Information Literacy and the Undergraduate Curriculum

I. Information literacy -- what does it mean?

• In 1989, the American Library Association's Presidential Committee on Information Literacy provided the following definition for information literacy:

  Information literate individuals are "able to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information ... Ultimately, information literate people are those who have learned how to learn.  They know how to learn because they know how knowledge is organized, how to find information, and how to use information in a way that others can learn from them.  They are prepared for lifelong learning, because they can always find the information needed for any task or decision at hand."

• From the SUNY Council of Library Directors" Information Literacy Initiative, information literacy is defined as:
  
  "the abilities to recognize when information is needed and to locate, evaluate, effectively use and communicate information in its various formats."
  

• Basic to many definitions of information literacy are:

* the ability to recognize (and define) an information need
* the ability to locate relevant information
* the ability to evaluate information
* the ability to use, synthesize, and communicate information in a meaningful way
* the ability to become lifelong learners

Presented by: Laurie Kutner
June 2, 1999