Investigating information literacy: A growing priority in translation studies

Although not always labeled as such, information literacy has been implicitly recognized as a key aspect of translation competence by practitioners, teachers, and scholars. Yet, researchers have only recently begun to systematically examine information behavior in the translation processes of students and professionals to determine how translation-centered information literacy develops. The questions of how and whether translators use the tools and resources at their disposal and how students, novices, and professionals differ in this regard remain to be investigated in detail. The multi-method approach we use to analyze translation competence and information behavior combines data from ethnographic observation of the translation situation, surveys, semi-structured interviews, keystroke logging, computer screenshot recordings, concurrent and cue-based retrospective verbalizations of recorded translation processes, and eye-tracking. We report on the initial phases and results of a study on translators’ information behavior to indicate how this type of research can contribute to understanding the development of translation competence and to improving information literacy teaching.