The UofM Libraries
Information Literacy
"...the landscape upon which we used to stand
has been transformed,
and we are being forced to establish
a new foundation called
information literacy."
The American Library Association, 1989

Introduction

Facing the realities of the technology age that has flooded us with information, the American Library Association suggests that librarians and other educators rethink their concepts about information, learning and knowledge. In 1989, the American Library Association Presidential Committee on Information Literacy urged educators to "reap the benefits from the Information Age" by teaching for information literacy. This report defined information literacy as "personal empowerment." Information literate people are "those who have learned how to learn. They know how to learn because they know how knowledge is organized, how to find information, and how to use information in such a way that others can learn from them. They are people prepared for lifelong learning, because they can always find the information needed for any task or decision at hand.”

The 1998 ALA Presidential Committee Update contains the following definition of information literacy:



The abilities to know when there is a need for information, to identify information for that need, and to be able to locate, evaluate and effectively use that information are not new abilities that have emerged as a result of the Information Age. In fact, these abilities have always been important to success and quality of life. The only thing that has changed is the amount and variety of information that is now available. Fifty years ago, people had limited sources from which to obtain needed information: books, newspapers, radio, journals, community experts, and government offices.

Today, however, information is not only available from those sources but also from television, CD-ROM, online databases, the Internet, multimedia packages, and digitized government documents; and the amount of information from all of those sources is staggering. Although there has always been a need to find, evaluate, and effectively use information, the abilities needed to do so have just grown larger, more complex, and more important as the volume of available information has mushroomed beyond everyone’s wildest imagination.


Information literacy is an umbrella term that incorporates critical and logical thinking, information seeking and gathering, accurate and appropriate documentation, writing and composition, and proficient use of computers and computer programs. Teaching these skills is the responsibility of classroom teachers in all disciplines, librarians and information technology specialists. Learning these skills is the responsibility of all individuals who want to be information literate.



Information Literacy Competencies*

I. UNDERSTAND THE FLOW OF INFORMATION
  1. Have working knowledge of a variety of information sources.
  2. Understand how information is gathered, organized, packaged, and stored.
  3. Understand the publication cycle and system of scholarly communication.
  4. Learn how to articulate information needs.
  5. Learn ways to keep current and deal with information overload.
  6. Understand concepts of intellectual property .
II. ASSESS AND SELECT APPROPRIATE RESOURCES FOR INFORMATION
  1. Assess available sources of information, including print and electronic.
  2. Match source of information to information need.
  3. Understand the difference between primary and secondary sources.
III. SEARCH AND LOCATE INFORMATION
  1. Understand structure and content of the resource being used.
  2. Know how to build successful search strategies using boolean logic, field searching and limiters.
  3. Know how to alter the search if the first attempt does not find information or finds too much information.
  4. Understand how to interpret citations and use call numbers to locate print items.
  5. Know how to obtain materials not available locally.
IV. EVALUATE AND INTERPRET INFORMATION
  1. Distinguish relevant from irrelevant information
  2. Determine the factual accuracy of a statement
  3. Critique for currency, authority, bias, opinions and assumptions
V. EXTRACT AND ORGANIZE INFORMATION
  1. Understand the process of copying, saving, downloading, emailing, or printing search results
  2. Know how to extract relevant information and document its source
  3. Know how to organize extracted information for practical applications
VI. INTEGRATE AND DOCUMENT INFORMATION
  1. Know how to cite sources accurately and completely
  2. Understand how to integrate new information into an existing body of knowledge
*Modified from The Information Literacy Challenge by Elizabeth A. Dupuis at the University of Texas-Austin

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Created in 1999 by Janell Rudolph. Updated December 13, 2002.
http://exlibris.memphis.edu/infolit.htm