Read this if
- you want to know the exact definition of information Literacy.
- You are curious to know why information literacy is so crucial in this century.
- You also want to build information literacy skills.
Hey, Congratulations! Your information literacy level is awesome. Ask me how? You are on the correct platform where you will get better results about information literacy. And it is not easy to find the correct information in the search bar. You did it.👍 Surprise? By the way, what is this ‘information literacy’? Do you know the exact definition?
No worries! In this article, I will show you information literacy skills, why these skills matter a lot in this 21st century, and most importantly, we are going to tell you how you improve these skills.
Information literacy
According to US national commission on library and information science, it is defined as “It encompasses knowledge of one’s information concerns and needs, and the ability to identify, locate, evaluate, organize and effectively create, use and communicate, information to address issues or problems at hand, it is a prerequisite for participating effectively in the information society, and is part of the basic human right of lifelong learning.”
Information is not only text, it is everything everywhere.
According to American Library Association, Information literacy is the ability to recognize when information is needed and can locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.
Knowledge is of two kinds: we know a topic for ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.
-Dr. Samuel Johnson
Getting the exact meaning of it. Right? Okay, now we will focus the light on why this skill set is important for us to survive in this century.
Why Information literacy is needed
Do you know in which era we are living now? 21st century? Yes, it is the 21st century! Which is the age of Information, and “information” is increasing at a rapid pace. We have the Internet, television and other information resources available to us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, just because so much information is so easily and quickly available does not mean that all of it is worthwhile or even true. So we should have that quality or skill where we can find out correct information in between the huge amount of information available.
It has become increasingly clear that students can not learn everything they need to excel in their life, within a few years of academics. It’s information literacy that equips them with the critical skills necessary to become lifelong learners.
If I am not wrong, sure you have suffered so many times in searching for particular information. And it is a common problem for every common person. But if you are information literate then there is no problem to use information technologies effectively to find and manage information, and there is no issue with critically evaluating and ethically applying that information to solve a problem.
You know what differentiates an information literate from a common man: an information literate includes the spirit of inquiry and perseverance to find out what is necessary to get the job done.
“Information Literacy comprises knowledge of one’s information concerns and needs it is the ability to identify, locate, evaluate, organize and effectively create, use and communicate information to address issues or problems at hand; it is a requirement for participating effectively in the Information Society and is part of the basic human right of lifelong
Information literacy is a highly necessary skill for everyone who lives in society. Every day we face a lot of informational challenges, we face a lot of options to choose and we have the responsibility to make decisions and apply that information but if we don’t have the information literacy skill, don’t have the ability to choose correct information, the ability to know how to assess, evaluate and use. Then think about what our life will look like. It will be complicated. Isn’t it? So that every person should acquire a sufficient amount of information literacy skills for making their life easy. Here are some helpful points why information literacy is highly needed for you.
#01 You can be a good decision-maker
Information literacy skills help us be independent. It helps us make small to big decisions in our daily life. in our day-to-day life such as buying a house, choosing a school, making an investment, voting for the election, and many more.
#02 You can be a good problem solver
Information literacy skills help to be problem solvers. It promotes problem-solving skills like asking questions and seeking answers, finding information, forming opinions, evaluating sources, and making decisions.
#03 You can succeed academically well
These skills, highly needed especially for students, to succeed academically. It helps students to find information independently, helps to evaluate and use that information effectively.
#04 You can become Future-ready
Today’s employers are looking for people who understand and can adapt to the characteristics of the Information Age and have the ability to find out the appropriate data to evaluate and use inappropriate places. So this skill is highly needed to be future-ready
#05 You can become a lifelong learner
Information literacy skills empower us with critical skills which will help them to become independent lifelong learners. These skills will encourage them to apply their knowledge in several fields to enhance their potential and explore themselves.
#06 You can develop your productivity level
Information literacy allows us to be more productive. This skill helps to cope with the data smog, by equipping us with the necessary skills to recognize when we need information, where to locate it, and how to use it effectively and efficiently. Consequently, it will help decision-making and productivity which is beneficial to society.
#07 It helps to be a good researcher
When students are given an assignment that requires research, they must know where to start and how to conduct searches for the information they need. In this case, information literacy plays an important role for students who complete their assignments as well as being a researcher in their future careers.
#08 It builds professionalism
Information literacy skills are such a skill that helps students to increase their self-confidence. These skills build a problem-solving ability that every student attempt to solve a given problem and build their capability by their research ability to test their potential in every possible profession.
#09 It builds socialism
A good information literate person can be good socialism. You have noticed some students or people looking very shy and don’t expose themselves because they have a lack of confidence due to lack of information literacy. If someone knows when information is needed. How to locate correct information, ability to evaluate and use effectively, they are also confident to cope with society and compete with the world and build social impressions.
How to build information literacy skill
In the age of Google, students get unprecedented access to digital tools and resources for learning, the information that you encounter, however, is not accurate. In this case, a good level of information literacy skills:
- Conducting strategic online searches,
- Judging the legitimacy of online sources,
- Sifting out misinformation, and
- Recognizing advertisements etc.
can help set students up for success as lifelong learners. For example, if you acquire the habit of checking out an author’s credibility or bias, questioning whether a photo has been digitally altered, or cross-referencing sources, you can avoid being misinformed.
Know where to find the information and how to use it- that’s the secret of success.
Albert Einstein
For many students, Google is the Internet: it is their gateway to the web, it structures the results of their Internet searches. With more and more world’s content online, it is very critical for students to effectively use web search to find quality sources appropriate for their task. In this article, I will tell you some of the core procedures of information literacy of this century i.e. an effective web search. You know that the web is the major source of information today. So here are some of the steps for an information literate to follow while doing a web search:
#01 Picking the right search terms
If you are doing any academic search, then you can pick the best words, whether you are beginning with a full question or a topic of just a few words. If you want to get the appropriate result, you just identify the unique search terms to locate the exact source. And after getting some advanced knowledge on Web searching, you can explore “firm” and “search” terms and practice using context terms to locate subject-specific collections of information on the web.
#02 Understanding search results
First of all, you should learn different parts of the result page, and about how to evaluate individual results based on cues like web addresses and snippets. Use the result page to check the quality of a search process, and explore some specific strategies to improve your both searches and results. And then you can engage with generalized and specialized search strategies.
#03 Narrowing a search to get the best results
You can apply filtering tools and basic operators to narrow down the search results. For example, you can narrow your search results to one content type like images, videos, news or books etc. Next to the search box, you can choose your results. After you choose the type of results you want, you can narrow your results further with Search tools. These tools can include location, color, size, or the date a page was published.
#04 Searching for evidence for research tasks
You can draw stronger terms from preliminary search results, identify evidence and explore using various media to locate the specific types of evidence. You can just investigate different page formats (blogs, news, articles, wikis.etc.) and how to identify the right format for the type of information you are seeking.
#05 Evaluating credibility of sources
This is a very important step while you have to think about the information critically. In this stage, you are going to evaluate the credibility of particular information. And for that, you have to consider the following- tone, style, audience, and purpose. You can track information to a reasonable source and recognize and consider the impact of bias in assessing the credibility of information.
Lastly but not at least, we can say
As we know, Information literacy is one of the most essential 21st-century skills. So you can understand very well the importance of this skill set. In every step of your career journey, you need information. So collecting the most relevant information from the web is not a simple one. So you have to be more careful and smart. So that you can gather the most relevant information in less time. Also, there are so many other sides you have to take care of while wanting to be good information literate. But at least if you can do web search effectively, then you might succeed in acquiring a good information literacy level.
Information literacy is one of those meta-skills that lurk behind the ability to master any subject.
-David Gooblar
In this article, we have discussed the meaning of information literacy, why it matters and how to develop it by searching the web effectively. If you have any particular doubt in this regard, it’s our pleasure to assist you with the same. Please don’t hesitate to give your valuable comments below. All constructive suggestions are most welcome. Thanks! Have a great time!
