Question
What are the steps of information literacy?
Answer
The steps of information literacy are as follows:
Define. The first is that you have to define your need, your problem, or the question. You have to know what information you need.
Find. The second step is being able to find the information; locate it, access it, and retrieve it. You can do that from a variety of sources. These sources include print which are books, magazines and texts; electronic means; or human information sources, meaning we ask someone, ask a expert, or ask a colleague.
Evaluate. Once you have the information, then you need to assess the credibility of it. Just because you have the information at your fingertips does not mean it is good information. Is it the information that you need? Is it valid? Is it reliable?
Organize. You then have to organize that information so you can use it. If you have ever Googled something, you know you can get a million hits and you have to figure out if you got the best information, and organize everything that you have compiled.
Communicate. The last step of information literacy is communicating that information. You have to communicate it appropriately to whomever; a client, colleague, doctor or the community. You have to make sure you are doing that both legally and ethically.
I am a hand therapist, so I am going to use hand therapy examples. You have to know when you need information. Let’s say you have a client coming into your practice who has carpal tunnel syndrome. They are not opting for surgery at this time, but they want to know what their options are outside of surgery. You need to gather information. The second thing you will do is find the information. In essence, you would do a literature review or search. Once you locate that information, you then need to evaluate it. The last thing you will do is go back to your client and discuss the treatment strategies based on the information that you found. Potentially you can give that client some more resources that they can take home with them to use to make a decision on what the best treatment is.
