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Information Skills (NPU) : Home

Why are information skills so important?

With information available in many formats, and of varying quality, it is essential that students have the skills to enable them to exploit the wide range of information resources available and to retrieve, evaluate and use that information effectively.
By empowering students to develop these skills, we can contribute to their academic success and help ensure that our graduates become independent and successful lifelong learners.

What is Information Literacy?

“Information literacy is the ability to think critically and make balanced judgements about any information we find and use. It empowers us as citizens to reach and express informed views and to engage fully with society.”
(CILIP, 2018)

Video courtesy of USCUpstateLibrary 
More Information & Definitions

By developing information literacy skills students will be able to:

  • Understand the need to use information and define your research topic
  • Identify the range of information resources available
  • Locate and access information using different library collections
  • Use search tools to locate relevant information by applying effective search strategies
  • Identify and use subject specific library databases
  • Use information independently and critically
  • Locate and evaluate quality information on the web
  • Cite information and use it in a responsible and ethical manner

Information Literacy Framework

"The Framework opens the way for librarians, faculty, and other institutional partners to redesign instruction sessions, assignments, courses, and even curricula; to connect information literacy with student success initiatives; to collaborate on pedagogical research and involve students themselves in that research; and to create wider conversations about student learning, the scholarship of teaching and learning, and the assessment of learning on local campuses and beyond."

Example:

The library at LIT has produced a 3-level information literacy framework to assist the development of its IL programmes aimed at First/Second year Undergraduate students, Final year Undergraduate students and finally Postgraduate/Research students.

  • For each level of the framework, an indicative set of learning outcomes has been developed, which includes relevant assessment and evaluation techniques.
  • As the students advance through their academic programmes, this framework will enable them to progressively build their skills.
  • The framework will also facilitate collaboration with academic departments and help integrate IL skills into the curriculum.

Recommended resources

Credit

Partially based on a work by LIT Library at lit.libguides.com/information-literacy

The DIREKT Project Online Information Literacy (IL) Module Platform