Information literacy

 

Several conceptions and definitions of information literacy have become prevalent. One conception defines information literacy in terms of a set of competencies that an informed citizen of an information society ought to possess to participate intelligently and actively in that society.

 

The American Library Association's (ALA) Presidential Committee on Information Literacy, Final Report states that, "To be information literate, a person must be able to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information" (1989).

 

Jeremy Shapiro & Shelly Hughes (1996) define Information literacy as "A new liberal art that extends from knowing how to use computers and access information to critical reflection on the nature of information itself its technical infrastructure and its social cultural and philosophical context and impact."

 

Related terms are bibliographic instruction, library use instruction or library instruction.

 

Specific aspects of Information literacy

 

Tool literacy, or the ability to understand and use the practical and conceptual tools of current information technology relevant to education and the areas of work and professional life that the individual expects to inhabit.

 

Resource literacy, or the ability to understand the form, format, location and access methods of information resources, especially daily expanding networked information resources.

 

Social-structural literacy, or knowing that and how information is socially situated and produced.

 

Research literacy, or the ability to understand and use the IT-based tools relevant to the work of today's researcher and scholar.

 

Publishing literacy, or the ability to format and publish research and ideas electronically, in textual and multimedia forms.

 

Emerging technology literacy, or the ability to ongoingly adapt to, understand, evaluate and make use of the continually emerging innovations in information technology so as not to be a prisoner of prior tools and resources, and to make intelligent decisions about the adoption of new ones.

 

Critical literacy, or the ability to evaluate critically the intellectual, human and social strengths and weaknesses, potentials and limits, benefits and costs of information technologies.

 

From Wikipedia.

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