The Value of Information Literacy

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The Value of Information Literacy

• Marketability
• Citizenship
• Personal Life

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Information Literacy is a Marketable Skill
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In order to have a world class company and
workforce, corporate America must create and
foster an environment where there is continuous
learning, training, alignment of strategic goals,
and knowledge-sharing through the company. In
doing so, it helps to create and prepare workers
to assume more responsibilities and solve
problems themselves. They need this to remain
competitive in the industry. Michael A.
Johnston Chairman, Merrill Lynch Credit
Corporation 1997 Malcolm Baldrige National
Quality Award Winner
From 21st Century Skills for 21st Century Jobs.
A Report of the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S.
Department of Education, U.S. Department of
Labor, National Institute of Literacy, and the
Small Business Administration January 1999
4
From 21st Century Skills for 21st Century Jobs.
A Report of the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S.
Department of Education, U.S. Department of
Labor, National Institute of Literacy, and the
Small Business Administration January 1999
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The Skills Sought By Employers

• Basic Skills
• Technical Skills
• Organizational Skills
• Company/Job Specific Skills

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Information Literacy A Valuable Job Skill

• Use computers as tools for information retrieval.
• Find and use relevant information that can
  contribute to effective problem analysis
  creative problem solving.
• Discover relevant information about customers
  competitors that contribute to individual
  company success.

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Business situations that require information

• Customer from country that you dont ordinarily
  deal with places a big order. How do you
  effectively work with them?
• Employee has a great idea for a new product. Is
  it really new?
• Business is slow. Why? What might you do about
  it?
• The cost of operations is high. Are there
  alternative ways of doing business?

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Information Literacy is Even More Important in a
Global Economy

• In the Post-Internet World
• Electronic business opens new markets.
• Companies need employees who can quickly access
  and accurately interpret information to take
  advantage of global opportunities.

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Focus on skills

• We cannot predict exactly what our students will
  need to know in the future.
• Focus on development of transferable skills.
• Learn the skills in one context, practice them in
  several others, and the student learns to
  generalize to new circumstances.

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What skills are needed?

• Knowing when information is needed.
• Finding relevant information.
• Evaluating information quality.
• Selecting and organizing relevant information.
• Using information to address current concerns.

From Presidential Committee on Information
Literacy, Final Report, 1989. Available at
http//www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/whitepapers/p
residential.htm .
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Information Literacy Promotes Good Citizenship
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Education for citizenship prepares people to be
actively and effectively involved in their own
governance, not just passively accepting the
dictate of others, and acquiescing, without
thought, to their demands.

• From Ana Maria Ramalho Correia, "Information
  Literacy for an Active and Effective
  Citizenship," July 2002, White Paper prepared for
  UNESCO, the U.S. National Commission on Libraries
  and Information Science, and the National Forum
  on Information Literacy, for use at the
  Information Literacy Meeting of Experts, Prague,
  The Czech Republic.

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We need good information to choose

• The leaders we elect.
• The causes we support.
• Can your students spot misinformation?
• Can your students effectively locate, access,
  retrieve, evaluate and act upon good
  information?

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Information literacy is crucial to the effective
practice of democracy.
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Information Literacy Informs Your Personal Life
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How do we get the information we need to guide
our personal lives?

• Rely on experts to help us make important
  decisions
• (An expert-dependent approach is used by college
  students when they get their answers from
  professors.)
• Find and evaluate information independently.
• (The approach of the information-literate
  person.)

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We need good information to inform our personal
lives

• When making a purchase, which item best matches
  our needs?
• When considering a move to a new city, how well
  suited is that location for us?
• When confronted with an illness, what are the
  best treatment options?
• If our rights are violated, what are our options?

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Information literacy makes students more
marketable, better citizens, and will be of value
in their personal lives throughout their
lifetimes.
End