Philosopher and librarian Lane Wilkinson was in town last week to present his thoughts on transliteracy at the ACRL/NY symposium.   Winkinson is on a mission to persuade us to teach students more transferable skills.  Students need transferable skills he argues, so as to be able to move more easily among diverse resources and interfaces.  We should teach not just how to search a database, but how that database works.  He encourages us to embrace three principles in designing our teaching practice: 

“First, effective information use requires multiple information sources.

Second, information sources don’t stand alone, they interact.

Third, and finally, we need to focus on skills that transfer across tools, platforms, and media.”

Wilkinson’s presentation  notes and slides are posted here:   http://librariesandtransliteracy.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/skills-that-transfer/