Literacies in the Digital Age New Teaching Paradigms and Solutions for Academic Libraries

The issue of literacies and academic libraries in the digital age involves intensive development of information landscape and changes in the academic library services. Such services are a part of the information sciences field on the one hand, and on the other hand they are a part of the pedagogy field as educational paradigms are inevitably changing under the influence of technology. Literacies in the digital era are changing their face as the information environment changes, so from the initial skill-based concepts and the learning outcomes that are focused on them, teaching information and digital literacy and related literacies in the digital age are now directed towards different goals and different teaching strategies. The focus is now on higher-order thinking skills and issues of what is done with information and also how information-based online learning communities generate new knowledge and how is it shared with others, as well as how the learners take responsibility for their own learning. This also affects the role of academic libraries. They used to be places for collecting and distributing materials and information, however, they became learning agents for the entire academic community. In practice, this means applying different teaching models including online education such as massive open online courses (MOOCs). They are, in a way, a paradigm for modern education since they combine advanced technological solutions and modern education strategies based on information and digital literacy concepts. MOOCs provide a teaching platform for academic librarians, and can improve their collaboration with teachers thus developing academic libraries as centers of learning and research in the digital age.