What is information literacy?

Information literacy is "the ability to know when there is a need for information, and be able to identify, locate, evaluate, interpret and apply information". We are surrounded by information every day, some of which is less than trustworthy. For example, would you like to hazard a guess as to whether the following urban myth is TRUE or FALSE?

This urban myth is just one example of how wildly inaccurate commonly accepted information can be. In seeking answers to questions, we need to ensure that we are using trustworthy sources to find our information. Explore the interactivity below as an example of how we use information daily in our personal lives to make informed decisions.

Generally speaking, and as illustrated above, you are already know when you need information, and where to find it. You can already identify, locate, evaluate, interpret and apply the information correctly. In fact, to a much greater degree than you probably realise, you are already "information literate". What you now need to do with the information literacy skills you already have, is transfer them to your daily work practice.

‘Finding, using and managing information: nursing, midwifery health and social care information literacy competences’ (RCN, 2011) contains seven 'competences' relating to information literacy which also appear below. Together, they create a supportive framework to help you develop your information literacy. They have been developed by the RCN and are designed to complement the clinical competence framework (RCN, 2009).

The seven RCN information literacy (IL) competences which we'll look at in more depth are:

1. Identiftying why information is needed.
2. Identifying what information is needed.
3. Carrying out a search to find information.
4. Evaluating how the information meets the identified need.
5. Using information and knowledge inclusively, legally and ethically.
6. Managing information.
7. Creating new information or knowledge.

Together, these competences provide a comprehensive set of skills to support health care workers in becoming information literate, i.e. developing information and knowledge skills and applying them to their practice.

It is not always necessary to use all seven competences all of the time. Depending on the amount of information, or the complexity of the information needed, you can choose which competences are relevant to a given situation. Once you start looking at each in the context of researching information, you'll realise that it is a lot easier than you might think.

As you go through this learning resource, you will see that each competence is described in its own section to help you understand them and build your knowledge gradually towards developing genuine confidence in your information literacy competence.

Explore the case studies below to meet health care workers Benjamin, Jo and Angela, and to follow each of their journeys towards becoming 'information literate'. All three individuals face different professional challenges but discover that by using one or more of the seven information literacy competences, they are able to 'unpack' the problem and find the information they need to solve it. Their stories demonstrate how information literacy is simply part of everyday nursing life.