Information Literacy Standards For Student
Learning
Prepared by the AASL/.AECT National Guidelines
Vision Committee
The Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning, was prepared
by AASL and the (AECT) Association for Educational Communications and Technology
to guide school library media specialists and other k-12 educators as they
cultivate and refine their students' information literacy skills in print,
nonprint and electronic format. Ken Haycock, president of AASL, said the
standards are crucial for students' success in the 21st century. "Student
achievement is the bottom line," said Haycock. "Knowing how to
obtain and use information properly is increasingly essential both for the
students' success in school and for their personal and professional development
as socially responsible adults."
Today's student lives and learns in a world that has been radically
altered by the ready availability of vast stores of information in a variety
of formats. The learning process and the information search process mirror
each other: students actively seek to construct meaning from the sources
they encounter and to create products that shape and communicate that meaning
effectively. Developing expertise in accessing, evaluating, and using information
is in fact the authentic learning that modern education seeks to promote.
The following three categories, nine standards, and twenty-nine indicators
describe the content and processes related to information that students
must master to be considered well educated. The items related to information
literacy describe the core leaning outcomes that are most obviously related
to the services provided by school library media programs. The items related
to the other two areas--independent learning and social responsibility--are
grounded in information literacy and describe more general aspects of student
learning to which school library media programs also make important contributions.
The latter two categories build upon the first so that, taken together
and pursued to the highest levels, the standards and indicators present
a profile of the information literate high-school graduate: one who has
the ability to use information to acquire both core and advanced knowledge
and to become an independent, lifelong learner who contributes responsibly
and productively to the learning community. The standards and indicators
themselves are written at a level of generality that assumes that individual
states, districts, sites, and school personnel must provide the level of
detail necessary to apply them across multiple sources and formats of information
and to the developmental, cultural, and learning needs of all students they
serve.
Category I: Information Literacy
The student who is information literate:
Standard 1: Accesses information efficiently and effectively, as described
by the following indicators:
1. recognizes the need for information;
2. recognizes that accurate and comprehensive information is the
basis for intelligent decision making;
3. formulates questions based on information needs;
4. identifies a variety of potential sources of information;
5. develops and uses successful strategies for locating information.
Standard 2: Evaluates information critically and competently, as described
by the following indicators:
1. determines accuracy, relevance, and comprehensiveness;
2. distinguishes among facts, point of view, and opinion;
3. identifies inaccurate and misleading information;
4. selects information appropriate to the problem or question at
hand.
Standard 3: Uses information effectively and creatively, as described
by the following indicators:
1. organizes information for practical application;
2. integrates new information into one's own knowledge;
3. applies information in critical thinking and problem solving;
4. produces and communicates information and ideas in appropriate
formats.
Category II: Independent Learning
The student who is an independent learner is information literate
and:
Standard 4: Pursues information related to personal interests, as
described by the following indicators:
1. seeks information related to various dimensions of personal well-being,
such as career interests, community involvement, health matters, and recreational
pursuits;
2. designs, develops, and evaluates information products and solutions
related to personal interests.
Standard 5: Appreciates literature and other creative expressions
of information, as described by the following indicators:
1. is a competent and self-motivated reader;
2. derives meaning from information presented creatively in a variety
of formats;
3. develops creative products in a variety of formats.
Standard 6: Strives for excellence in information seeking and knowledge
generation, as described by the following indicators:
1. assess the quality of the process and products on one's own information
seeking;
2. devises strategies for revising, improving, and updating self
generated knowledge.
Category III: Social Responsibility
The student who contributes positively to the learning community and
to society is information literate and:
Standard 7: Recognizes the importance of information to a democratic
society, as described by the following indicators:
1. seeks information from diverse sources, contexts, disciplines,
and cultures;
2. respects the principle of equitable access to information.
Standard 8: Practices ethical behavior in regard to information and
information technology, as described by the following indicators:
1. respects the principles of intellectual freedom;
2. respects intellectual property rights;
3. uses information technology responsibly.
Standard 9: Participates effectively in groups to pursue and generate
information, as described by the following indicators:
1. shares knowledge and information with others;
2. respects others' ideas and backgrounds and acknowledges their
contributions;
3. collaborates with others, both in person and through technologies,
to identify information problems and to seek their solutions;
4. collaborates with others, both in person and through technologies,
to design, develop, and evaluate information products & solutions.
Important Links
For more information on the new standards click on the following links:
http://www.ala.org/news/v3n24/v3n24d.html
Materials addressing the new standards
and available for purchase are: "Informational Literacy Standards
for Student Learning", "Video Companion to Information Literacy
Standards for Student Learning", and "Information
Power: Building Partnerships for Learning".
To place an order click on the following link:
http://www.ala.org/aasl/infopower.html
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