Part one of an introduction to GE107:Information Literacy Competency

1. What does it mean to be
“information literate”?

2. Why do you need to know
this?
After all you are literate.
You can read and write.
So, isn’t that all you need to
get through college?

3. Well it’s true being literate is the ability to
read and write.
And it’s true you need to read and write to
get through college.

4. Information literacy is a
little different.

5. So what is it?

6. It’s a life skill used to go from a
place of not knowing something,
to finding a source of knowledge,
to examining that source and then
using what you have learned
properly.

7. Today information literacy is
very important because there
are so many information
resources available.
To be information literate
means you have developed a
very important set of skills.

8. According to the
American Library
Association (to make
this official)
“Information Literacy
is the set of skills
needed to find,
retrieve, analyze, and
use information.”

9. Let’s use a simple real life example.
You want to buy a computer.
That’s an easy task to solve.

10. First you need to know what type of
computer you want to buy!
– PC
– Mac
– Other

11. There are some things you know already!
• Your friend, Maria, has a Windows computer!
• You like the computer she has.
• You want to buy a Windows computer.

12. Now you want to go to a computer store.
You asked Wanda where she bought her
computer!
But, she didn’t like the store
where she bought the
computer.
Tells you not to go there.
“The store provided bad
service!”

13. So where do you go?
You need information about computer stores.
What do you do?
You search for information about computer
stores on the Internet.

14. You use your favorite search engine.

15. You find a lot of stores.

16. Just a note, Google is
okay for researching
information about a
computer store.
We’ll talk about what
you should use for
college research later.
Ok?

17. You found that there are many stores that
sell computers.
But, you want to find a store near you.
So, you narrow your search by typing the
name of your town into the search form.

18. There are five computer stores in your area.
So, you do another search. This time adding the
name of the computer that you want to buy.
The next search lists three stores in your area
that has the computer.

19. The first two stores are close to your house.
The third you’ll have to drive to reach.
You look at the various store websites.
The stores near your house sell the computer
you want for $799.

20. The one furthest away is
running a special at $499.

21. At each step in locating the store you’ve:
• Identified the information needed.
• Searched to find the information.
• Retrieved the information.
• Analyzed the information.
• Found that you needed additional
information.

22. Then you did the following.
• Identified the additional information you
needed.
• Searched to find the additional information.
• Retrieved the information.
• Analyzed the information.

23. What’s Next?

24. USE THE
INFORMATION!!
You are now computer store knowledgeable.
You’ve gained knowledge from your research.
You are ready to act upon that knowledge.

25. You get in your car and go to the
store.
You buy your new
computer.

26. This is how information
literacy works!
Through a logical series of
steps you found,
retrieved, analyzed, and
used information.

27. Next we’ll look at the academic world
and answer a important question.
What does it mean to be information
literate for college?