The School Library, a New Space for Knowledge

From “Basic Knowledge” to School Information Culture

Abstract

For fifteen years, educational actors (teachers, school librarians, academic advisors ...), among which the teacher librarian plays a major part in the Centers for Documentation and Information (CDI, school library ), have been teaching, evaluating, requiring students expectations on a supposed "cultural background" , commonly called “general culture” in French, supported by the educational institution and the social world. In a first part, we wish to define the question of an overall school culture and show how the school librarians have slowly claimed the development and support for a "Culture of information " for each student and, more broadly, each citizen. In a second step, we discuss the similarities, differences and links between “basic knowledge” and information culture. In which way are they similar, fundamentally different, what is specific and new in the “culture of information” for young people? In a third step, we frame the components of the culture of information, deeply rooted into culture and the digital developments of information. The culture of information is the field of curricula, educative actions and debates, revealing tensions within libraries, between school requirements and social expectations. In a fourth and final step, we will show and advocate for a dynamic conception of academic culture of information "in action", connected to the media and social events, in classrooms and school libraries, updating the weak links between general education and information culture.