For nearly two decades, academic librarians have been promoting greater student achievement through the development of formal research skills. The study and acquisition of these skills have come to be known as Information Literacy. 

The Association of College and Research Libraries has defined a set of five standards for Information Literacy. Newman Library's Information Literacy program incorporates these standards into all our activities.

Detailed performance indicators and desired outcomes are linked to each standard below.

"Knowledge is of two kinds: we know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it."

Samuel Johnson (Boswell's Life of Johnson) 

The ability to become informed citizens on campus, in the workplace and in our communities has become vastly more complex as technology creates overwhelming access to news, information and opinion. The ability to sift through information, evaluate it for accuracy and authority, and utilize it appropriately becomes more challenging as our access and options to it increase.

Information literacy is a set of abilities and skills that enables individuals to "recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information." Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. American Library Association. 2006. 

Newman Library's Information Literacy program is designed to empower students with the ability both to recognize the need for authoritative information and understand how and where to find it and use it effectively.

Librarians have long recognized the need to learn how to select, evaluate and use authoritative information in order to succeed both in the classroom and in the workforce.

In School

Knowledge and use of library resources provide students with the tools, skills and confidence to successfully approach and tackle course studies and assignments.

• Wong, Shun Han Rebekah, and T. D. Webb. "Uncovering Meaningful Correlation between Student Academic Performance and Library Material Usage." College & Research Libraries July 2011. 21 Sep. 2011.

The authors report on a study which identified a correlation between increased library usage and higher grades.

• Susan Hurst and Joseph Leonard.  “Garbage in, garbage out: the effect of library instruction on the quality of students’ term papers”, Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship, 8.1 (2007): 1-12. Web.
• The authors report the results of a study which used citation analysis of students’ term papers to determine the effectiveness of a library instruction session.  In each semester, two sections of the same class received a library instruction session, while the third section of the class did not.  Bibliographies of the students’ term papers were then examined to determine if the numbers and types of sources cited differed between the two groups.  Library instruction was determined to be effective, in that students receiving library instruction were significantly more likely to cite journal articles and other scholarly resources than those students not receiving library instruction.

 On the Job

The ability to acquire, evaluate, organize and interpret information was identified as a critical key to success in the workplace in a United States Department of Labor seminal report entitled "Workplace Essential Skills" published in 2000.

 In the Community

"The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government. "
Franklin D. Roosevelt

As shown above, classroom and workplace success and achievement are directly linked to increased research savvy. These same skills prepare us with lifelong skills that help us to understand and solve everyday issues and promote responsible and involved citizenship.

So important is the advancement of information literacy skills to society that the World Bank  actively advocates it and posits that this skill set is fundamental to any real government reform in both developed and developing countries.