What is Information Literacy?
Information Literacy refers to an individual’s ability to find, identify, manage, evaluate, and use information for a variety of applications. This supposed knowledge competency also involves knowledge in information and communications technology to meet the demands of the modern world.

Information Literacy is said be important and considered as the basis of continued learning. It may be applied across all learning disciplines and all levels of education allowing learners to become masters of knowledge and information. It is considered a vital skill in today’s world, because everyday people are bombarded with tons of information from different sources and disciplines without knowing which of these are truthful, relevant, or outdated. Through mastering the process of acquiring and using information, people will be able to act more independently and assume increased power in terms of knowledge.

The concept of Information Literacy was started in 1974 by Paul G. Zurowski. Back then, a person was said to be information-literate if he is able to use his knowledge from different sources to find solutions to life’s problems at home and at work. This concept has since then evolved into something broader and included technological know-how as part of the skills required of being information-literate. But still, the general concept is that information literacy deals with people’s ability to look for information and manage this knowledge to supply various needs.

A basic application of information literacy’s usefulness is on using information from the Internet. Typing a few keywords on an Internet search engine will result in thousands, if not millions, of data results. With availability of huge amounts of information, one will definitely wonder which information is credible and which ones are not. This simple task of data research requires some skill to even start the process. Knowing what sources to trust and what information to take from the Internet are important to have the right kind of information.

Various information literacy programs are implemented in schools across different levels to better equip students and learners with knowledge that is reliable and useful. But aside from schools, information literacy skills are also a great help in the work environment.