Information Literacy

Information literacy is the set of integrated abilities, as the Association of College and Research Libraries defines it, that let a person reflectively discover information, understand how information is produced and valued, and use it to create new knowledge while participating ethically in communities of learning; the UK's Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals adds that it also means knowing both when and why information is needed. The 1989 American Library Association Presidential Committee on Information Literacy framed it as an attribute of the individual, someone able to recognize an information need and to locate, evaluate and effectively use the information that meets it. The 2005 Alexandria Proclamation named information literacy a basic human right in a digital world, empowering people to seek, evaluate, use and create information to reach their personal, social, occupational and educational goals. It sits alongside related skills such as traditional literacy, computer literacy, research skills and critical thinking, and has drawn growing attention from educators and librarians as a countermeasure to misinformation, fake news and disinformation.