Information Literacy for Life

How our country deals with the realities of the information age will have enormous impact on our democratic way of life and on our nation’s ability to compete internationally. Within America’s information society, there also exists the potential of addressing many long-standing social and economic inequities. To reap such benefits, people as individuals and as a nation must be information literate (ACRL 1989). In this first chapter of the book, we explore what information is, what information literacy is, what constitutes information literacy skills, and why information literacy is important.