INFORMATION LITERACY SKILLS

 

Responsibility: Khanyi Dubazana
Telephone number: 033 341 6510
e-Mail address: khanyid@kznedu.kzntl.gov.za

INFORMATION LITERACY SKILLS

  • Develop and produce a manual for ELITS advisors to standardise training for teacher-librarians
  • Develop and produce the handbook for effective school visits
  • Organize workshops on Information Literacy Skills for advisors’ professional development
  • Identify and supply core collection for ELITS advisors to support their professional activities
  • Produce a video on school library orientation to ensure effective use of the school library
  • LIASA Information Literacy Guidelines summary

This is a very useful article from Wiki Ed (http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Information_Literacy) states

“The American Association of School Librarians (AASL), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), describes the information literate student as one who

  • accesses information efficiently and effectively
  • evaluates information critically and competently
  • uses information accurately and creatively
  • pursues information related to personal interests
  • appreciates literature and other creative expressions of information
  • strives for excellence in information seeking and knowledge generation
  • recognizes the importance of information to a democratic society
  • practices ethical behaviour in regard to information and information technology
  • participates effectively in groups to pursue and generate information

Florida International University Libraries

http://www.fiu.edu/~library/ili/iliweb.html

This site has an excellent set of links to the various competencies

Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals

http://www.cilip.org.uk/professionalguidance/informationliteracy/definition/

According to the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in the UK Information literacy is defined as

Information literacy is knowing when and why you need information, where to find it, and how to evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical manner.

This definition implies several skills. We believe that the skills (or competencies) that are required to be information literate require an understanding of:

  • a need for information
  • the resources available
  • how to find information
  • the need to evaluate results
  • how to work with or exploit results
  • ethics and responsibility of use
  • how to communicate or share your findings
  • how to manage your findings.

Equally the Council of University Librarians (CAUL) defined information literacy as follows;

http://www.caul.edu.au/

Information literacy defined

Information literacy is an understanding and set of capabilities enabling individuals to ‘recognise when information is needed and have the capacity to, locate, evaluate and use effectively the needed information. An information literate person is able to

  • recognise the need for information
  • determine the extent of information needed
  • access the needed information efficiently
  • evaluate the information and its sources
  • incorporate selected information into their knowledge base
  • use information effectively to accomplish a purpose
  • understand economic, legal, social and cultural issues in the use of information
  • access and use information ethically and legally
  • classify store manipulate and redraft information collected or generated
  • recognise information literacy as a prerequisite for lifelong learning

Mark Dibble, Instruction and Public Service Librarian, Blumberg Memorial Library, Texas Lutheran University has the following website of invaluable links relating to Information Literacy

Directory of Online Resources for Information Literacy: The Information Literacy Process

http://bulldogs.tlu.edu/mdibble/doril/process.html

Princeton University in a series of pages on academic integrity has this link

http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pub/integrity/pages/plagiarism.html

School-Libraries.Org

Online Resources for School Librarians; Information Literacy and Library Skills Resources. Excellent set of links which also refer to online evaluation

http://www.school-libraries.org/resources/literacy.html

Jamie McKenzie

Speaks of Questioning First and Foremost

http://questioning.org/rcycle.html

  • QUESTIONING
  • PLANNING
  • GATHERING
  • SORTING & SIFTING
  • SYNTHESIZING
  • EVALUATING
  • REPORTING

American Library Association

 

http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/informationliteracycompetency.htm#ildef

Information literacy forms the basis for lifelong learning. It is common to all disciplines, to all learning environments, and to all levels of education. It enables learners to master content and extend their investigations, become more self-directed, and assume greater control over their own learning. An information literate individual is able to:

  • Determine the extent of information needed
  • Access the needed information effectively and efficiently
  • Evaluate information and its sources critically
  • Incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base
  • Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose
  • Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally

Information Literacy and Information Technology

Information literacy is related to information technology skills, but has broader implications for the individual, the educational system, and for society. Information technology skills enable an individual to use computers, software applications, databases, and other technologies to achieve a wide variety of academic, work-related, and personal goals. Information literate individuals necessarily develop some technology skills.

Information literacy, while showing significant overlap with information technology skills, is a distinct and broader area of competence. Increasingly, information technology skills are interwoven with, and support, information literacy. A 1999 report from the National Research Council promotes the concept of "fluency" with information technology and delineates several distinctions useful in understanding relationships among information literacy, computer literacy, and broader technological competence. The report notes that "computer literacy" is concerned with rote learning of specific hardware and software applications, while "fluency with technology" focuses on understanding the underlying concepts of technology and applying problem-solving and critical thinking to using technology. The report also discusses differences between information technology fluency and information literacy as it is understood in K-12 and higher education. Among these are information literacy’s focus on content, communication, analysis, information searching, and evaluation; whereas information technology "fluency" focuses on a deep understanding of technology and graduated increasingly skilled use of it. 2

"Fluency" with information technology may require more intellectual abilities than the rote learning of software and hardware associated with "computer literacy", but the focus is still on the technology itself. Information literacy, on the other hand, is an intellectual framework for understanding, finding, evaluating, and using information--activities which may be accomplished in part by fluency with information technology, in part by sound investigative methods, but most important, through critical discernment and reasoning. Information literacy initiates, sustains, and extends lifelong learning through abilities which may use technologies but are ultimately independent of them.

 

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