What is Information Literacy?
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.
ALA Resources
- The Association of College & Research Libraries has taken the lead in developing information literacy resources; chief among these is the Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education.
- The Framework Toolkit is intended as a freely available professional development resource that can be used and adapted by both individuals and groups in order to foster understanding and use of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.
- Being information literate includes the ability to distinguish fact from fiction—an essential skill given the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation. ALA’s Public Programs Office has compiled a collection of resources to help libraries deliver programming about fake news.
Resources
- Your Toolkit for Addressing Misinformation (Evidence for Democracy)
- Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers
This is a practical guide for the student fact-checker. It supplements generic information literacy with the specific web-based techniques that can get you closer to the truth on the web more quickly. - A guide to prebunking: a promising way to inoculate against misinformation.
- Give facts a fighting change: A global playbook for teaching news literacy
Tools
- Bellingcat’s Online Investigation Toolkit This toolkit includes satellite and mapping services, tools for verifying photos and videos, websites to archive web pages, and much more.
- Forensically A set of tools for analyzing photographs.
- Is that Real? A crash course in verifying online content. In this webinar with the News Literacy Project, learn about tools and skills needed to verify the authenticity of user-generated content, and explore ways to share this information with teen and adult patrons
- Verification Handbook Used by educators and journalists of any level, this pioneering book is an essential read for learning about the best-practices for verifying user-generated content and developing appropriate verification processes.