This can be a daunting question, because the phrase "information literacy" can sound meaningless to many people, and there are many, and varied, definitions. The title of a blog written by fellow librarian Michael Lorenzen sums up this reaction well: The Information Literacy Land of Confusion.
Yet information literacy is one of CCAC's General Education Learning Goals, and has been selected as the pilot goal for implementation and assessment college-wide for 2006-2007. To meet this objective, CCAC educators, staff and students need to understand information literacy.
The succinct definition given for the CCAC Information Literacy General Education Learning Goal states that students will be able to:
"Retrieve, analyze, synthesize, organize and evaluate information through technological and traditional means."
This definition closely follows the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education developed by the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). ACRL defines information literacy as:
"…a set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information. …Information literacy forms the basis for lifelong learning. It is common to all disciplines, to all learning environments, and to all levels of education".
Educators have historically taught many of the elements described in these definitions. Researching topics, evaluating resources through the use of critical thinking, synthesizing new ideas - these are education basics. But information literacy is about more.
The information environment has become increasingly complicated in recent decades. Today information comes from a vast number of sources, and the ease with which it can be accessed has grown exponentially. With the development of the Internet and other technologies, there is much more information, and more ways of obtaining it.
A simple example of the ease with which information can now be accessed is the New York Times, a major national newspaper. You can buy it in print; you can read the latest edition on the paper's website; you can access today's articles via a library database; you can find individual articles scattered on web pages, in blogs, in vlogs, and in subject specific databases.
This example does not even touch on to the enormous variety of sources offering information - it is limited to a single known and trusted information provider. ACRL describes source proliferation when it states that "increasingly, information comes to individuals in unfiltered formats, raising questions about its authenticity, validity, and reliability." This poses "new challenges for individuals in evaluating and understanding it."
Another aspect of information literacy is that there are a whole range of economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information and information technology. Also, as part of the ACRL definition states, we want students to become lifelong learners and problem solvers. To accomplish this in today's world, students must be aware of the skills they need, such as identifying and understanding information literacy elements.
How does the CCAC Library support college-wide information literacy? Academic librarians play a major role in supporting curriculum by teaching information literacy, emphasizing development of critical thinking and other skills that benefit students throughout their lives.
Together, faculty and librarians can teach students to go beyond basic computer literacy to true information literacy.