1. Fall 2012
Information
Literacy:
What Is It?
Finding a way
through the
word maze

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Information Literacy
information literacy (IL)
• Skill in finding the information one
needs, including an understanding of
how libraries are organized,
familiarity with the resources they
provide (including information
formats and automated search tools),
and knowledge of commonly used
research techniques.
• ODLIS
September 15, 2012 Information Literacy

3. What is Information Literacy?
http://campus.queens.edu/everett/M2.html
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4. QUILT’s definition
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Why teach information literacy?
 21st-Century learners may be
tech-savvy, but they still can be
overwhelmed:
• . . . Today‟s learners have grown up
in a “wired” world. They have
constant access to global information
resources through computers and
mobile devices, and they expect to be able to retrieve
information instantly. This bold new generation
questions the concept of cognitive authority as mob
indexing an Wikipedia permeate the web. Learners
are now surrounded by information, whether in
print, online, or in sound bites of information.
• Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Media
Programs. Chapter 1: Developing Visions for Learning.
IV. The 21st-Century Learner, p. 11.

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What is information literacy?
Information Literacy
• Information Literacy is a
transformational process in which the learner
needs to find, understand, evaluate, and use
information in various forms to create for personal,
social or global purposes.
• Information Literacy shares a fundamental set of
core thinking- and problem-solving meta-skills
with other disciplines. Authentic cross-disciplinary
problems which include observation and inference,
analysis of symbols and models, comparison of
perspectives, and assessment of the rhetorical
context, engage students in developing mastery
information literacy over time.

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Another concept
Information Competency for Faculty at
Rio Hondo College
• As defined by the Academic Senate for
California Community Colleges (1998),
information competency is the ability to:
• recognize the need for information,
• acquire and evaluate information,
• organize and maintain information, and
• interpret and communicate information
• What Is Information Competency?
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And then there’s “Information Competence”!
What is Information Competence?
• Information competence is the ability to
find, evaluate, use, and communicate
information in all of its various formats. It
represents the integration of library
literacy, computer literacy, media literacy,
ethics, critical thinking, and
communication skills.
• For Faculty: Improving Student Research
Skills and Building Information Competence

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Literacy, Competence or Competency?
http://www.slideshare.net/j_iona/embedding-information-
literacy-in-a-competency-based-curriculum
September 15, 2012 Information Literacy

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Adding to the confusion of terms!
 Several other terms and combinations of
terms have been also used by different
authors:
• „infoliteracy‟, „informacy‟, „information
empowerment‟, „information competence‟,
„information competency‟, „information
competencies‟, „information literacy skills‟,
„information literacy and skills‟, „skills of
information literacy‟, „information literacy
Sirje Virkus
competence‟, „information literacy
competencies‟, „information competence skills‟,
„information handling skills‟, „information
problem solving‟, „information problem solving
skills‟, „information fluency‟, „information
mediacy‟ and even „information mastery‟
• Sirje Virkus: “Information literacy in Europe: a
literature review”
Information Research, Vol. 8 No. 4, July 2003
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Now also as Information Literacies
Why the plural?
• The use of the term “information
literacies” emphasizes the complexity
and multiplicity of skills and
strategies involved in finding and
using information.
Dr. Dianne Oberg • Dianne Oberg: “Promoting Information
Literacies: A Focus on Inquiry.” 70th IFLA
General Conference and Council, 22-27 August
2004, Buenos Aires, Argentina
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla70/papers/088e-Oberg.pdf
September 15, 2012

12. A related term often used outside 12
library media circles
Inquiry-based learning

• We learn best when we are at the center
of our own learning. Inquiry-based
learning is a learning process through
questions generated from the interests,
curiosities, and perspectives/experiences
of the learner. When investigations grow
from our own questions, curiosities, and
experiences, learning is an organic and
motivating process that is intrinsically
enjoyable.
•
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Project, Problem, and Inquiry-based Learning
Explore the Approaches
• Project-based learning, problem-
based learning, and inquiry-based
learning all three closely relate to the
information processing approach.
They all fit well with technology-rich
learning environments where the
focus is not on the hardware and
software, but on the learning
experience.
• Project, Problem, and Inquiry-based
Learning
http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic43.htm
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Another Related Term
 Resource-Based Learning
• Resource-based learning actively
involves students, teachers and teacher-
librarians in the effective use of a wide
range of print, non print and human
resources . . . Students who use a wide
range of resources in various mediums
for learning have the opportunity to
approach a theme, issue or topic of study
in ways which allow for a range of
learning styles and access to the theme
or topic via cognitive or affective
appeals. More
• Resource-Based Learning: Approaches
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Yet another related term
Lifelong learning
• Lifelong learning is the process of acquiring
and expanding knowledge, skills, and
dispositions throughout your life to foster
well-being. It isn't about taking an adult
pottery class or reading a nonfiction book
occasionally. It's about the decisions you
make and the problems you solve in
everyday life. From enrolling in an
structured, formal education program to
considering whether to believe an
infomercial's gimmick, lifelong learning
takes many forms.
September 15, 2012 Information Literacy

16. The new emphasis from 16
AASL (as well as others)
21st Century Skills
Rights and permission on the use of the learning standards
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21st Century Skills
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Partnership for 21st Century Skills

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Kentucky in P21
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20. How do we put it all together?
Use the school library!
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The latest school library study
Phase 1 Report July 2010
Phase 2 Report Sept. 2011
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Where do these studies come from?
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Keith Curry Lance
What Research Tells Us About the
Importance of School Libraries
• At this point . . . there is a clear consensus in
the results now [2002] available for eight
states*: School libraries are a powerful force
in the lives of America's children. The school
library is one of the few factors whose
contribution to academic achievement has
been documented empirically, and it is a
contribution that cannot be explained away
by other powerful influences on student
performance.
• White House Conference on School Libraries
• *15 states—see
Now, 20 states with New Jersey 2011

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A European view
 School Library and School Librarianship
• The stream of information from TV channels,
Internet, CD-ROMs, computer programmes
etc. is unending. If the students, when they
become adult citizens, are not to feel lost and
helpless in the face of such rich sources of
information, they must learn [to] devise
personal strategies for information retrieval
while they are still at school. Information
Literacy and “strategies for independent
learning skill development” are key
components of any school library.
• From a White Paper by Gert Larsen, School Library
Advisor, Albertslund, Denmark, p. 7
• Part of Project GrandSlam - General Research and New
Development in School Libraries As Multimedia Learning
Centres

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The Key Concept?
 Competence and comfort with information and
information sources
• Information literacy is the solution to Data Smog.
It allows us to cope by giving us the skills to know
when we need information and where to locate it
effectively and efficiently. It includes the
technological skills needed to use the modern
library as a gateway to information. It enables us
to analyze and evaluate the information we find,
thus giving us confidence in using that information
to make a decision or create a product.
• Introduction to Information Literacy, Association for College
and Research Libraries (a division of the American Library
Association)
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Kentucky’s thinking on 21st century skills
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Closing observation
http://www.kentuckyteacher.org/kentucky-teacher-of-the-year/2012/04/21st-century-skills-
need-21st-century-assessment/
September 15, 2012 Information Literacy