Are You Information Literate?
By Karen and Erica
We recently heard an erudite man of our generation express the view that, if we are adequately to perform our obligations as citizens, we must be information literate.
What is information literacy? Basically, determining whether you need information, determining the credibility of the information you find, or that is sent to you, and determining whether the information is credible enough to give to someone else.
Information literacy is a set of abilities requiring individuals to “recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.” (American Library Association. Presidential Committee on Information Literacy. To be information literate, then, one needs skills not only in research but in critical thinking.
Why do we all need to be information literate? Because we must recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.
Because of the escalating complexity of this environment, individuals are faced with diverse, abundant information choices–in their academic studies, in the workplace, and in their personal lives. Information is available through libraries, community resources, special interest organizations, media, and the Internet–and increasingly, information comes to individuals in unfiltered formats, raising questions about its authenticity, validity, and reliability. In addition, information is available through multiple media, including graphical, aural, and textual, and these pose new challenges for individuals in evaluating and understanding it. The uncertain quality and expanding quantity of information pose large challenges for society. The sheer abundance of information will not in itself create a more informed citizenry without a complementary cluster of abilities necessary to use information effectively.
Seems like a good idea, indeed, essential given the world we live in, to be information literate. Essential for good citizenship and essential for life in general. We are bombarded with information about our government and its actors and actions, about candidates for office, about policies of one sort or another, about actions being taken by global actors. We are also bombarded with information about actions taken by actors in science and health and space travel and anthropology and huge numbers of other disciplines. We need to be able to determine what information we need, where to find it, how to determine whether it emanates from a reliable source, how to decide whether it makes any sense, how to decide if it should enter into our decision making, and how to reason whether we should pass it along. Especially if we might be passing it along to kabillions of people via social media.
But being information literate in the digital era takes work.
In a digital world, information literacy requires users to have the skills to use information and communication technologies and their applications to access and create information. Closely linked are two other related literacies: computer literacy (ICT skills) and media literacy (understanding of various kinds of mediums and formats by which information is transmitted). For example, the ability to navigate in cyberspace and negotiate hypertext multimedia documents requires both the technical skills to use the Internet and the literacy skills to interpret the information.
New Jersey is the first state in the nation, and as far as we know the only one, to recognize that information literacy must be learned, and to mandate K-12 instruction addressing how we process information, and also how we transmit it.
The Information Literacy Standard bill (S588) was signed into law by Governor Phil Murphy on January 4th, 2023.
S588 directs the New Jersey Department of Education to develop New Jersey Student Learning Standards in information literacy. Information literacy is defined as “a set of skills that enables an individual to recognize when information is needed and to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information. Information literacy includes, but is not limited to, digital, visual, media, textual, and technological literacy.
The content of information literacy shall include, at a minimum:
(1) the research process and how information is created and produced;
(2) critical thinking and using information resources;
(3) research methods, including the difference between primary and secondary sources;
(4) the difference between facts, points of view, and opinions;
(5) accessing peer-reviewed print and digital library resources;
(6) the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information; and
(7) the ethical production of information” (LegiScan)
Back when we were young, we trusted Walter Cronkite to tell us what we needed to know. That era is long gone. No more father figures. We have all grown up. We are on our own. Whether that is a good thing or not, only we can determine, by how we approach information literacy. (among other things!)
[About the time the information superhighway began to take shape] a small group of national leaders-primarily from education and librarianship-articulated their own vision of a productive, thriving people in the new Information Age. That vision was eventually published as the American Library Association Presidential Committee on Information Literacy: Final Report. In that report, the authors:
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explained the enormous impact of the information explosion on all people: in their individual lives, in their businesses, and even in their functions as American citizens.
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emphasized repeatedly the need for all people to become information literate, which means that they are not only able to recognize when information is needed, but they are also able to identify, locate, evaluate, and use effectively information needed for the particular decision or issue at hand. The information literate person, therefore, is empowered for effective decision making, freedom of choice, and full participation in a democratic society.
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stressed that this nation’s economic independence and quality of life was becoming increasingly dependent on all of its citizens becoming lifelong learners-something that would have to start with a basic change in the way young people learn. “To respond effectively to an ever-changing environment,” the report concluded, “people need more than just a knowledge base, they also need techniques for exploring it, connecting it to other knowledge bases, and making practical use of it. In other words, the landscape upon which we used to stand has been transformed, and we are being forced to establish a new foundation called information literacy.”
It’s exhilarating to be participants in the dawn of a new age. And also terrifying. We need to work at it, but we know how to learn new things. We’ve done it for decades. We also need to bring to bear on this new era what we have learned from decades of living. Only those of us who have lived those years can fill that role.
Here are some resources:
We want to hear what you have to say.