Information Literacy

Information Literacy Overview & Updates

The Library is an invested campus partner in the support of information literacy at UHMC. It is the goal of this guide to facilitate engagement with the issue of information literacy and to assist in the integration of information literacy across the curricula.

According to the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), information literacy forms the basis for lifelong learning. It is common to all disciplines, to all learning environments, and to all levels of education. 

Growing out of a belief that information literacy as an educational reform movement will realize its potential only through a rich, complex set of core idea, ACRL has introduced the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.

ACRL explains: “…the rapidly changing higher education environment, along with the dynamic and often uncertain information ecosystem in which all of us work and live, require new attention to be focused on foundational ideas about that ecosystem.

Students have a greater role and responsibility in creating new knowledge, in understanding the contours and the changing dynamics of the world of information, and in using information, data, and scholarship ethically.

Teaching faculty have a greater responsibility in designing curricula and assignments that foster enhanced engagement with the core ideas about information and scholarship within their disciplines.

Librarians have a greater responsibility in identifying core ideas within their own knowledge domain that can extend learning for students, in creating a new cohesive curriculum for information literacy, and in collaborating more extensively with faculty."

The Framework is organized into six frames, each consisting of a concept central to information literacy, a set of knowledge practices, and a set of dispositions. The six concepts that anchor the frames are presented alphabetically:

• Authority Is Constructed and Contextual
• Information Creation as a Process
• Information Has Value
• Research as Inquiry
• Scholarship as Conversation
• Searching as Strategic Exploration​

In Summer 2021, the UHMC library prepared The Story of Information Literacy White Paper to provide an update on info info lit as a standard and core competency. Intended for UH faculty, the updates in this white paper are followed up with these slides on information literacy as metaliteracy and the evolution of source evaluation. 

Sherry Saines at Ohio University has created two documents in "lay language" that help explain the threshold concepts.

Research Assignment Help Using the Framework

ACRL Framework for Information Literacy Sandbox "allows for searching, browsing, and contributing to a repository of materials related to the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. It serves as a resource for teaching faculty and librarians seeking to engage the Framework in their instructional practice, by providing access to materials created by those in the field. Materials made available in the Sandbox address the Framework, and include information about the context in which they were created and used. The Sandbox, in tandem with the Framework listserv and the Framework website, offers evidence of the Framework’s impact on the work of information literacy instructors, researchers, and learners. The target audience of the Sandbox is librarians and academic partners seeking lesson plans, instructional materials, professional development, and research on understanding and using the Framework within the classroom setting and on the programmatic level."

CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments) is "an open access resource for faculty and librarians. It is intended to be a collaborative space for adapting and experimenting with research assignments and sharing the success or lessons learned so that others may benefit. The database contains multiple, reliable and reproducible research assignments that do not live as isolated entities, but are enhanced by user feedback in order to build a rich corpus of best practices. There is also a Teaching Toolkit featuring a wide range of resource types including pedagogy/theory, assessment, librarian blogs, classroom activities, technology tips, subject guides, citation tools, and information literacy tutorials." In the Toolkit under "Resource Type" please note the Pedagogy/Learning theory resources, which include conference materials, scholarly articles on teaching and learning, and resources on the ACRL Framework.

Campus-Wide Assessment of Information Literacy as a Student Learning Outcome

Accreditation agencies have lent their support to the information literacy movement by including language in their Standards that emphasize the importance of teaching these abilities in colleges and universities.

The University of Hawaii Maui College is accredited by the WASC  (Western Association of Schools and Colleges) Senior College and University Commission.

Information literacy is included in Standard 2.2a of the "Teaching and Learning" section. ".... ensure the development of core learning abilities and competencies including, but not limited to, college-level written and oral communication; college-level quantitative skills; information literacy; and the habit of critical analysis of data and argument."