Are you information literate?

The complete skill set that one needs to properly find and handle information is what is called information literacy. Higher education plays a crucial role in acquiring information literacy skills. Certain competency standards have been put in place in order to make information literacy concrete. These standards make information literacy

• transferable: standards make information literacy discussible and clear, and therefore serve as a means for teaching it.
• testable: standards make it possible to determine performance indicators and outcomes at various levels and to monitor progress. This makes the transition from primary education to higher education possible.
• usable anywhere: standardization is important, especially in a climate where students can move all over the Netherlands during the course of their studies. Competency standards and information literacy are independent of the various fields of knowledge and are therefore universally applicable. Standards and information literacy belong in the life-long learning process.
• maintainable: competency standards are indispensable for assessing careful treatment of information and for preventing plagiarism.

In the brochure Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education by the American Association of College & Research Libraries you can find the standards, and examples of the related competencies and outcomes.