Literacy in the 21st Century is much more than reading and writing. According to the American Librarian Association, information literacy is the ability to “recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate and use effectively the needed information.” The concept of information literacy has been around since the 1970’s, but has taken on a new life our contemporary, information-saturated world. How do we look at information to distinguish the good from the bad? On that note, how do we restrain our urge to use the first twenty search results as our primary information base? After all, we’re living in an era of instant gratification.
Being information literate means knowing where to start your research—this is where the role of the educator comes in. In the meantime, information literacy isn’t a skill that can be acquired by osmosis, or taught in one, two or three lessons. The best way to look at it is not as a destination, but a journey—an invaluable one at that.
Jen O’Neill
Education Writer
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