Information Literacy
What is Information Literacy?
A student who is information literate knows how to use resources from both the Library and the World Wide Web to locate and evaluate needed information. He or she understands the strengths, weaknesses, similarities and differences of each of these information providers and understands how they complement each other.
An information literate student is able to use information resources
effectively at each stage of a project, from defining a topic to critically
evaluating the information found.
Introduction to Information Literacy
What skills do I need to learn?
Basic information literacy skills include the following:
- Locating and using necessary library services and resources
- Selecting information sources appropriate for a particular need
- Using standard research techniques to search electronic databases
- Using the library catalog to find items owned by the library
- Using a general library database, such as General OneFile, to identify articles
- Locating copies of articles
- Finding resources on the World Wide Web
- Beginning to critically evaluate resources
The FLITE Library has created an online tutorial called PILOT to help teach these basic skills. After successfully completing the five units of the tutorial, students should be able to perform all the skills listed above.
Is that all I need to know?
The PILOT tutorial is just one of the steps Ferris students can take to become information literate. The tutorial introduces students to basic concepts of information literacy and how the concepts apply to some typical freshman-level assignments. As students progress through their academic programs at the university, they will learn how these basic concepts can be applied to more complex research needs using more specialized and advanced library databases.
If you have further questions about Information Literacy and the Information Literacy Instruction Program at Ferris, please contact the Library Instruction Coordinator, Kristy Motz, or call the Oval Information Desk at 231-591-3602.
Last update: August 20, 2009