Foreword: Closing the gap between information literacy and scholarly communication

Two cornerstone programs of the academic library are poised to bring new life to each other as librarians look to close the gap between information literacy and scholarly communication. It has been easy for these two library-based programs, designed and created along different paths and for different purposes and audiences, each with highly specialized skills and knowledge, to develop without intersecting. Now, however, the connections are starting to be explored by librarians, as demonstrated in the essays in this volume. The time is right to make these connections. The early part of the twenty-first century has been characterized as both the Information Age and the Digital Age, its economy as both the creative economy and the knowledge economy. Whatever label one prefers, clearly creativity has become highly valued for its economic, educational, personal, and communal benefits. It is encouraged by an expanding array of tools readily available to everyone, not just the privileged, as are the channels and venues for sharing creative outpourings. Moreover, the lines between the acts of creation and use are now quite blurry and permeable. Use can be a form of creation, creation can be an act of destruction and remaking, and rapid and open sharing and transformative use of information can lead to amazing new works and insights. Moreover, design thinking is employed as a catalyst for innovation within and across disciplines; the network economy is energized by social media that connects people, regardless of location, and that both encourages existing and potential new relationships; the marketplace of ideas is a valued component of the public sphere, as well as the commercial sector; and many academic institutions are employing interdisciplinary approaches to research, teaching, performance, and practice.