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Information Literacy


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Information Literacy: Introduction

What is information literacy?

Information literacy is the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning.

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 ask meaningful questions, extend their investigations, and assume greater control over their own learning. 

ACRL Framework

The ACRL has actively engaged in developing Information Literacy guiding documents and programs in order to support today's learners, including the ACRL Information Literacy Framework. The Framework is organized into six frames, each consisting of a concept central to information literacy, a set of knowledge practices, and a set of dispositions. The six concepts that anchor the frames are presented alphabetically:

  • Authority Is Constructed and Contextual
  • Information Creation as a Process
  • Information Has Value
  • Research as Inquiry
  • Scholarship as Conversation
  • Searching as Strategic Exploration

The Framework opens the way for librarians, faculty, and other institutional partners to redesign instruction sessions, assignments, courses, and even curricula; to connect information literacy with student success initiatives; to collaborate on pedagogical research and involve students themselves in that research; and to create wider conversations about student learning, the scholarship of teaching and learning, and the assessment of learning on local campuses and beyond.

ACRL Framework Information Literacy Links

IL Framework Fundamentals

A public Zotero group for articles on implementing the ACRL Framework.

Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education

ACRL blog on framework

Annotated Bibliography of Threshold Concepts

The list represents a wide variety of disciplines around threshold concepts and serves as an introduction to threshold concepts in the literature of educational theory.

Information Literacy Best Practices: Exemplary Programs

Examples of programs that exhibit characteristics of various best practice elements

Project Information Literacy

American Association of Colleges & Universities Information Literacy Value Rubric