Alternatives to Being Information Literate

In contrast to the relative abundance of conceptualisations of “information literacy”, the earlier research has put considerably less attention to what are its alternatives. The findings show that there are shades in being less and non-literate beyond a mere lack of necessary skills or engagement in inappropriate practices. Information illiteracy can be experienced as a problem but it can also represent a conscious choice for delimiting and organising information practices. From a theoretical and practical perspective, this study suggests that both information literacies and information illiteracies should be taken into account in information literacy research and education, and when developing and deploying information systems and services to compensate for the lack of literacies.