Information Literacy Program

Academic libraries works with institutional communities to participate in, support, and achieve the educational mission of their institutions, including evaluation and assessment of information literacy. (ACRL - Association of College and Research Libraries)

Information literacy standards are related specifically to students of Anthropology and Sociology. (ACRL - Association of College and Research Libraries)

Information literacy standards are related specifically to Science and Engineering/Technology students, who are posed with the challenges of identifying, evaluating, and acquiring information from costly journals and sources that may require a working knowledge of software applications. (ACRL - Association of College and Research Libraries)

Provides a bridge between the Information Literacy Standards for Higher Education and applying the standards to teaching in a K-12 environmnet. (ACRL - Association of College and Research Libraries)

Information Literacy Standards are related specifically to Journalism students and professionals in this interdiscipliary and rapidly changing field of study. (ACRL - Association of College and Research Libraries)

The ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries) competency standards for information literacy requires that the student "recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information." The information literate individual is able to:
1. Determine the extent of information needed.
2. Access the needed information effectively and efficiently.
3. Evaluate information and its sources critically.
4. Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose.
5. Understand economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally.

Information literacy is included in identifying the five criteria for WASC acreditation of educational institutions. "A major component of the redesign is that institutions will be expected to demonstrate that their graduates have achieved the institution's stated level of proficiency at least in the following five areas stated in CFR 2.2a: written and oral communication, quantitative skills, critical thinking and information literacy.

President Obama declared October 2009 as National Information Literacy Awareness Month, stating the following:
"Every day, we are inundated with vast amounts of information. A 24-hour news cycle and thousands of global television and radio networks, coupled with an immense array of online resources, have challenged our long-held perceptions of information management. Rather than merely possessing data, we must also learn the skills necessary to acquire, collate, and evaluate information for any situation. This new type of literacy also requires competency with communication technologies, including computers and mobile devices that can help in our day-to-day decisionmaking. National Information Literacy Awareness Month highlights the need for all Americans to be adept in the skills necessary to effectively navigate the Information Age.
Though we may know how to find the information we need, we must also know how to evaluate it."