Part IV. Equity, Digital Capital, and Information Infrastructures of Agency

Abstract

Anchored in Library and Information Science and shaped by sociomaterial and postdigital perspectives, this chapter argues for moving away from normative, skill-based approaches to teaching information literacy in Higher Education. As AI and algorithmic systems increasingly mediate information, students face new challenges regarding their agency and critical engagement with information. Rather than seeing educators as holders of definitive answers, we argue for an approach to information literacy as a shared, evolving process co-created with students in their academic, social, and digital contexts. This approach is based on the belief that agency is not lost but can be cultivated. Teaching information literacy means recognizing the diverse and often messy ways students interact with information across academic and everyday contexts. Drawing on pedagogical elements from our own teaching practice, at two Danish university libraries, we argue that teaching information literacy in the postdigital era must resonate with students’ real information practices. It should also account for how these practices change with AI-infused search systems and shifting information infrastructures.