News & Updates
Living in Information Literacy
By Ice Treyanurak '17
October 7, 2015
As Hamilton students, we like to think we’re smart, literate students. I agree about smart. But what does it mean to be literate? In the middle ages, being literate meant being able to sign your own name. Then there’s the traditional definition of literacy that we usually think of: being able to read and write. But do either of these definitions comprise being literate in today’s society? James Collins (2003) talks about multiple literacies rather than just one. It is no longer just about signing your name or reading a book. You need to be able to interpret graphs, understand the news and validate the posts on Facebook. In the library, we are particularly interested in information literacy: the ability to understand and find information, to evaluate it and use it to create new knowledge.
Being a Research Tutor in the library, I frequently work with my peers on various aspects of information literacy. Together we determine what sources are needed, find them and evaluate them. But as students, we all know that learning doesn’t just happen in the library. And neither does information literacy. From helping a friend find data for her economics project in my dorm to answering a citation question in Commons, we often find ourselves teaching information literacy in various places across campus. In fact, in doing so we are also practicing information literacy: using the information we already know to help generate new information for someone else to use and learn from.
But information literacy isn’t just useful for class. In and of itself information literacy is necessary to engage with all the information that is “out there.” It is a highly transferable skill that allows you to live with more awareness of what’s going on around you. It helps you understand billboard advertisements and magazine articles, it helps you sort through your Facebook news feed and evaluate Google search results. And just like how there is more to information literacy than just academic papers, there is more to the library than just books. We do everything a traditional library does but we also help with educational technology, finding any kind of information and making multimedia presentations to name a few. So, whatever your question is, whenever and wherever you have it, ask us!
