Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the level of information literacy of the marriage immigrant gatekeepers in Korea. To do this, 51 gatekeepers who live in Busan and Gyeongnam Province were surveyed and the result was compared with the result of another study that was conducted regarding 189 ordinary marriage immigrants living in Busan and Gyeongnam Province in 2009 and used the same survey instrument. As a result, the level of information literacy of the gatekeepers was superior to that of the ordinary marriage immigrants. Also, 14 gatekeepers were interviewed to investigate how they had higher level of information literacy than that of ordinary marriage immigrants. Through analysis of the interviews, "information use environments of the mother country" didn't support their information literacy, but "higher education level", "Korean language skills and bilingual/multilingual abilities", "experiences of information literacy education", "information-friendly home environment", "positive attitude toward life and active social participation" and "active utilization of several information service providers and media" could be the backgrounds of higher information literacy of the marriage immigrant gatekeepers. At the end of this study, some suggestions are made for improving the information literacy of the ordinary marriage immigrants.