Abstract:
Information literacy (IL) is the set of skills that enables a person to find, evaluate, and use information. Although IL is important in the geosciences, it is hard to teach because the information comes in so many forms. Most geoscience courses include work that implicitly addresses some IL issues. However, because of the importance of IL, it is worthwhile to explicitly include it as part of the curriculum. The Association of College and Research Libraries has developed Information Literacy Standards for Higher Education that may be used to assess an individual's level of information literacy. We introduce a method for incorporating IL into the classroom experience by mapping an assignment to the ACRL standards. By using our method, an instructor can easily implement IL in the classroom, providing both immediate and long-term benefits to the student.
