Information Literacy Standards for Higher Education Overview Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education Approved by the Board of Directors of the Association of College and Research Libraries on January 18, 2000.
Information literacy forms the basis for lifelong learning.
It is common to all disciplines, to all learning environments, and to all levels of education. It enables learners to master content and extend their investigations, become more self-directed, and assume greater control over their own learning. Because of the escalating complexity of this environment, individuals are faced with diverse, abundant information choices in every arena of life. Increasingly, information comes to individuals in unfiltered formats, raising questions about its authenticity, validity, and reliability. Multiple media formats for information, including graphical, aural, and textual, pose new challenges for individuals in evaluating and understanding it.