Faculty Guide to Erwin Library: Information Literacy

What is Information Literacy? 

According to the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of the American Library Association, Information literacy is the set of integrated abilities encompassing:

• the reflective discovery of information
• the understanding of how information is produced and valued
• the use of information in creating new knowledge
• participating ethically in communities of learning

ACRL stresses that instructors and students see information literacy as not just fact-finding and presentation but an organic process in which the researcher must involve himself or herself as a thinking individual at every stage of the learning journey, making informed judgments and seeing beneath the facts to the reasons these particular "facts" are found at this time, in this place, offered by this particular resource or authority.

All information and the use of it in some form exists in a navigable geography or framework of location, evaluation, and synthesis, constantly repeated. 

"Because this Framework envisions information literacy as extending the arc of learning throughout students’ academic careers and as converging with other academic and social learning goals, an expanded definition of information literacy is offered here to emphasize dynamism, flexibility, individual growth, and community learning."

"Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education."  ACRL.  Web.  2 March 2017

All students need to become information literate, and three factors work together to help this become a reality:

• The Instructor:, who:
  • Doesn't assume a student already knows what a Bibliography, Thesis Statement, Citation Style or Scholarly Article really is
  • Incorporates small-step assignments into a course, to take a student through the stages of becoming information literate, as he or she receives feedback on each small-step assignment
  • Directs a student to the Librarian for more assistance as needed, often beginning with an introductory information literacy classroom session
• The Librarian, who:
  • Provides point-of-need assistance to both student and instructor on the information resources available to them, either in the library, on the Erwin Library website, or in the wider world of interlibrary loan, or the open internet
  • Presents sessions to classes describing how to access, construct effective searches, and otherwise navigate  research databases as well as the Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) to find books
  • Offers guidance on evaluating information, especially its Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and suitability of Purpose relative to the project for which it is being intended
  • Advises on copyright, citation manuals, and other guides to making the most effective and legal use of information retrieved
• The Student who:
  • Asks questions of instructors, librarians, and even themselves ("Do I really understand what I just read, retrieved, heard or observed?" Further, "Do I trust that information?")
  • Learns to truly process the information found, not just retype it with quotation marks around it ("In my own words, this means ...")
  • Eventually realizes information comes from everywhere, not just a book or a database, but from other people (in interviews) or from their own life experiences and observations  ("I didn't stop needing information literacy after school; I needed it more!")