What does it mean to be information literate? Simply stated, information literate individuals “know how to find, evaluate and use information effectively.”^[1]

In college, you typically find, evaluate, and use information to satisfy the requirements of an assignment. Assignments often specify what kind of information you need and what tools you should use – or avoid – in your research. For example, your professor may specify that you need three peer-reviewed resources from academic articles and that you should not cite Wikipedia in your final paper. However, in life beyond college – especially the work world – you may not have that kind of specific guidance. You need to be information literate in order to plan and perform your own research efficiently, effectively, and with the needs of your audience in mind.

You might be thinking, “Research? I’ve got that covered. That’s what the Internet is for, right?” In fact, it is much more than doing a simple search engine query and reviewing the first ten results it returns. A 2012 study by Project Information Literacy (PIL) interviewed 33 employers and found that they were dissatisfied with the research skills of recently graduated hires. Employers cited recent graduates’ over-reliance on online search tools and the first page of results as reasons for their dissatisfaction. Research performed by recent graduates was too superficial and lacked analysis and synthesis of multiple types of information from a variety of sources.^[2]

In this chapter, you will learn

• how to identify different information formats;
• where to conduct your research;
• how to search effectively;
• how to evaluate sources you find

Chapter Attribution Information

This chapter was derived by Annemarie Hamlin, Chris Rubio, and Michele DeSilva, Central Oregon Community College, from the following sources:

• Information Formats derived from The Information Literacy User’s Guide edited by Greg Bobish and Trudi Jacobson, CC: BY-NC-SA 3.0 US
• Information Formats: Primary and Secondary Information Sources derived from Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources by Virginia Tech Libraries, CC: BY-NC-SA 4.0
• Information Formats: Popular, Professional, and Scholarly Information derived from Magazines, Trade Journals, and Scholarly Journals by Virginia Tech Libraries, CC: BY-NC-SA 4.0
• The Information Timeline derived from Information Timeline by Virginia Tech Libraries, CC: BY-NC-SA 4.0
• The Research Cycle derived from A Cycle of Revolving Research by UC Libraries, CC: BY-NC-SA 3.0
• Research Tools derived from The Information Literacy User’s Guide edited by Greg Bobish and Trudi Jacobson, CC: BY-NC-SA 3.0 US
• Search Strategies: Develop Effective Keywords derived from The Information Literacy User’s Guide edited by Greg Bobish and Trudi Jacobson, CC: BY-NC-SA 3.0 US
• Search Strategies: Advanced Search Techniques derived from Database Search Tips: Boolean Operators by MIT Libraries, CC: BY-NC 2.0
• Evaluate Sources derived from Evaluating Information by Virginia Tech Libraries, CC: BY-NC-SA 4.0