Academic life can be a whirlwind. You are given an assignment that directs you to use only peer-reviewed journal articles with qualitative research, prohibiting Single Case or Pilot studies, with everything properly cited in APA. It can be very frustrating deciphering assignments and establishing your first steps. However, your ability to navigate these academic requirements and meet the needs of your assignment is a specific skillset called information literacy and it is the librarian’s role today to support the development of your information literacy skills.
As individuals, information literacy helps you navigate the world, particularly the wealth of information available on the Internet. Learning to assess the authority of sources (journals, magazines, newspapers, government websites, etc.) allows you to determine whether information being shared online is factual or just “fake news.” These are serious matters; people are not just reading information but acting on it.
As students, you are participating in information literacy through scholarly activities like coursework, discussion questions, and the papers you write for classes. While you build knowledge, skills and competencies specific to your program through these efforts, you are also developing your information literacy skills. Every assignment you complete makes you that much more ‘literate’ in your ability to think critically about information.
At its core, information literacy encourages critical thinking. The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) considers the information literate individual somebody who can gather and assess information, determine how information is produced, valued and disseminated, and participate in the active and ethical creation of new information.
Breaking this statement down, there are three distinct ways ACRL recognizes that people interact with information: finding information, using information, and creating information.
Competencies that fall under finding information include consulting the appropriate databases, like ProQuest or Sage, or journals and composing effective queries and modifying them to yield a relevant field of responses.
Competencies that fall under using information include determining which of these results best suit your needs based on successfully evaluating peer review, potential biases, the authority of the creator, and the strengths and weaknesses of the information presented. This is often acted on in work like literature reviews, through which you identify gaps in the literature or research with which your research is in conversation.
Competencies that fall under creating information include taking these sources and using them as the foundation of your academic work, like Discussion Questions and papers, which respond holistically and ethically to the literature while ensuring proper citation of the research which has informed your own through appropriate citation and references.
Yorkville University is always working to produce more resources to support your information literacy development!
For further support or for any questions, please contact Instruction and Academic Support Librarian, Nell Beaudry: [email protected]
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