Information Literacy

What is information literacy?

Information literacy refers to a set of integrated skills and practices focused on the discovery, evaluation, and interpretation of information; a critical understanding of how information is produced, valued, and distributed; and the ethical use of information to create new knowledge.

In general terms, information literacy encompasses how information is produced, disseminated, accessed, evaluated, and valued, including ethical questions about information production, organization, and access.

Our Approach to Information Literacy

Oberlin College Libraries' information literacy program is informed by the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.

Rather than viewing information literacy as a checklist of skills, the Framework emphasizes the concepts, dispositions, and skills that students develop as researchers.

Library instruction may explore concepts such as:

• Authority Is Constructed and Contextual — Understanding how expertise is recognized and how authority varies across communities and contexts.
• Information Creation as a Process — Recognizing that information is produced in different formats through different processes, each with distinct purposes and audiences.
• Information Has Value — Considering the ethical, legal, and economic dimensions of information, including citation, intellectual property, and access.
• Research as Inquiry — Viewing research as an iterative process driven by increasingly sophisticated questions.
• Scholarship as Conversation — Understanding scholarship as an ongoing exchange of ideas in which students can participate.
• Searching as Strategic Exploration — Developing flexible and intentional search strategies that evolve as research questions become more focused.

By integrating these concepts into course assignments and instruction, librarians help students build transferable research practices that support lifelong learning and informed engagement with information.

These concepts should be introduced to students during their first year at Oberlin and built upon as they transition through their majors to graduation.

What does that look like in practice?

If you’re seeking ideas for how develop your students’ skills with secondary and primary sources, librarians and archivists are happy to brainstorm with you on different ways to support your course and assignment learning goals.

We have previous successful examples to share:

• Working with Secondary and Primary Sources at Oberlin – Classroom examples for hands-on opportunities for students to engage with primary sources from our distinctive collections, as well as secondary sources from the general collection and databases
• Incorporating Information Literacy into the FYS – Strategies and resources specifically designed for first year seminars

Additional Resources

• Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (Association of College and Research Libraries, 2016)
• Music Companion to the Framework (Music Library Association, 2023)
• Framework for Visual Literacy for Higher Education (Association of College and Research Libraries, 2022)
• Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy (Society of American Archivists, Rare Book and Manuscript Section, Association of College and Research Libraries, 2018)