Evaluating Information: Information Literacy
Resources for librarians to use to equip students and the general public to identify reliable sources of news and other information.
Definition
Also referred to as "Information Competency" or "Information Fluency"
From the ALA Presidential Committee on Information Literacy: Final Report, released January 10, 1989:
"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. Producing such a citizenry will require that schools and colleges appreciate and integrate the concept of information literacy into their learning programs and that they play a leadership role in equipping individuals and institutions to take advantage of the opportunities inherent within the information society. 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 such a way that others can learn from them. They are people prepared for lifelong learning, because they can always find the information needed for any task or decision at hand."
- Presidential Committee on Information Literacy: Final ReportContents:
The Importance of Information Literacy to Individuals, Business, and Citizenship
Opportunities to Develop Information Literacy
An Information Age School
Conclusion
Information Literacy Bibliography
Standards and Guidelines
- AASL Standards for the 21st-Century LearnerFrom the American Association of School Librarians, these standards offer vision for teaching and learning to both guide and beckon our profession as education leaders. They will both shape the library program and serve as a tool for school librarians to use to shape the learning of students in the school.
- ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher EducationAdopted in 2016, the Framework offered here is called a framework intentionally because it is based on a cluster of interconnected core concepts, with flexible options for implementation, rather than on a set of standards or learning outcomes, or any prescriptive enumeration of skills.
- RUSA Information Literacy Guidelines and Competencies for Undergraduate History Students.Developed by the Instruction and Research Services Committee, History Section, Reference and User Services Association, American Library Association, 2013.
- Framework for Success in Postsecondary WritingDeveloped collaboratively with representatives from the Council of Writing Program Administrators, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the National Writing Project.
- Seven Pillars of Information LiteracyFrom the Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL), which represents all university libraries in the UK and Ireland, irrespective of mission group, as well as national libraries and many of the UK’s colleges of higher education.
Additional standards and guidelines on information literacy for academic libraries may be found on the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) website, www.ala.org/acrl/standards.
Books and Print Resources
- Academic IntegrityListing of books on
--Plagiarism -- and its prevention
--Commonly used Style guides
--Evaluation of resources.
(Does not include general material on bibliographic instruction or copyright.) - Information LiteracyBooks on all aspects of Information Literacy
All the Facts by ISBN: 9780190460679Publication Date: 2016-04-13Presents a history of the role of information in the United States since 1870, when the nation began a nearly 150-year period of economic prosperity and technological and scientific transformations. Cortada argues that citizens and their institutions used information extensively as tools to augment their work and private lives and that they used facts to help shape how the nation evolved during these fourteen decades.
Doing Honest Work in College by ISBN: 0226484777Publication Date: 2008-04-15Since its publication in 2004, Doing Honest Work in College has become an integral part of academic integrity and first-year experience programs across the country. This helpful guide explains the principles of academic integrity in a clear, straightforward way and shows students how to apply them in all academic situations—from paper writing and independent research to study groups and lab work.
Student Guide to Research in the Digital Age by ISBN: 1591580994Publication Date: 2005-12-30One of the most perplexing aspects of research today is what to do when there's too much information on a topic. What then of the librarian, charged with teaching new generations to appreciate the search for intellectual wheat, especially when the chaff has greater appeal?
Initiatives
- ACRL Student Learning & Information LiteracyMaintained by the Student Learning & Information Literacy Committee, these resources will help you advocate for, develop, and apply information literacy programming, to enhance teaching, learning, and research in the higher education community.
- Project Information LiteracyProject Information Literacy (PIL) is an national and ongoing series of research studies that investigates what it is like being a college student in the digital age.
- AdLit.orgAdLit.org is a national multimedia project offering information and resources to the parents and educators of struggling adolescent readers and writers. AdLit.org is an educational initiative of WETA, the flagship public television and radio station in the nation's capital.
- Resources for School LibrariansDirectory of lesson plan sites for information skills instruction, maintained by Linda Bertland, retired school librarian, Philadelphia, PA
- Applying Big6™ Skills, AASL Standards and ISTE Standards to Internet ResearchTabular analysis by Janet Murray.
- Because we are asked ...The 1998 "Information Power" included "The Nine Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning." These have been updated in more recent standards, but are sometimes referenced. Here is a PDF of them from a school website.
Evaluating Websites
- Primary Sources on the Web: Finding, Evaluating, UsingFrom the History Section of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA)
- Evaluating WebsitesPublished as part of the AASL Learning4Life Lesson Plan Database (PDG)
- Great Websites for Kids Selection CriteriaCriteria used by the committee of the Association for Library Service to Children.