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Student Guide to Information Literacy – Core: What is Information Literacy?

Created for student use, this LibGuide discusses how becoming information literate can lead to more success in school. The guide also offers tabs to each section of InfoLit – Core, with each item of content listed.

Why is Information Literacy Important?


Information Literacy (IL) refers to the ability to recognize a need for information and to find, analyze, and use related material from books, articles, websites and more.

How Can IL Benefit You

A 2017 survey of 42,000 students in more than 1,700 courses at 12 major research universities showed that:

  • Students whose courses included IL instruction were more likely to stay in school.
  • Students whose courses included IL instruction reported higher average first-year GPAs than those whose courses did not.
  • Students who took IL instruction successfully completed 1.8 more credit hours per year than students who did not—meaning that they could finish school faster.

Your Library Can Help!

The librarians at your school are information literacy experts and can help with the various steps involved in doing research.

Your library has also subscribed to a database of tutorials and videos that are all about information literacy. You can view them at the "Information Literacy Videos and Tutorials" tab.

These can help you with tasks such as:

  • Choosing a research topic
  • Writing a thesis statement
  • Searching library databases for articles and ebooks
  • Writing and presentation skills
  • Writing citations
  • Using artificial intelligence (AI) effectively