William Badke

William Badke, Associate Librarian

As the Associate Librarian for Associated Canadian Theological Schools and Information Literacy at Trinity Western University, Langley, BC, Canada, William Badke’s prolific writings on information literacy offer readers’ a unique, academic perspective grounded in teaching and learning reality.  For many k-16 educators, integrating information literacy practice is just one more, unnecessary impediment dropped within their already overloaded instructional tool kits. Badke states that “for faculty and this includes many k-12 educators as well, teaching learners how to do research is like teaching critical thinking. [Educators] are always talking about it, but few have any sort of notion of a pedagogy that could actually bring it about.”

Badke also notes that “the rise of information technology has created a new informational order as dramatically different from the old one as was hand-copied manuscripts from that of the printing press. When the need for skills to link the right information to the right situation becomes as recognized as it should be, librarians [other educators and educational reform policy makers] can only hope that academia will take up the means to help students navigate the new information age.”