SUNYLA WGIL

We tend to think in terms of skills that apply to all knowledge domains, involving dispositions and habits that we feel prepare graduates for civic participation and personal fulfillment. We have a wide-angle holistic view. We take a practical approach: let us show you how to find information on any subject using these search tools and techniques.

Faculty are more likely to think in terms of how using sources plays into the values and traditions of a particular discipline. Historians want students to understand how to interpret primary sources, using other historians' work to put historical evidence in context. Biologists train students in the skill of reading scientific papers, including understanding why each new contribution nests itself in previous work. Psychology professors ask students to design research projects, which includes reviewing related literature.

but in the library, we tend to treat them all as more or less the same task: finding good stuff to get the job done.

We help students develop some all-purpose ways to approach any question, knowing that this will remain an important ability later in life. Faculty in the disciplines may be much more focused on polishing the particular lens through which they help students see the world, but being able to find, sort through, and use information is also very much a part of what they teach.

To understand how important this thing we call information literacy is to higher education, we shouldn't look to strategic plans

To know if it's important, we'd have to look at everyday practice.