Señor Google and Spanish Workplace Information Practices Information Literacy in a Multilingual World

What does the term “information literacy” mean to you? If you work within higher education, perhaps your eyes are glazing over as an image of a citation guide comes to mind. If you last entered a library when card catalogues were in existence, perhaps the question is bringing back longrepressed memories of the tedious hours you spent at the microfi lm machine. Either way, it is unlikely that you are making the connection between information literacy and the shiny new, paperless workplaces of today. Yet, I posit that just like the library—and even, possibly, like language learning—information literacy has an image problem. Rather than focusing on the grammar of information use—teaching students the nuts and bolts of arcane citation rules or the mechanics of how to navigate the periodicals room—information literacy should be understood as a practice that helps to connect learners with the broader realities of today’s globalized information societies. In eff ect, though traditional, academic information literacy still predominates within higher education today, a number of librarians are starting to think more holistically about the role of information and the scope of information literacy education. As the knowledge economy continues to grow, it is clear that the workplace forms one particular area where information literacy is both essential yet underdeveloped within higher education. In this chapter, I, as a librarian, seek to explore what information literacy looks like within the globalized, multilingual environments that language learners enter upon graduation and how we can scaff old these realities in the classroom. I start by introducing the concept of workplace information literacy as well as presenting an overview of the most current research and thinking on the topic. I then explore results from twelve semistructured interviews that I carried out with Spanishspeaking working professionals in Argentina, Chile, and the United States. Encompassing a variety of professions, these interviews were designed to