Nature - Intertwingled: Information Changes Everything - page 20

Running is among the most natural things we do, but when we add the right information, we do
it better. I find this to be true in all areas of life. When our kids ask for help with homework, I go
to Google. They tell me they already searched, but I always find what we need. I succeed when
they're stuck, not because I'm better at math, but since I'm better at search. The skills I learned in
library school give me an edge. Whether I'm buying a car, planning a trip, or solving a health
problem, my ability to find and evaluate information is invaluable.
Sadly, most people lack this literacy. Unlike “the three Rs” of reading, writing, and arithmetic
which are interwoven within the K-12 curriculum, information literacy falls through the cracks.
It doesn't fit into any one subject area, and teachers fail to include it in class. And it's a big prob-
lem, because the Internet makes literacy more important, not less. When I was a kid, I had a
mom, a dad, and a single volume encyclopedia, and I trusted them to answer my questions.
Now Google offers us billions of answers, but the difficult question is trust.
The search for truth is so tricky even librarians get lost. Evaluating accuracy, objectivity, cur-
rency, and authority is easier said than done. At the crossroads of capitalism and the Internet,
it's increasingly hard to identify the interests behind the information. It's not just advertisers and
politicians who spin. Even science is suspect. When we don't ask who funded the study or who
stands to gain, we risk being misled. Is man behind climate change? Do vaccines cause autism?
Do mammograms save lives? If we don't get better at answering, we're in for big trouble. But
let's be clear. Search isn't enough. Our literacy deficit can't be addressed by consumption alone.
Consider the following definition of information literacy.
The ability to find, evaluate, create, organize, and use ideas and information from myriad sources in mul-
tiple media.
In the information age, we are all information architects. Content creation and organization are
core life skills. At home and at work, from desktop to mobile, our ability to manage and make
sense makes us efficient and effective. In today's cross-channel ecologies, information is the me-
dium. The more we structure, the better we understand, which is important even when we're
not doing the work. For instance, while executives may not organize corporate websites, they
are often responsible for the mess. The CEO of a major hospital once told me she'd know the re-
design was a success when folks complimented her on the website at cocktail parties. Much of
what's wrong on the Web is due to such executive illiteracy.
Of course, it isn't always so easy to pinpoint the source, because the problem is deep and distrib-
uted. Remember the Fortune 500 that kept repeating mistakes in e-commerce? We were asked by
the user experience group to fix the left navigation “because that's all we control.” We agreed to
focus on navigation if we could also tackle governance. I began my review of the website of one
of the world's largest department store chains by browsing for t-shirts. And I couldn't find them.
There were dress shirts and polos but no tees. I wondered if they might be too upscale for t-
shirts. I almost gave up. But I dug deeper and found the root. The t-shirt link was higher in the
hierarchy and easy to miss unless you already knew.