Information Literacy Defined
“Information literacy is the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning.”
Association of College & Research Libraries
Information Literacy & Social Work Practice
“The information literate social worker possesses the agency, capacity, and critical thinking to reflectively negotiate the information universe; to ethically discover, evaluate and integrate new knowledge into practice; and to apply an anti-oppressive, social justice foundation to their use and dissemination of information on behalf of their practice, communities of service, and profession.”
Johnson, S.C., Bausman, M., & Ward, S.L. (2021). Fostering information literacy: A call for collaboration between academic librarians and MSW instructors. Advances in Social Work, 21(1).https://doi.org/10.18060/24697
| Module | Course | Content | Application |
| Module 1 | Social Work Practice Lab I | Sources of Knowledge: Foundational, Emerging, and Experiential | Group & final projects |
| Module 2 | Social Welfare Policy II | The Expanding Information Universe: Integrating Subscription and Publicly Available Information Sources | Position paper or advocacy memo |
| Module 3 | Research I | Social Work Research: Advanced Database Searching | Literature review |
| Module 4 | Professional Seminar | The Professional Seminar Project & the Information Literate Social Worker | Final paper or project |
"Information literacy is the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning.
"The Framework opens the way for librarians, faculty, and other institutional partners to redesign instruction sessions, assignments, courses, and even curricula; to connect information literacy with student success initiatives; to collaborate on pedagogical research and involve students themselves in that research; and to create wider conversations about student learning, the scholarship of teaching and learning, and the assessment of learning on local campuses and beyond."
- ACRL Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education