this is undoubtedly a large undertaking, the following section on the 
benefits of critical IL will present examples of how librarians have approached this task.



The Practice and Promise of Critical Information Literacy  23

Institutional constraints were on the minds of many critical librarians, but one 
prominent difficulty was found in terms of pedagogy. This challenge is that of assisting 
students in meeting the specific needs of their academic work and course assignments 
while also teaching the sociopolitical dimensions of information more broadly. One 
interviewee voiced concern over addressing the needs of all students through their 
pedagogical approach:

It’s difficult to both help students grasp the basics (e.g. how to work through the 
call number to find a specific book) and branch out into a more critical approach 
to research. It’s helpful to know the rules before breaking them…. I worry that 
sometimes the critical approach may actually do a disservice to our first-gen stu-
dents, if emphasizing the critical side displaces opportunities to practice the basics.

A different apprehension regarding student preparation for questioning dominant 
ideologies was expressed in relation to students becoming accustomed to academe: 
“Making students too critical too soon is like removing the floor from beneath them. 
As freshmen, they might not be ready to become disillusioned or to learn to break the 
rules about authority, bias, audience, purpose, or other evaluative categories.” An im-
portant point here is that as in any classroom, there are multiple demands to consider, 
and striking a balance between everyday and aspirational goals is ideal. Heidi Jacobs 
articulates this balance as such: “What I am suggesting is that the dialogues we have 
surrounding information literacy instruction strive to find a balance in the daily and the 
visionary, the local and the global, the practices and the theories, the ideal and the pos-
sible.”43 This challenge of teaching the basics while remaining true to critical methods 
might be achieved by better understanding our students. To “encourage alternative 
definitions of success while at the same time ensure success in the existing system,” 
Beilin suggests, “librarians should ask themselves, ‘Who is the student? What do you 
know about the student?’ This should be one of the first things to understand before 
this complicated balancing act can succeed.”44 

Institutional roadblocks and/or a lack of support within one’s institution were 
identified by other respondents as the biggest challenges faced in their practice of 
critical IL instruction. As stated by one participant, sometimes those in more power-
ful positions may be uninterested in or actively oppose critical teaching: “My biggest 
challenge was supervisors and professors—when the higher-ups are against it, there’s 
little you can do to change.” Institutional culture and affiliations present another set 
of issues: “One of the particular problems in my context is that as a religious institu-
tion we attract students who are not used to challenging power structures but rather 
accepting them as divinely produced.” Apart from an institution itself, larger issues of 
assessment demands and the corporatization of higher education present particularly 
sizable barriers to critical practice. An interviewee notes the ways they comply with 
rigid assessment procedures while also performing the assessments that are more 
personally meaningful:

Assessment culture privileges ways of teaching and learning that are quantifi-
able. I can’t put “changed lives and enacted social change” on a rubric, but I am 
pressured to report student learning findings in ways that are rubric-able. So I 
do the rubric, but I still do my own qualitative assessment alongside the stuff 
I’m required to report.

Two interviewees specifically mentioned the corporatization of education as impeding 
the development of their critical practices. Being involved in a theory and practice that 



24  College & Research Libraries January 2018

opposes trends of the neoliberal university while often being embedded within these 
institutions presents an array of challenges as well as opportunities. It is imperative that 
librarians aiming to foster social change within their classes, libraries, and institutions 
at large come to know the structures that they operate within, and, as Karen Nicholson 
states, “find productive ways to talk about our role in preparing students for work 
while continuing to advocate for education and libraries as public goods” within the 
neoliberal regime.45 In addition to and inseparable from external challenges, it is clear 
that critical information literacy demands a great deal from librarians. As Jessica Critten 
underscores, critical IL requires professional autonomy to develop curriculum, time and 
access to enrich one’s knowledge base, emotional labor to engage in demanding work, 
and a level of comfort in not receiving measurable, immediate results.46

Benefits
Despite the many difficulties that practitioners of critical information literacy identified, 
they choose to continue their efforts in part because of the benefits critical teaching 
affords them and the people impacted by their work. Five themes arose from partici-
pants’ remarks and comments on the advantages of making critical IL part of their 
classroom instruction: 

 □ Increased Engagement
 □ Meaningful for Students
 □ Meaningful for Librarians
 □ Connecting with Faculty
 □ Creating Community

When considered as a whole, these themes denote an educational practice that has 
the potential for a higher degree of meaningfulness and engagement for students and 
librarians alike, while also leading to opportunities to connect with faculty and develop 
a stronger sense of community inside and outside the classroom. 

Student engagement in librarian-led classes was cited frequently by participants 
as one of the benefits of a critical IL approach. This engagement was identified as be-
ing the cause of investigating topics of interest to students, of looking at real-world 
problems, and using teaching strategies that involve students, whether discussions, 
small-group work, presenting for their classmates, or other participatory methods. “I 
definitely get far more engagement than I did using non-critical pedagogical methods,” 
one survey respondent remarks, sensing that, “students seem to end the class feeling 
more empowered to discuss research.” An interviewee identified the many advantages 
of developing an authentic connection with students, which is facilitated through the 
use of critical information literacy: “It is a way to have an authentic connection with 
students, which I think assists in learning but certainly keeps students more engaged 
in the classroom. It is also a way for me to enact my values in my work, which keeps 
*me* engaged, and prevents burnout.” The theme of engagement among students was 
a major one, mentioned specifically by 40 survey respondents and seven interviewees.

While student engagement is important and plays a role in learning, librarians 
identified employing critical perspectives in their instruction as also leading to more 
meaningful learning experiences for students. This meaningfulness was often referred 
to in terms of relevance and the “real world,” as one librarian explains the benefits of a 
critical approach to library instruction: “Describing the power structures gives teaching 
a real-world relevance. It helps break the mold of ‘the library is for books and journals’ 
and allows students to see how IL concepts will apply in their life beyond college.” 
One interviewee credits the divergence from a “sterile, linear approach to research” 
as leading to an increased sense of meaningfulness among learners:



The Practice and Promise of Critical Information Literacy  25

I am generally impressed by the discussions students have and the work they 
produce when I’m using a critical IL approach. Often it seems like students are so 
accustomed to taking a sterile, linear approach to research that they are surprised 
and relieved to be able to talk about it in a more nuanced way. For example, I 
think that most undergraduates feel alienated from scholarly conversations, but 
they don’t often have a way to express and critique that frustration in a classroom 
environment.

hooks similarly recognizes the importance of meaningfulness to students, noting 
that “all students, not just those from marginalized groups, seem more eager to enter 
energetically into classroom discussion when they perceive it as pertaining directly 
to them.”47 An interviewee perceives the interconnectedness between meaningfulness 
and student engagement, while at the same time noting that the long-term goals of 
critical teaching librarians are unlikely to be realized within a time frame as short as 
a semester: “I think it is more meaningful, and therefore more engaging. I think it 
is important to identify oppressive power structures—realizing … there is the first 
step toward acting upon them. These are new ideas for many of my students, so I see 
myself as sowing seeds that may take longer than one semester to sprout.” A dedica-
tion to involving students in questions of information and social justice, despite the 
unlikelihood of immediately seeing the effects, is central to critical librarians’ teaching. 

A related finding is that incorporating critical information literacy into one’s teach-
ing is also meaningful for librarians. One participant replies, “Selfishly, it invigorates 
me! I get to discuss things that are really interesting and meaningful to me, to break 
the mold of traditional library instruction content, and it seems to really engage stu-
dents in ways I haven’t seen before.” If, as observed by respondents, the discussion 
of societal issues in the library classroom positively impacts student engagement and 
the meaningfulness of what is taught, the use of critical IL approaches equally freed 
respondents to teach about topics in ways meaningful to them. For one librarian, criti-
cal IL informs “how I approach and interact with students. In a bunch of ways reading 
and thinking about critical information approaches causes me to feel and act much 
freer in the classroom.” An interviewee credits critical IL with not only making the 
work more meaningful, but with potentially keeping that librarian in the profession:

I don’t think I’d still be doing what I’m doing if I hadn’t learned or figured out 
that I could use critical information literacy in the classroom, because I would 
be so burned out and bored by point-here-click-here teaching. Not that I don’t 
experience burnout at all, of course … but I guess very early on in my career I 
had this sense that there has to be something more than this. I knew I was capable of 
so much more than teaching students to click on stuff and type words in a box!

The sentiment that “there has to be something more than this” was reflected by 
several interviewees in regard to their library work prior to learning about and develop-
ing a critical approach. For librarians who discovered critical IL, it appears they have 
found what that “something more” is and have continued on a path of using theory, 
practice, and reflection to help inform what they do in their work and how they do it. 

Many participants in this study indicated the connections they have made with faculty 
and course instructors as a result of ideas related to critical pedagogy, critical theory, 
and/or critical information literacy to be a major benefit. “As I’ve been exploring CIL I’ve 
been continually amazed at how many other faculty on campus come from a critical or 
social justice background!” one interviewee explained, continuing, “CIL helps me make 
immediate and deep connections with the faculty I relate to and with whom I work … 



26  College & Research Libraries January 2018

as I teach IL sessions.” These shared backgrounds and interests were described by a 
number of librarians who had since used their connections to further collaborate with 
faculty, whether in the redesign of course assignments or tailoring their instruction more 
closely to the needs of specific courses. Another librarian makes the intriguing point 
that while “information literacy” as a goal is accepted by faculty to different degrees, 
developing a sense of criticality among learners is more important and integrates easily 
with various disciplines, perhaps due to the nonfixed meaning of “critical”:

Our disciplinary faculty members vary widely in their acceptance of the term 
“information literacy,” but across the board, they’re interested in their students 
becoming more critical researchers. Depending on the discipline and the indi-
vidual faculty member, the specific interpretation of “critical” varies widely. Yet 
since exploring various librarians’ writings on critical information literacy, I’ve 
found that this type of approach to instruction meshes more easily with that of 
my disciplinary faculty colleagues. 

One participant described this connection between critical IL and the theoretical 
bases of faculty, and how that allows him to bring more of his own and others’ interests 
and identities to their learning: 

I feel that I make connections with other teaching faculty when I utilize CIL as 
well—it connects to their theoretical bases. I feel much more like a whole or ho-
listic teacher or participant in my library classes when I’m bringing more of me 
into the classroom, and thereby inviting others to do the same.

Critical information literacy was described as an approach that encourages connec-
tions with students and faculty and brings meaning to librarians’ work and students’ 
learning. A final related theme that emerged is that of creating community. This theme 
is best summarized by this participant’s words: 

I find that the best library instruction sessions are where the students are given 
a lot of agency … their ideas, the formation of community (as brief as it is within 
a classroom), and their shared dialogues are inspiring. These are the moments 
that education really becomes inclusive and students are allowed to be thinking, 
sharing beings.

One librarian simply, but importantly, found that they were being more open and 
honest with the students they work with: “It’s hard to describe the benefits, but I believe 
I am being more honest and open with the students and feel that they respond positively 
to this in the classroom.” Another participant echoed this openness and its rewards: 

My interactions with students are much more human than when I lectured or 
demonstrated databases. In the best case scenario, we talk about who we are and 
how systems work, rather than trying to get to a predefined outcome involving 
a particular library resource. We talk about bigger issues and how they might 
change things, which is very rewarding [to me] as a teacher.

Questioning Critical Information Literacy
Overall, participants were extremely enthusiastic about critical IL and eager to share 
their experiences. The questionnaire also attracted several respondents who questioned 
the validity of this approach to teaching on various grounds. One librarian suggested 



The Practice and Promise of Critical Information Literacy  27

an additional survey question: “Is this really the role of libraries, library instruction, or 
information literacy? This is an important question which probably should have been 
included on your survey”—implying that they would provide a negative response to 
the hypothetical question posed. Another respondent indicated that they would require 
additional information on critical IL’s “efficacy” or “value” before being persuaded 
to adopt it: “I have yet to be convinced of either the efficacy or the value of ‘critical 
information literacy’ instruction as opposed to information literacy education.” Such 
proof of value or efficacy is unlikely to be forthcoming, however, as critical IL prac-
titioners frequently view the measurement of “efficacy,” “value,” and other concepts 
with skepticism that they might measure what they claim to, much less that they can 
capture what matters in teaching and learning. A third respondent provided a spir-
ited questioning of the premises of critical IL, and whether librarians should involve 
themselves in the quest for equality and justice:

It’s not our role to promote social change or empower learners to identify and 
act upon oppressive power structures; our learners *may* do that with what 
they learn from us about information literacy and critical thinking, but in our 
roles as academic librarians in publicly funded institutions we are not to direct 
them to any specific ends except to learn information literacy concepts and 
how to apply those concepts to their tasks at university to succeed at particular 
assignments in particular classes in particular programs. We *may* be called 
on to teach them how to apply information literacy and critical thinking to 
identify and act upon oppressive power structures, and if so we *may* do 
choose to do so.… In our role as academic librarians, we are not paid to sub-
scribe to some abstraction about oppressive power structures or to apply our 
skill sets to an ambiguous and amorphous idea of “social change.” Information 
literacy and critical thinking skills are the oxygen in the fire of social changes 
of many kinds; if we decide to start telling the fire where and how and what 
to burn, we risk burning down the objective stance we have built up over at 
least the last century.

This respondent offered an interesting perspective on several issues. First is the idea 
that librarians have no more to offer than to serve as a guide to locating information 
for class assignments. This is unfortunate, as librarians in fact have a great deal to 
contribute to their campuses and students’ lives, regardless of whether they are “called 
on” by an administrator, director, or faculty member to teach in a specific manner. It 
appears that the respondent is particularly concerned with being an agent “in the fire 
of social changes.” No such “objective stance” exists, and the fires of social change con-
tinue to burn with or without librarians’ active involvement. The question is whether 
librarians will fight inequalities alongside the rest of the world, or whether we wish 
to pretend that we can maintain neutrality in the midst of social issues that affect us, 
our patrons, and our planet, thus maintaining a status quo that we may think does not 
directly affect us, but does irreparable harm to us and the very people we work with. 

Conclusion
Academic librarians who identify as taking critical IL approaches in their teaching 
do so in a number of ways, whether through the application of methods that aim to 
destabilize established hierarchies in the classroom and foster meaningful discussion 
and dialogue between students, the integration of topics that interrogate systems of 
oppression both within academe and out, or a combination of both. As this research 
demonstrates, there is no right way to teach using a critical information literacy ap-



28  College & Research Libraries January 2018

proach. What underlies the varied pedagogies described above is that the librarians 
try to teach “from the heart,” to use one respondent’s words. As long as one’s intent 
is to challenge forms of oppression and to do so with the guidance of students, one 
may be thought to be teaching critically. As long as one holds close the aspiration of 
education as the practice of freedom, one may be thought to be involved in the project 
of emancipatory education.48 

This study serves as an exploration of one aspect of critical IL: classroom instruction 
in academic libraries. There are a number of other avenues that librarians in a variety of 
settings are exploring in relation to critical librarianship, from collection development 
to library technology. Moreover, critical IL is not limited to the practice of librarian-
ship, and the questioning of the premises of information literacy as well as education 
in libraries is ongoing. This important work of being critical of one’s profession is done 
out of a love for libraries and librarianship and can ultimately serve to align libraries 
with the ideals of social responsibility and the public good they often invoke.

Because this study took a necessarily limited view of critical IL, future research might 
examine the many other areas of critical librarianship as theorized and practiced in 
libraries of different types. Theoretical treatments of librarianship and the constructs 
that guide it would be welcome additions to the literature, along with descriptions 
of the praxis of librarianship and how critical librarians’ efforts are negotiated within 
larger structures. One issue of importance that this study did not adequately address 
is how critical librarians’ identities impact their work, especially how one’s ethnic 
and gender identities may contribute to their professional values and priorities, and 
the challenges faced by librarians with marginalized identities in practicing critical 
librarianship that challenges the status quo.

Another area of research could be the extent to which libraries are collaborating 
with various groups, such as student, staff, or community organizations, as a way to 
further shared missions of social responsibility and work toward causes of antiracism, 
antisexism, antihomophobia, and the elimination of other axes of oppression, described 
by hooks as the white-supremacist-capitalist-patriarchy.49 One interesting consideration 
relevant to the study at hand would be to examine the overlap of librarians who do 
not identify with critical IL and use similar content and methods, or have similar aims. 
As one respondent observes: “I think many librarians have been teaching critical in-
formation literacy concepts and content for years, without using the phrase,” and this 
is both a limitation to this research as well as an intriguing subject to explore further. 

As a gesture to librarians interested in critical IL instruction but uncertain where to 
start, this article concludes with several participants’ recommendations. The survey 
respondents were asked what advice they would give to academic librarians interested 
in making critical IL part of their instructional practice but unsure of how to do so. While 
a number of people stated that they would like some advice themselves, many useful 
ideas were shared. These ideas are presented separately from the findings because 
they are intended specifically as considerations for librarians interested in beginning 
or furthering their critical practice. These suggestions fell into several themes: Seek Out 
People with Similar Interests; Start Small; Read and Reflect; and Pedagogical Advice. 

Many librarians practicing critical IL recommended establishing connections with 
others who have related interests. Collaboration with faculty and other members of 
one’s campus was recommended by several respondents, reflected by the comments, 
“Find allies on your campus and work with them and support their creative activity,” 
and “Find a faculty member whose assignments parallel the concepts you want to teach 
and cultivate a close relationship with that person.” In addition to facilitating relation-
ships with people at one’s institution who may have similar aims, librarians pursuing a 
critical practice may want to seek out other librarians involved in this approach. “There’s 



The Practice and Promise of Critical Information Literacy  29

a growing number of practitioners who are sharing accessible and thoughtful examples 
of how they incorporate critical pedagogy into their classroom,” one librarian explains, 
and so “seek those out and start conversations.” Critical librarians were described 
as “excessively helpful” and practical approaches to critical information literacy are 
growing rapidly, most notably with the publication of the two-volume Critical Library 
Pedagogy Handbook.50 One participant noted the importance of developing a supportive 
network wherever one is able: “One of the most important things is to have a support 
network from practicing critical IL. It’s great if this is within your own library, but it’s 
also important to find subject faculty allies. #critlib is also great for a wider network.” 
#critlib refers to the Twitter hashtag short for “critical librarianship,” where facilitated 
chats occur and resources are shared.51 #critlib was mentioned by six interviewees, 
indicating the importance of this informal network for library workers interested in 
broadly defined critical approaches. Three interviewees were active in or members of 
the Progressive Librarians Guild, an organization founded in 1990, and the American 
Library Association’s Social Responsibilities Round Table. 

One need not reinvent their instruction from scratch, as it was recommended to start 
small when trying critical IL in the classroom. Minor changes can lead to the confidence 
necessary to use more challenging methods:

Start with something small—I started with ‘jazzing’ up the keywords examples 
I used and that led to really meaningful conversations with students which gave 
me confidence to explore other critical information literacy practices.

Another librarian relates the use of academe as a starting point for meaningful 
discussions: 

It’s ok to start slow. If you’re not ready to jump in to dismantling oppressive power 
structures like racism and sexism, start by breaking down the rationale behind 
academic power structures and practices. For example, why does anyone care 
about citing sources? Most students have only been told not to plagiarize, but all 
of their explanations for ‘why?’ involve potential penalties.

To apply critical IL or new pedagogies, one need not be an expert. As Schroeder notes 
in his book of interviews, some critical librarians “have never been exposed to a criti-
cal theory, yet they continually ask many of the same critical questions, about power, 
privilege, and inclusion or exclusion, on a daily basis in regards to their patrons and 
libraries.”52 One participant offers encouraging words for those unsure of their footing:

You don’t need to be an “expert” in critical theory to try new approaches. The 
mere act of reflecting on what you’re doing, and why, is the foundation of critical 
pedagogy. Praxis can only come from thinking about what you’re doing and try-
ing new things. They won’t always work, and that’s OK! Don’t let the assessment 
regime get you down—there’s still room for mistakes in the classroom.

Reading and reflecting was endorsed by a number of librarians practicing critical 
information literacy, particularly as it relates to praxis and informing one’s actions. In 
Critical Journeys, Jacobs describes the importance of giving ourselves “permission to 
pause” and take time to “stop, think, reflect, discuss, share, listen and let our collective 
minds wander regarding the questions that are most pressing for us.”53 One interviewee 
recommends paying particular attention to one’s instincts: 



30  College & Research Libraries January 2018

Read a little or talk to some folks that do it. But mostly ask yourself “what doesn’t 
feel right in this class?” Take the time to reflect on what you and the students are 
feeling. Then work with them to do things differently, in ways that feel right. Go 
slow and just take one bite at a time.

Similarly, one individual felt it highly important to question assumptions as the 
foundation to one’s critical practice:

Reading can help build comfort with critical information literacy, but a lack of 
familiarity with [the literature] should not prevent us from trying new approaches 
in the classroom. We as librarians need to challenge our own assumptions, as 
well as those of our students. Pausing to ask, “Why is this like this?” can help us 
and our students reflect on and deconstruct those assumptions.

Another librarian provided a specific reading recommendation that was transfor-
mational for her own work: 

Read Maria Accardi’s book on Feminist Pedagogy [Feminist Pedagogy for Library 
Instruction] … her personal narrative really helped me see that this work is con-
nected to one’s personhood (thus, the emotional toll it takes). Realize that when 
you really care about something and it doesn’t always pan out, it’s difficult.

Several librarians offered useful pedagogical advice for those interested in critical 
library instruction. One’s approach to working with students was mentioned most 
frequently, particularly in the sense of treating students as valued contributors: “CIL 
is scalable and very doable. Put down the script! Trust the intelligence of your stu-
dents and be willing to learn alongside them.” Another librarian advocates a strongly 
student-centered approach: “Talk to your students. Ask them what they care about. 
Listen to your students. Honor what they say, and take action in small ways that you 
can. Believe them and respect them as having experience, knowledge and significance.” 
Finally, a participant noted the importance of curiosity, humanizing our interactions 
with library users, and how that should extend to all aspects of the library: 

Be curious and let that curiosity be obvious in the classroom. I think a lot of 
the benefit of the critical approach is to humanize approaching, interacting and 
thinking about, in this case, info lit and/or library services. I do think that the 
critical approach should influence not only how info lit is being taught but also 
how library services are conceived, developed and rolled out.

Above all, the librarians who contributed to this study expressed an excitement 
about and commitment to critical IL while acknowledging the challenges of its everyday 
practice. “Building connections with instructors and with the curriculum takes time, 
and reshaping expectations can be frustrating work,” one librarian summarizes, “but if 
the goal is to educate ‘whole persons,’ then library instruction needs to be part of that 
process in a meaningful way. Critical information literacy can provide that meaning.” 
The excitement regarding this type of teaching was especially notable among librarians 
relatively new to the profession, with one participant noting an appreciation present 
in many others’ comments: “It’s really encouraging to be a new librarian and see this 
community taking off due to the hard work of so many.” As one person succinctly 
states regarding critical IL: “It’s pretty much the best thing that’s ever happened to 
my teaching.”



The Practice and Promise of Critical Information Literacy  31

Acknowledgments
The author expresses his profound thanks to everyone who contributed their ideas and 
thoughts to this project through participating in the survey and, in particular, to the 
thirteen interviewees who volunteered their time to respond to questions about them-
selves and their work with such thoughtfulness and care. The author also recognizes 
the extensive support provided by the Institute for Research Design in Librarianship 
and the many wonderful people involved in the program.

APPENDIX A. Survey Instrument
Q1: Are you currently employed by an academic library?

 □ Yes
 □ No
 □ Other: 

Q2: Do you provide instruction related to library and information resources and/or 
information literacy?

 □ Yes
 □ No
 □ Unsure
 □ Other: 

Q3: How many years have you worked in a library of any type after receiving your 
MLS or its equivalent?

 □ 0–4 years
 □ 5–9 years
 □ 10–14 years
 □ 15 or more years
 □ Unsure
 □ Have not received an MLS
 □ Other:

Q4: Which best describes the type of institution at which you currently work?
 □ Community College 
 □ University 
 □ College
 □ Other:

Q5: What is the approximate number of students who attend your institution?
 □ Fewer than 1,000
 □ 1,000–4,999
 □ 5,000–9,999
 □ 10,000–19,999
 □ 20,000–29,999
 □ 30,000 or more
 □ Unsure

Q6: Do you incorporate critical information literacy into your classroom instruction?
 □ Yes
 □ No
 □ Unsure
 □ Other (please specify): 



32  College & Research Libraries January 2018

Q7: If you responded “yes” to the previous question, please provide one or two ex-
amples of how you do so.

Q8: Briefly describe some of the benefits to making critical information literacy part 
of your classroom instruction, if you find that there are benefits.

Q9: Briefly describe some of the challenges involved in making critical information 
literacy part of your classroom instruction, if you find that there are challenges.

Q10: Are there critical information literacy ideas or practices that you would like to 
incorporate into your classroom instruction but have not? If yes, please briefly describe 
them below.

Q11: What advice might you give to academic librarians who seek to make critical 
information literacy a part of their practice but are unsure how to do so?

Q12: Please include any additional comments you may have about the practice of 
critical information literacy below.

Q13: The author of this survey will be conducting interviews with selected survey 
respondents in January and February 2016. The questions will pertain to ways that 
interviewees incorporate critical information literacy into their instruction, as well as the 
benefits and challenges they experience in doing so. If you would like to be contacted 
about the possibility of doing an interview via telephone or e-mail, please enter your 
preferred e-mail address below. Thank you for considering.

APPENDIX B. Interview Questions
1. Tell me about how you first learned about critical information literacy.
2. Tell me about a time when you incorporated critical information literacy into a 

class you taught.
3. Do you find that critical information literacy is beneficial to your classroom 

instruction? If so, how?
4. Are there theoretical or conceptual understandings that inform your practice of 

critical information literacy? These could be theories, ideas, or writings related to 
education, social justice, libraries, or other areas meaningful to you or your work.

5. What are some of the specific classroom methods, if any, that you use in your 
practice of critical information literacy? These could be activities, search ex-
amples, class discussions, or other teaching methods.

6. Tell me about barriers you may have experienced making critical information 
literacy part of your practice. 

7. What factors contribute positively to your practice of critical information literacy? 
8. Is there anything you would like to add that we haven’t yet discussed? 

Notes

 1. Allen Luke and Cushla Kapitzke, “Literacies and Libraries: Archives and Cybraries,” 
Pedagogy, Culture & Society 7, no. 3 (1999): 467–91.

 2. Lua Gregory and Shana Higgins, Information Literacy and Social Justice: Radical Professional 
Praxis (Sacramento, Calif.: Library Juice Press, 2013).

 3. David James Hudson, “The Whiteness of Practicality,” in Topographies of Whiteness: 
Mapping Whiteness in Library and Information Studies (Sacramento, Calif.: Library Juice Press, 
2017).



The Practice and Promise of Critical Information Literacy  33

 4. Christine Pawley, “Information Literacy: A Contradictory Coupling,” Library Quarterly 73, 
no. 4 (2003): 422–52.

 5. Cushla Kapitzke, “Information Literacy: A Review and Post Structural Critique,” Australian 
Journal of Language and Literacy 26, no. 1 (2003): 53.

 6. Lisa O’Connor, “Information Literacy as Professional Legitimation: The Quest for a New 
Jurisdiction,” Library Review 58, no. 7 (2009): 493–508.

 7. Cathy Eisenhower and Dolsy Smith, “The Library as ‘Stuck Place’: Critical Pedagogy in 
the Corporate University,” in Critical Library Instruction: Theories and Methods (Sacramento, Calif.: 
Library Juice Press, 2010): 305–18; John Buschman, Libraries, Classrooms, and the Interests of De-
mocracy: Marking the Limits of Neoliberalism (Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2012); Maura Seale, 
“The Neoliberal Library,” in Information Literacy and Social Justice: Radical Professional Praxis (Sac-
ramento, Calif.: Library Juice Press, 2013): 39–61; Jonathan Cope, “Neoliberalism and Library & 
Information Science: Using Karl Polanyi’s Fictitious Commodity as an Alternative to Neoliberal 
Conceptions of Information,” Progressive Librarian, no. 43 (2014): 67–80; Karen P. Nicholson, “The 
McDonaldization of Academic Libraries and the Values of Transformational Change,” College & 
Research Libraries 76, no. 3 (2015): 328–38.

 8. Annie Downey, Critical Information Literacy: Foundations, Inspiration, and Ideas (Sacramento, 
Calif.: Library Juice Press, 2016), 33.

 9. Eamon Tewell, “A Decade of Critical Information Literacy: A Review of the Literature,” Com-
munications in Information Literacy 9, no. 1 (2015): 24–43; Beth Allsopp McDonough, “Critical Infor-
mation Literacy in Practice: An Interpretive Synthesis” (PhD diss., Western Carolina University, 
2014).

 10. McDonough, “Critical Information Literacy in Practice,” 12.
 11. James Elmborg, “Critical Information Literacy: Implications for Instructional Practice,” 

Journal of Academic Librarianship 32, no. 2 (2006): 192–99.
 12. Ibid., 192–93.
 13. James Elmborg, “Critical Information Literacy: Definitions and Challenges,” in Transform-

ing Information Literacy Programs: Intersecting Frontiers of Self, Library Culture, and Campus Com-
munity (2012): 75–80.

 14. Michelle Holschuh Simmons, “Librarians as Disciplinary Discourse Mediators: Using 
Genre Theory to Move toward Critical Information Literacy,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 5, 
no. 3 (2005): 297-311.

 15. Troy A. Swanson, “A Radical Step: Implementing a Critical Information Literacy Mod-
el,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 4, no. 2 (2004): 259–73.

 16. John J. Doherty, “No Shhing: Giving Voice to the Silenced: An Essay in Support of Critical 
Information Literacy,” Library Philosophy and Practice 9, no. 2 (2007).

 17. Critical Library Instruction: Theories and Methods, eds. Maria T. Accardi, Emily Drabinski, 
and Alana Kumbier (Sacramento, Calif.: Library Juice Press, 2010).

 18. Information Literacy and Social Justice: Radical Professional Praxis, eds. Lua Gregory and Shana 
Higgins (Sacramento, Calif.: Library Juice Press, 2013); Informed Agitation: Library and Information 
Skills in Social Justice Movements and Beyond, ed. Melissa Morrone (Sacramento, Calif.: Library 
Juice Press, 2014); Robert Schroeder, Critical Journeys: How 14 Librarians Came to Embrace Critical 
Practice (Sacramento, Calif.: Library Juice Press, 2014).

 19. Downey, Critical Information Literacy: Foundations, Inspiration, and Ideas.
 20. Ian G. Beilin and Anne E. Leonard, “Teaching the Skills to Question: A Credit-Course Ap-

proach to Critical Information Literacy,” Urban Library Journal 19, no. 1 (2013).
 21. Scott Warren and Kim Duckett, “‘Why Does Google Scholar Sometimes Ask for Money?’ 

Engaging Science Students in Scholarly Communication and the Economics of Information,” Jour-
nal of Library Administration 50, no. 4 (2010): 349–72; Alison Hicks, “Cultural Shifts: Putting Critical 
Information Literacy into Practice,” Communications in Information Literacy 7, no. 1 (2013): 50–65; 
Heidi Jacobs, “Pedagogies of Possibility Within the Disciplines: Critical Information Literacy and 
Literatures in English,” Communications in Information Literacy 8, no. 2 (2014): 192–207.

 22. Lauren Smith, “Towards a Model of Critical Information Literacy Instruction for the De-
velopment of Political Agency,” Journal of Information Literacy 7, no. 2 (2013): 15–32.

 23. Sonja Spiranec, Mihaela Banek Zorica, and Denis Kos, “Information Literacy in Participatory 
Environments: The Turn Towards a Critical Literacy Perspective,” Journal of Documentation 72, 
no. 2 (2016): 247–64.

 24. Robert Schroeder and Christopher V. Hollister, “Librarians’ Views on Critical Theories 
and Critical Practices,” Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian 33, no. 2 (2014): 91–119.

 25. Sanford Berman, Prejudices and Antipathies: A Tract on the LC Subject Heads Concerning People 
(Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1993); Hope A. Olson, “The Power to Name: Representation in Library 
Catalogs,” Signs 26, no. 3 (2001): 639–68; Radical Cataloging: Essays at the Front, ed. K.R. Roberto 



34  College & Research Libraries January 2018

(Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2008); Emily Drabinski, “Queering the Catalog: Queer Theory and 
the Politics of Correction,” Library Quarterly 83, no. 2 (2013): 94–111.

 26. Maria T. Accardi, Feminist Pedagogy for Library Instruction (Sacramento, Calif.: Library Juice 
Press, 2013).

 27. Char Booth, “On Information Privilege,” info-mational, published 1 December 2014 at https://
infomational.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/on-information-privilege [accessed 20 July 2016].

 28. Safiya Umoja Noble, Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism (New 
York, N.Y.: New York University Press, 2018).

 29. Amit Datta, Michael Carl Tschantz, and Anupam Datta, “Automated Experiments on Ad 
Privacy Settings,” Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies 2015, no. 1 (2015): 92–112; Latanya 
Sweeney, “Discrimination in Online Ad Delivery,” Communications of the ACM 56, no. 5 (2013): 
44–54.

30. McDonough, “Critical Information Literacy in Practice,” 89.
 31. bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom (New York, N.Y.: 

Routledge, 1994), 130. 
 32. Accardi, Feminist Pedagogy for Library Instruction, 58. 
 33. Downey, Critical Information Literacy: Foundations, Inspiration, and Ideas, 91.
 34. McDonough, “Critical Information Literacy in Practice.”
 35. Pamela N. Martin, “Societal Transformation and Reference Services in the Academic Library: 

Theoretical Foundations for Re-envisioning Reference,” Library Philosophy and Practice (2009): 5.
 36. Downey, Critical Information Literacy: Foundations, Inspiration, and Ideas.
 37. Joshua F. Beatty, “Reading Freire for First World Librarians,” paper presented at the Ca-

nadian Association of Professional Academic Librarians conference, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 
June 2, 2015.

 38. Emily Drabinski, “Toward a Kairos of Library Instruction,” Journal of Academic Librarianship 
40, no. 5 (2014): 480–85.

 39. Simmons, “Librarians as Disciplinary Discourse Mediators,” 308. 
 40. Heidi L.M. Jacobs, “Posing the Wikipedia ‘Problem’: Information Literacy and the Praxis 

of Problem-Posing in Library Instruction,” in Critical Library Instruction: Theories and Methods (Sac-
ramento, Calif.: Library Juice Press, 2010): 179–97.

 41. Ian Beilin, “Student Success and the Neoliberal Academic Library,” Canadian Journal of 
Academic Librarianship 1, no. 1 (2016): 17.

 42. Downey, Critical Information Literacy: Foundations, Inspiration, and Ideas.
 43. L.M. Jacobs, “Information Literacy and Reflective Pedagogical Praxis,” Journal of Academic 

Librarianship 34, no. 3 (2008): 258.
 44. Beilin, “Student Success and the Neoliberal Academic Library,” 18.
 45. Nicholson, “The McDonaldization of Academic Libraries,” 333.
 46. Jessica Critten, introduction to Annie Downey, Critical Information Literacy: Foundations, 

Inspirations, Ideas (Sacramento, Calif.: Library Juice Press, 2016), 6.
 47. hooks, Teaching to Transgress, 87.
 48. hooks, Teaching to Transgress.
 49. bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (New York, N.Y.: South End Press, 

1981).
50. Critical Library Instruction Handbook, vol. 1 & 2, eds. Nicole Pagowsky and Kelly McElroy 

(Chicago, Ill.: ACRL Press, 2016).
 51. “Critlib: critical librarianship, in real life & on the twitters,” Critlib, available online at 

critlib.org [accessed 15 September 2016].
 52. Schroeder, Critical Journeys, 2. 
 53. Heidi Jacobs, interview by Robert Schroeder, Critical Journeys, 156.

https://infomational.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/on-information-privilege
https://infomational.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/on-information-privilege
http://critlib.org