Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to present the main ethical challenges of information literacy as an ethical experience based on analyses of selected theoretical concepts of information literacy, information experience and on the results of a Delphi study focused on information ethics. The main research question is articulated as follows: Which ethical components can be decisive for developing the concept of ethical information literacy as a human experience?
Methodology and Related Research
Selected models of ethical issues of information literacy have been analysed, including moral literacy (Tuana, 2007), ethical strands of ANCIL (Secker and Coonan, 2013), metaliteracy (Mackey and Jacobson, 2019) and others. The background is related to qualitative innovative studies of information as experience (Bruce et al., 2014, Lloyd, 2021) and to the concepts of information ethics (Floridi, 2013), context (Agarwal, 2020) and value-sensitive design (Friedman and Hendry, 2019). A Delphi study focused on information ethics in digital environment was undertaken in 2021-2022 with selected experts from the Czech Republic and Slovakia (19 experts: 1st round, 6 experts: an online discussion: 2nd round). The disciplines included information science, computer science, media sciences, psychology, political science, management, or social informatics. The data was analysed using the content analyses, discourse analysis and conceptual modelling.
Findings
Findings of the Delphi study are visualized in three conceptual models representing the ethical challenges of information literacy. A final model is interpreted as an ethical information literacy experience in the academic context. The ethical components include social rules, epistemic and social values of information, and intercultural differences. Results confirmed the interconnected strata of the ethical information literacy experience based on social rules, personal characteristics, value tensions (ICT bias and social contexts), education and values of utility and truth.
Conclusions
We recommend including ethical components based on the findings of the Delphi study into innovative frameworks of academic information literacy, namely personal experience in ethically informed information use and production, social and intercultural rules, value tensions and epistemic and social values of information, (e.g. the utility and truth). The proposed model and recommendations can be used for further qualitative research of ethical information literacy experience, value-sensitive design of digital services and information literacy courses. We stress moral imagination, affective background, metaliteracy, metacognitive and participatory factors, context and accountability. Information literacy needs further conceptual development based on related experiential ethical dimensions.
References
- Agarwal, N. K. (2022). Exploring context in information behavior. Seeker, situation, surroundings, and shared identities. Cham: Springer Nature.
- Bruce, C., Davis, K., Hughes, H., Partridge, H., and Stoodley, I. (Eds.) (2014). Information experience: Approaches to theory and practice. Bingley: Emerald.
- Floridi, L. (2013). The ethics of information. Oxford: University Press.
- Friedman, B., and Hendry, D. G. (2019). Value sensitive design. Cambridge: MIT Press.
- Lloyd D. A., (2021). The qualitative landscape of information literacy research. Perspectives, methods and techniques. London: Facet.
- Mackey, T. P., and Jacobson, T. R. (2019). Metaliterate learning for the post-truth world. Chicago: ALA.
- Secker, J., and Coonan, E. (2013). Rethinking information literacy: A practical framework for supporting learning. London: Facet.
- Tuana, N. (2007). Conceptualizing moral literacy. Journal of Educational Administration, 45(4), 364–378.
Jela Steinerová
Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia
English 
French