Not only Music

Abstract

Although it may seem that information literacy is a thing of the past for libraries, it is increasingly necessary. In spite of the undeniable technological advances -or rather because of them- the users of the library of the Conservatorio Superior de Música “Eduardo Martínez Torner”, continue not to be self-sufficient to satisfy their informative needs. They are people who are supposed to have sufficient knowledge and skills in the search and retrieval of information, because most of them belong to the so-called "digital natives", but their technological skills are limited to social networks. Many of the students are unaware of the existence of specialized search engines (such as Google Academic, Scirus...), or resources focused on their discipline (IMSLP, All Music Guide, American Music Center, etc.), nor databases with academic and institutional information (TESEO, PARES, IBERLEX, TDX...). After several years of developing individualized tutoring for students who required it, now the library plans to elaborate and disseminate a survey to new students to know the sources of information they use, to measure the use and real knowledge of them. Students need to evaluate the digital material that appears on the net in order to prove their credibility. To do so, they must understand what evidence qualifies a website as reliable. By the time they begin higher education, students should already possess all these skills. Previously, school libraries should have been the fundamental instrument for students to acquire these skills. However, these institutions are in a very precarious situation in Spain. This means that students who begin higher education are unaware of the basic issues involved in the search for and retrieval of scientific information on the Internet. For all these reasons, we believe that informational literacy should occupy a prominent place in conservatory libraries and be in line with the mission, goals and objectives of the school itself.