Western State College of Colorado

What is Information Literacy?

Information literacy is part of the reasoning process. As part of this process, students develop the analytical skills to frame questions for investigation about specific topics or concepts. To further analyze these topics or concepts, students must gather, evaluate and integrate information leading them ultimately to a greater knowledge about what they are investigating.

The "Knowing" and "Doing" of Information Literacy

The student should be able to "know" and "do" several things about information prior to graduation.

• Know the "information providers" appropriate to specific or general topics, including the library as a source of information as well as a gateway to other information providers and appropriate organizations and individuals.

• Browse the collections of information in a knowledgeable manner (Doing), including dictionaries and encyclopedias to gain a sense of the breadth and depth of information on a topic, and books and journals to keep current with the latest developments in a field.

• Know the difference between information intended for a generally educated audience and information intended for a particular audience by analyzing sources for quality, relevance, timeliness, authority, and point of view.

• Outline a series of steps in order to locate the needed amount and type of information (Doing).

• Know the appropriate retrieval tools for locating information intended for a generally educated audience.

• Use retrieval tools to locate the above mentioned resources as well as the ability to adapt to new and changing retrieval tools and to use them effectively (Doing).

• Know the meaning of a bibliography and what to Do with it.

• Know sources prominent in his or her major and minor disciplines, including the basic core of journals, reference sources, associations, indexes or catalogs, electronic sources, and important authors and researchers.

Examples of Assignments

The following examples will help students learn and demonstrate information literacy skills:

• a summary of how the popular press, scholarly literature, and electronic media address a specific issue

• an annotated bibliography or bibliographic essay on a topic or theme including sources from reference materials, books, and periodical articles

• an analysis of a social problem that provides individual perspectives and offers possible solutions based on the published literature and personal reflection

• a discussion of the impact and significance of a work of art, music, or literature on a period or culture and the relationship of the work to the artist's/composer's/author's life and body of work

• a review of indexes discussing each index's appropriateness for research in a specific discipline

• an analysis of a topic based on questions or subtopics provided by the instructor

• a mock newspaper article on a current issue including an historical perspective on the issue and interpretation of appropriate statistical data

• abstracts from a series of popular and scholarly articles on one topic or theme

• reviews of scholarly articles and books on a similar topic or theme

• an investigation into a local or regional issue requiring a literature review plus interviews with appropriate individuals either on campus or in the community