This timeline chronicles the rise of Information Literacy as a recognized need following the technological advances of the 1960s and 70s.
Information Literacy Standards and Guidelines
2008 Project Information Literacy is launched: a national study about early adults and their information-seeking behaviors, competencies, and the challenges they face when conducting research in the digital age.
2008 Political Science Research Competency Guidelines published.
2008 Information Literacy Standards for Anthropology and Sociology Students published.
2007 Research Competency Guidelines for Literature in English approved.
2006 Information Literacy Standards for Science and Engineering/Technology published.
2005 ALA/ACRL/IS Information Literacy in the Disciplines website published.
2001 ALA/ACRL/IS publishes
Objectives for Information Literacy Instruction: a model statement for Academic
Libraries.
2000 ALA/ACRL Instruction Section publishes Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education.
Information literacy is included by higher education accreditation agencies.
1999 First ALA/ACRL/Institute for Information Literacy Immersion Program held at SUNY-Plattsburgh.
1997 National Information Literacy Institute proposed by Cerise Oberman at LOEX Conference - later renamed the Institute for Information Literacy.)
1996 American Association of School Librarians and AECT publish draft of Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning.
1993 Kuhlthau’s research notes that information literacy is a way of learning (process), not a discrete set of skills.
1993 Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Higher Education adds assessment of information literacy in the curriculum to its agenda.
1992 ERIC adds “information literacy” as a descriptor.
1991 Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) adopts information literacy resolution.
1991 Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) Report, established by U.S. Secretary of Labor Elizabeth Doyle in 1990, concludes that global competitiveness depends on “people who can put knowledge to work.”
Emphasis on the need for educational reform and the role of libraries in the information environment.
1989 Breivik and Gee publish “Information Literacy,” focusing on the role of the academic library in developing life-long learners.
1989 National Forum on Information Literacy, a coalition of business, government, and education organizations, meets for the first time.
1989 ALA Presidential Commission on Information Literacy report defines information literacy as the ability to recognize when information is needed and to locate, evaluate, and use the needed information effectively.
1988 AASL and AECT publish Information Power, which states the role of school library media programs in ensuring that students and staff are effective users of information.
1987 ALA Presidential Commission on Information Literacy appointed.
1987 Libraries and the Search for Academic Excellence Symposium establishes the importance of information literacy skills and provides foundation for current efforts in higher education.
1987 Carol Kuhlthau publishes “Information Skills for an Information Society” pointing the way to integration of information literacy with curriculum.
1983 National Commission on Excellence in Education publishes “A Nation at Risk”, criticizing the lack of rigor in American education.
Increasing amounts of information become available.
1974 First use of term “information literacy” by Paul Zurkowski, President of the Information Industry Association, in a proposal submitted to the NCLIS recommending a national program to achieve information literacy within the next decade.
1971 LOEX (Library Orientation Exchange) is founded, following the "First Annual Conference on Library Orientation" at Eastern Michigan University.
1971 First e-mail transmission takes place.
1970 The National Commission on Libraries and Information Science is established - consolidated with the Institute of Museum and Library Services in 2008.
The first large scale, computer based, information retrieval systems are launched.
1969 The first message is sent from one computer to another through ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network)
1968 DIALOG is founded – the first commercial online information retrieval system to be used globally with databases from a variety of producers.
1966 The online digital library of education research and information ERIC is launched.
1964 The National Library of Medicine launches MEDLARS (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System) – the first large scale, computer based, retrospective search service available to the general public
