October 2009 is National Information Literacy Month
I’m impressed that the presidential team is so eloquent about this issue. It’s one that I am passionate about.
I hesitate to throw that term “information literacy” around because people tend to skip over the significance of putting those two words together and hear either “information” or “literacy.” Half of the people in my life think that I spend my days helping people become more comfortable with IT, troubleshooting computers, and exploiting the web for my students’ personal gain. The other half really think that I spend my days teaching students to enjoy reading and exploring great books. The truth is, I do those things- but certainly not all day every day. Information literacy, and the teaching of it, is about building a core set of skills that will improve the lives of our community members. When I talk about building, flexing, growing these skills I’m talking about seven basic things:
- Using technology to find and use information.
- Identifying the best places to go to find answers.
- Building strategies for finding the best information for the need.
- Storing information so that we can find it when we need it.
- Building new information and knowledge out of information found.
- Extending our personal knowledge using information.
- Using information wisely for the benefit of the community.
These seven ideas seem big, but we can break it down simply to: a person should be able to find, evaluate, and use information effectively. We want that for all of our patrons- for our whole community. That is why I spend my days advocating for student education and pushing for growth in these areas.
