Information Literacy Guide

My information literacy guide is for use by secondary education learners, grades 7-12, so in addition to the key one-word identifiers (i.e., Need, Access, Locate and Evaluate, Engage and Extract, Use, Ethics), I asked questions or expanded the definition of each.  Two sources that I found helpful were Eisenberg and Berkowitz's Big6 Overview (http://big6.com/pages/about/big6-skills-overview.php) and Kathy Schrock's website that includes many useful links, including information literacy guide links (http://schrockguide.net/information-literacy.html).

Information Literacy Guide for Secondary Education Learners:
Information literacy is an ever-evolving set of abilities by which individuals define the need for information, and are able to locate, evaluate and effectively utilize the needed information to solve a problem or make a decision.  These skills develop and change, not only as technology changes, but also as one's education or career advances.  Information literacy incorporates information technology skills, and it includes an ability to apply problem-solving and critical thinking skills to technology use.  Information literacy applies to all types of information one may access, hard copy sources (e.g., books, magazines, newspapers) and digital sources (e.g., websites, videos, recordings).

Guidance:

1.  NEED:  Determine the extend of the information needed, or define the need for information, or define the task (i.e., what is the information problem, and what information is needed?);

2.  ACCESS:  Access the needed information effectively and efficiently, that is, find the best information, not just the most or the easiest (i.e., what are all possible sources, which are the best sources, what is the most effective search strategy?);

3.  LOCATE and EVALUATE:  Locate sources and find information within the sources; evaluate the quality of information and its sources critically (i.e., recognize bias, manipulation of data or text, and investigate author's credentials to determine if a legitimate source); determine if initial search strategy requires revision (i.e., has need been met?);

4.  ENGAGE and EXTRACT:  Engage with the sourced information (i.e., read, listen, view), and extract the relevant information that fits need;

5.  USE:  Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose, incorporate or synthesize new appropriate information to meet the defined need (i.e., integrate new information with prior knowledge), organize information from multiple sources and present the information in most appropriate format;

6.  ETHICS:  Understand the economic, legal and social issues surrounding the use of information, access and use information ethically and legally (e.g., cite sources, lawfully retrieve and use digital information); evaluate the end product and the process by which it was created.

References:
American Library Association. (2000). Information literacy competency standards for higher education. http://ala.org.acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency.

American Library Association. (1989). Presidential committee on information literacy: final report. http://ala.org/acrl/publications/whitepapers/presidential.

Eisenberg, M. & Berkowitz, B. (2013). Big6 overview. http://big6.com/pages/about/big6-skills-overview.php.

Schrock, K. (2013). Information literacy resources. http://schrockguide.net/information-literacy.html.