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“Information Literacy and the Engaged Campus: Giving Students and Community Members the Skills to Take On (and not be taken in by) the Internet”

Information Literacy and Higher Education


The Association for American Higher Education recently endorsed the Association for College & Research Libraries (ACRL) definition and standards and issued a statement of support for partnerships between librarians and faculty members. The following was excerpted from the November 2000 AAHE Bulletin.

by Patricia Senn Breivik

"A thorough reading of the new ACRL standards with their performance indicators makes it clear that information literacy competencies cannot simply be taught. Rather, students must be given repeated and orchestrated opportunities throughout their undergraduate years to acquire the competencies and learn about the full range of available information resources.

Helping students acquire these competencies will require partnerships in curriculum development and assignment-giving between faculty, who are subject experts, and librarians, who are information experts. Historically, one of the strongest advocates for the importance of this type of partnering has been the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, a regional accrediting agency. The agency recently began a multiyear initiative to promote dialogue and collaboration among faculty, administrators, librarians, and information technology personnel. These groups will come together to discuss how an awareness of the relationships among learning outcomes in the disciplines, general education, and information literacy can enhance teaching and learning.

AAHE's Board has endorsed the ACRL literacy standards and recognizes that information literacy is an essential ingredient in current and future undergraduate learning environments. But for campuses that seriously incorporate information literacy into their mission and priorities, the payoff could be far wider because the potential value of an active information literacy program goes far beyond curriculum issues. Given the rapidly changing knowledge and technology base of the Information Age, information literacy is also an important element for success in other key movements in higher education. Information literacy, for example, can be a powerful tool in the linking of campuses to their communities.

Colleges and universities have long been known as producers and disseminators of information. Now these roles can be enhanced by promoting learning that ensures that people can take advantage of the information resources available to them. Such efforts can and should include both improving the ease of access to information and educating people to evaluate and use information effectively."