Skip to Main Content

Faculty Guide to Information Literacy – Core: Why Information Literacy?

Why is Information Literacy Important?

 

Information Literacy (IL) refers to the ability to recognize a need for information and to find, analyze, and synthesize related material from books, articles, websites and more.
 

How Can IL Benefit Students?
A 2017 survey of 42,000 students in more than 1,700 courses at 12 major research universities showed that:

  • Retention rates were higher for students whose courses included IL instruction.
  • Students whose courses included IL instruction reported higher average first-year GPAs than those whose courses did not.
  • Students who took IL instruction successfully completed 1.8 more credit hours per year than students who did not.

How Can IL Benefit Faculty?

Students who are information literate are better able to come up with workable topics for their papers, research those topics iindependently, and write papers that conform to rigorous academic standards.

Starter Kit

NOTE TO LIBRARIANS (DELETE THIS TEXT)

The links below are mapped to the Preview InfoLit – Core tab. They are currently blank, but will automatically update if you add your proxied links to the Preview InfoLit – Core tab. 

 InfoLit – Core Starter Kit

To hit the ground running, try the following material with students. It will give them a solid start on IL basics without being overwhelming.

Why is Critical Thinking Important?

An ability to think critically is essential to a student's time in school and is a vital life-long skill.

Employers highly value critical thinking skills too, with a 2013 AAC&U study showing that “a candidate’s demonstrated capacity to think critically, communicate clearly, and solve complex problems is more important than their undergraduate major."

It's not easy to teach students to adopt a new thinking style; in today's polarized environment, it can even be difficult to impart to them the importance of deliberate and critical thinking.

Video: Why IL Matters to Faculty

***NOTE FOR LIBRARIANS (DELETE AFTER CUSTOMIZING)***

This box is intended to display the Why IL Matters to Faculty video. You will need to add a Media/Widget asset to this box, and use your proxied embed code from the Link Constructor to allow instructors to view the video in this box. 

For instructions on obtaining links to the multimedia, please visit our Help Site: Link Constructor article.