Information Literacy
- Why is information literacy important?
- In this Information Age, when the expansion of available information is proceeding at an unprecedented rate, clear concepts of how to access and evaluate this information are essential. National organizations, including the American Association of Higher Education (AAHE), the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), and a growing number of the regional accreditation associations are grappling with the issue of ensuring that our graduates are information literate.
When citizens fail to understand how information is organized and accessible, they lose the freedom to seek and critically analyze information for themselves, the freedom to make personally informed decisions on political and social issues, and the freedom to make an enlightened contribution to the body of human knowledge. In this context, information literacy is more than how to search the Internet or use the latest Microsoft product. Information literacy rises to the level of possessing a worldview that acknowledges that there is a wealth of information available and that an educated citizen should possess the ability to harness it to enhance his own life and the lives of those around him.
