Defining Information Literacy



In the field of library and information science, there has been much discussion of information literacy, what it is and how it can be taught. Essentially, information literacy is a set of skills that an individual may employ in dealing with information sources and working toward meeting information needs. A particularly salient definition of information literacy as it pertains to higher education can be found in the Information Literacy Competency Standarards for Higher Education.1 This document was published by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), and lists the skills an information literate individual will possess:


Scholars in the field of Library and Information Science have attempted to delineate the concept of information literacy since the early nineties. Eisenberg, Lowe & Spitzer (2004), in the book Information Literacy: Essential Skills for the Information Age2 discuss the evolution of this term and the many types of skills that it encompasses:

In the future, there may be other formats for presenting information--formats not yet imagined. It is important that we consider all of these possibilities when we use the term "information" and that we not be tied to the mental image of printed words and numbers. Using information in a variety of formats requires literacies beyond the basic ones of reading and writing. To negotiate complex information formats, we must also be skilled in other literacies: visual, media, computer, network, and, of course, basic literacy. (p. 6-7)
Clearly, information literacy encompasses not only the need to determine when information is needed and to evaluate the information accessed, but it also includes the ability to access it in the myriad different formats in which it appears. Information literacy has gone far beyond the ability to search the library catalog and access books from the reference collection. Undoubtedly, information literacy includes these skills along with additional skills of a technological nature.

Essentially, Information Literacy is a group of skills that contribute to an individual's ability to access, evaluate and use information in any of the formats in which it appears. With this in mind, the question naturally follows: How important are these skills and will they benefit our students?

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1Association of College and Research Libraries. (n.d.). Information literacy competency standards for higher education. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency.cfm.
2Eisenberg, M.B., Lowe, C.A., & Spitzer, K.L. (2004). Information literacy: essential skills for the information age. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.