Information Literacy Education: A National Overview

When President Barack Obama declared October 2009 as National Information Literacy Awareness Month, Information Literacy received national attention.  The declaration stated:  “In addition to the basic skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic, it is equally important that our students are given the tools required to take advantage of the information available to them.”  He asked “people of the United States to recognize the important role that information plays in our daily lives, and appreciate the need for a greater understanding of its impact.”

In this context, Lisa Stock, Dean of Learning Resources at College of DuPage, Jean Donham, Associate Professor in School Library Studies at The University of Northern Iowa Division of School Library Studies and the Department of Curriculum & Instruction and Dane Ward, Dean of Public Services at Illinois State University's Milner Library, will give a background briefing on the working standards and assessments for national literacy and open a dialog on what librarians can do to strengthen efforts to encourage and build information literacy efforts not only in your own library, but in concert with your colleagues around the country.

College of DuPage teleconferences focus on the changing environment faced by librarians with regard to technology, development and planning, and are brought to you by BCR (Bibliographic Center for Research) and the State Library of Iowa.