Information Literacy Standards: Foundations & Implications

Information literacy has become a survival skill for the contemporary society. It entails individuals who are skillful in the use of information. Information is available through libraries, community resources, special interest organizations, media, and the Internet--and increasingly, information comes to individuals in unfiltered formats, raising questions about its authenticity, validity, and reliability. In addition, information is available through multiple media, including graphical, aural, and textual, and these pose new challenges for individuals in evaluating and understanding it. The uncertain quality and expanding quantity of information pose large challenges for society. The sheer abundance of information will not in itself create a more informed citizenry without a complementary cluster of abilities necessary to use information effectively. In such a scenario where we expect people to take informed decision independently, the relevance of IL increases many fold. Be it any kind of organization, association, profession and irrespective of gender, country, status, age and other social indicator, IL is and will remain an important dimension.