Information Literacy Check

by Corinna Mansfield, School Library Media Specialist

In the School Library world,

the term “Information Literacy” appears quite often in mission statements, is frequently thrown about in collaborative planning sessions, and is invariably used as the theme for library-related conference programs. It’s high time to remind ourselves what this term

really means for students, for teachers who bring their students in for library instruction, and for the school library in general.

In order for a School Library Media Program to be effective, Information Literacy must be the foundation — the central idea that drives all of the other pieces in the program — and everyone involved must have a clear understanding of the outcomes to strive for. According to the American Library Association, “Information Literacy is the ability to identify what information is needed, understand how the information is organized, identify the best sources of information for a given need, locate those sources, evaluate the sources critically, and share that information. It is the knowledge of commonly used research techniques.” Most importantly for students in this world of ever-growing information, Information Literacy is the compass needed to navigate information of any format. Information used in

student research should be authoritative, current, and reliable, and the truly “information-literate” student will be able to identify those features. The information-literate student will also be able to identify when sources are biased, out of date, misleading, or false. Another piece of the puzzle is the ability

to easily use different types of technologies to access, manipu- late, and create information. Once students have mastered these abilities and tools, (hopefully well before the end of high school), they can then use them in every phase of their lives. Not only used for academic purposes, mastering these skills is a necessity to be successful in the workplace, while making consumer purchasing decisions, for becoming an informed citizen, and for exercising their right to vote.

Here is a sampling of some of the objectives School Library Media

Professionals incorporate into their lesson planning: 

⇒ Understand the basics of the Internet — More and more people are using the Internet as their only source of information. Students who have a firm understanding of what the Internet is, how it works, and where the content comes from will be able to easily access that information.

⇒ Identify different levels of information authority —When students have the skills to differentiate between the types and quality of the information they are accessing, they can then make better decisions. Students should understand the difference between what is popular and what is scholarly. They should be able to identity whether or not a source is primary or secondary.

⇒ Differentiate between formats of information — Students in the Library Media Center learn about using databases which sometimes include magazine and news articles, audio clips, videos, reference sources, and more. A student working on a research paper must be able to identify what type of source they are using and include an accurate citation of it in their bibliography.