Information Landscapes
Anne Maree Lloyd describes information literacy as the core literacy of the twenty-first century; underpinning all other forms of literacy. In her study of the information experiences of ambulance officers Lloyd explains that in an age of “fast capitalism”, characterised by large and complex amounts of information available, the idea of information literacy continues to gain currency. The experience of information literacy and its role in the construction of domain, specific knowledge, continues to be under-researched, especially in the workplace sector.
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Lloyd’s (2014) study on the information habits of refugees in regional centres in Australia recognises that information landscapes represent a knowledge space that has resonance with people who are involved in collective practices, endeavours or situations. Information landscapes represent the total relations that exist between people who engage in similar performances; they can be viewed as complex information ecologies which frame discourses and narratives; entwining people within time and place. Lloyd’s approach views landscapes as being drawn from larger and more complex information environments.
Lloyd’s landscape approach emphasises the ongoing interaction of people with the socio-cultural, historical, political and material-economic conditions of their settings; with an emphasis on the construction of knowledge and shared ways of understanding. Lloyd explains that when a landscape approach is employed in information studies, the emphasis is on understanding how the landscape is shaped and how a person is “stirred” into the landscape by others. There is a focus on what enables and what constrains people’s construction of the landscape.
