The information literate person possesses the ability to recongnize when information is needed and is able to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the appropriate information for a given application. For further reading, take a look at Plugging into Information Literacy.
Information literacy is nothing new.
What's new, however, is the ever increasing amount of knowledge and the ease by which it can be accessed. Recent and continuing technological advances and other contributing factors are changing the way people approach and use information. Information literacy is a means of avoiding information overload and developing efficent and effective methods of managing and manipulating available data for purposeful application. Resource-based learning is a commonsense approach to learning. If students are to continue learning throughout their lives, they must be able to access, evaluate, organize, and present information from the real-world sources existing in today's information society.