The way that college students are introduced to research fails to encourage the ethical practice of open-ended curiosity so desperately needed in today's complex information environment. Drawing from a decade of Project Information Literacy's rigorous research studies, one surprising finding is especially concerning: A large majority of recent…

With an increasing volume of health information online, it becomes critical for consumers to improve their search and evaluation skills to retrieve reliable information. The Patient Information Aid (PIA) program is aimed to facilitate information seeking, potentially leading to positive outcomes of online consumer health information and the…

This article describes a project designed to raise the awareness of policymakers about the importance of information literacy to achieve societal goals. Issues benefit from the governmental support, prioritization, mandates, and funding that can result when there is policy behind them. Studies indicate that many people lack the ability to draw on…

The Plato Program is an innovative and dynamic subject that was introduced to explore "learning how to learn" in Year 7. In response to observations by staff that students lacked critical thinking and research skills, it has metamorphosed into a vehicle for the delivery of information literacy within the curriculum, with a particular…

This case study describes an information literacy lab for an undergraduate biology course that leads students through a range of resources to discover aspects of genetic information. The lab provides over 560 students per semester with the opportunity for hands-on exploration of resources in steps that simulate the pathways of higher-level…

Students coping with the escalating complexities of available electronic resources often demonstrate undesirable behaviors including the inability to identify information needs, uncertainty about selecting information resources, poor evaluation of information sources, and inappropriate use of information for problem solving. To eliminate these…