The Benefits of Information Literacy

In considering whether our institution should teach information literacy skills, who should do the teaching and whether funding and staff should be allocated for this purpose, it is important to consider the ways students will benefit from this training to determine the level of investment to be made in information literacy.

ACRL's Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education make it easy to understand how this skill set will assist students in excelling academically by learning to conduct effective research.

Snavely (2008) points to the importance of creating lifelong learners.¹ Encouraging lifelong learning has been a goal of our institution. Not only will information literacy curriculum benefit our students by teaching them skills that will extend their learning far beyond the campus, but it will also assist the institution in meeting its goal of creating lifelong learners.

Snavely also writes that information literacy training will enable students to better understand diverse cultures and better navigate unfamiliar settings.

Ann Marlow Riedling (2006), in her book Learning to Learn: A Guide to Becoming Information Literate in the 21st Century, points out that information literacy skills can be applied to all disciplines, environments and levels of education². This offers a substantial benefit to all students and the academic departments to which they belong. Students will be able to apply information literacy skills to all of their endeavors, regardless of major area of study, during college and beyond.

Riedling also points out that employers value the skills and contributions of information literate individuals.
William B. Badke (2003) has pointed out that the ways in which information can be accessed have dramatically changed as technology has evolved. Individuals lacking the skills to access information via computer may eventually discover that accessing needed information is impossible. ³

Additional Information
Home Defining Information Literacy The Non-Information Explosion Information Literacy and the Library Summing It Up References

¹Snavely, L. (2008). Global education goals, technology, and information literacy in higher education. New directions for teaching and learning, 114, 35-46.
²Riedling, A.M. (2006). Learning to learn: a guide to becoming information literate in the 21st century.New York, NY: Neal-Schuman.
³Badke, W.B. (2003). All we need is a fast horse: riding information literacy into the academy. In M. Raish (Ed.), Musings, meanderings, and monsters, too: essays on academic librarianship (pp. 75-88). Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.