Information Literacy

Information literacy is today's ‘4th R’ of basic literacy, complementing the “readin”, “ritin”, and “rithmetic” of the early days of American education with ‘retrieval’—it is a survival skill for the Age of Information. The ability to access, manage, and utilize information to make decisions and solve problems is [Page 228]a necessary competence for effective participation in the 21st century. Ensuring that educated people have this competence is precisely the goal of the information literacy initiative.

Some measure of learner self-reliance is a fundamental assumption of distributed learning. In a world of infinite information, self-reliance in accessing and managing appropriate information is a daunting challenge. Competence in navigating the complex universe of information for both learning and work requires information literacy. Supporting the lifelong learning process and ...