Online Information Literacy Module

Overview

In the world today, information skills – critical thinking and problem solving – are very essential to success in the workplace and in everyday life. Day-to-day decisions, ranging from purchases to healthcare rely on sound information literacy skills. This therefore implies, being conscious of the variety of information available and basing your decisions on sound evaluation of the same and reasoning definitely will significantly impact your life.

Every day we encounter an increasingly large and diverse sea of information in many different formats, from an endless number of sources. The quality of information varies greatly between the available information choices. The sheer amount and variety of information available to us makes information literacy competencies important to master! Information literacy skills are vital to success in your personal, professional, and academic life.

In college, you use these skills to perform well on research papers, projects, and presentations. At work you will likely encounter situations where you must seek out new information to make logical decisions. At home, you are constantly faced with deciding consumer issues and forming opinions on social and political topics. Each situation requires engagement in the information literacy process. Citizens require new competencies (knowledge, skills and attitudes) in order to participate in and contribute to society.

About this Guide

This Information Literacy guide, developed from the Association of College & Research Libraries Information Literacy (ACRL) Standards, is developed to teach, train and familiarize students and (other users) with the library and the various resources to improve their information literacy skills as a basic requirement in higher education learning and daily pursuits in this 21st Century. It is designed for use at all levels of information searching and use.

The guide is adapted specifically for the Meru University of Science and Technology (MUST) community.

Objectives

After completing this guide, the user will be able to:

1. define their information need
2. find the correct information
3. evaluate the information found
4. understand the legal and ethical implications when using information
5. communicate the information effectively
6. apply various collaborative tools and
7. manage your scholarly academic user profile

Expected Outcomes

This guide will enable students and library users to:

1. Demonstrate the ability to analyze and articulate information needs, demonstrate an understanding of query construction techniques.
2. Demonstrate the ability to critically evaluate information by being aware of a variety of standard evaluation methods.
3. Demonstrate the ability to organize information and be aware of a variety of writing and referencing styles such as APA and MLA.
4. Learners must be aware of the legal and ethical implications of using information, including copyright laws and aspects of plagiarism.
5. Apply various Collaborative tools in scholarly team-working effectively
6. Manage their scholarly profiles appropriately