Information Literacy Standards for Science and Engineering/Technology

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Introduction

Information literacy competency and the purpose of information literacy competency standards are fully described in the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. This document states (page 4, Section 1:2) that information literacy "is common to all disciplines, to all learning environments, and to all levels of education." Information literacy in science, engineering, and technology disciplines is defined as a set of abilities to identify the need for information, procure the information, evaluate the information and subsequently revise the strategy for obtaining the information, to use the information and to use it in an ethical and legal manner, and to engage in lifelong learning. Information literacy competency is highly important for students in science and engineering/technology disciplines who must access a wide variety of information sources and formats that carry the body of knowledge in their fields. These disciplines are rapidly changing and it is vital to the practicing scientist and engineer that they know how to keep up with new developments and new sources of experimental/research data.

Science, engineering, and technology disciplines pose unique challenges in identifying, evaluating, acquiring and using information. Peer reviewed articles are generally published in more costly journals and, therefore, not always available. Gray literature requires knowledge of the agency/organization publishing the information. Much of science, engineering and technology is now interdisciplinary and, therefore, requires knowledge of information resources in more than one discipline. Information can be in various formats (e.g. multimedia, database, website, data set, patent, Geographic Information System, 3-D technology, open file report, audio/visual, book, graph, map) and, therefore, may often require manipulation and a working knowledge of specialized software.

Science, engineering, and technology disciplines require that students demonstrate competency not only in written assignments and research papers but also in unique areas such as experimentation, laboratory research, and mechanical drawing. Our objective is to provide a set of standards that can be used by science and engineering/technology educators, in the context of their institution's mission, to help guide their information literacy-related instruction and to assess student progress. The field of mathematics is not included in the standards.