Marie Meron dropped off her children at the after school program and caught the bus to her Wednesday college class "Bookkeeping for Small Businesses." She knew she had to finish her project in three weeks and on her bus ride Marie was planning how best to find out more about local small businesses in her community that had started up and been successful in the last five years. She opened her book bag and took out the list of local businesses her public librarian had given her last weekend. Marie checked off those people she had called over her lunch break at the restaurant including the Chamber of Commerce and the small business club in town. She then looked at the stack of pamphlets she and the librarian found at her school's college library. Marie  noted which ones had been printed in the last five years, and then settled down to read Starting a Catering Business for the Year 2000 with her pencil and note cards in hand. She took special note of tips for food preparation for larger groups so that she could share the information with her manager at the restaurant.

Marie is information literate. She knows she has to learn new things to succeed. Marie knows she has to gather information to be successful in her project and she plans ahead. She visits community resources, such as her local public library and her college library, and seeks assistance from staff. She values a variety of types of resources. Marie evaluates the information she gathers based on her project needs, sorts the information by those needs and then takes notes to personalize what she is reading for better learning. She knows the value of sharing the information with her employer. 

How does one sort these issues out and present the concept and the importance of the concept to others? Obviously, the best way is to explore the variety of definitions offered and choose the one(s) most appropriate to the situation or partnerships. The most critical step, however, is the process of choosing (involving all the partners) as well as choosing the language that means the most to the constituents involved in the process. 

Where to begin?

1. The American Library Association's Presidential Committee on Information Literacy (IL) offers a good beginning with a document rich with content and examples that offer an ALA definition; a discussion of the importance of IL; an outline of an information age school; recommendations for activities and bibliographies of print materials and weblinks. It is a good beginning for groups who are forming and who are needing to educate their group members.  The document is also very good for non-librarians as it contains excellent examples and scenarios to illustrate the variety of contexts and definitions.

2. The Association of College and Research Libraries is committed to information literacy and has numerous significant ongoing information literacy projects. ACRL projects have included (along with programming at national and statewide conferences) creation of the Institute for Information Literacy, design of Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education and Objectives for Information Literacy Instruction by Academic Librarians.

A good general reference page to information literacy definitions can be found at ACRL's "What is information literacy?" Specific models of information literacy in higher education settings can be found at "Are there some model programs I can examine?" 

Those interested in partnerships should note that both the ACRL site and ACRL's Institute for Information Literacy site initially appear to be for academic environments, however, both are much broader and the content can be used with all types of  audiences. ACRL sites are also designed to link and support ALA definitions.

3. The National Forum on Information Literacy is a coalition of over 75 education, business, and governmental organizations working to promote awareness of the need for information literacy and encouraging activities leading to its acquisition. The Forum website provides definitions of information literacy, descriptions of successful information literacy programs, and an annotated list of linked web sites. Also excellent for using with groups of partners or librarians and non-librarians, this information provides first time users with short guides to understanding what the broad issues are and how constituent groups fit in.

4. The Directory of Online Resources for Information Literacy offers extensive links to online resources and “Definitions of Information Literacy and Related Terms.” It attempts to be broad and is an excellent resource. The bibliography section will assist users in seeing the national and international breadth to the issue and does include projects from a variety of types of libraries. If one can’t easily find “public libraries” in the mix, check out Australia links.

5. ALA’s American Association of School Librarians website provides information literacy student standards and definitions in an excerpt of Information Power “Mission and Goals of the School Library Media Program”. K-12 and higher education have been among the first partners to work together to collaborate on information literacy initiatives.

Standards for Information Literacy, Student Learning, Lifelong Learning, and Information Technology Fluency

Information Literacy Issues and Initiatives in Education, Government, Business and Industry: A bibliography of Articles and Items from Non-Library Literature