Information Literacy

Information Literacy

   What is information Literacy ?

        The term "information literacy" describes a set of abilities that enables an individual to acquire, evaluate, and use information. You can think of information literacy as having five components: identify, find, evaluate, apply, and acknowledge sources of information.

        Information literacy is a crucial skill in the pursuit of knowledge.  It involves recognizing when information is needed and being able to efficiently locate, accurately evaluate, effectively use, and clearly communicate information in various formats.  It refers to the ability to navigate the rapidly growing information environment, which encompasses an increasing number of information suppliers as well as the amount supplied, and includes bodies of professional literature, popular media, libraries, the Internet, and much more.  Increasingly, information is available in unfiltered formats, raising questions about its authenticity, validity, and reliability.  This abundance of information is of little help to those who have not learned how to use it effectively.

         Information literacy is a lifelong learning process, something beginning before you arrive at college and developing as you grow. While each skill is individually important, understanding how they fit together is essential to becoming an information literate person.

Identify

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Find

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Evaluate

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Apply

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Acknowledge

=  Components of Information Literacy

Why is information literacy important ?

       Every day we encounter an increasingly large and diverse sea of information through the Web, mass media, and published works. You can find information in many different formats, from an endless number of sources. The quality of information varies greatly between the available information choices. Just think of a typical internet search; it is common to retrieve authoritative, current, and reliable sources alongside biased, outdated, misleading, or false sources. Furthermore, an online search is likely to result in more information than can be effectively handled. The sheer amount and variety of information available to us makes information literacy competencies important to master!

         Information literacy skills are vital to success in your personal, professional, and academic life. In college, you use these skills to perform well on research papers, projects, and presentations. At work you will likely encounter situations where you must seek out new information to make logical decisions. In the home, you are constantly faced with deciding consumer issues and forming opinions on social and political topics. Each situation requires engagement in the information literacy process.