Information Fluency in a Nutshell

Most sites that provide resources to help individuals improve their ability to locate, evaluate and use information from online sources describe those competencies as "information literacy." A few, like 21cif.com prefer the term "information fluency."

What is information fluency in a nutshell?

 Briefly stated, we believe fluency depends on knowing how to:

ask searchable questions

create optimal queries

choose an appropriate Database for searching

query unfamiliar Databases

browse unfamiliar Webpages and Databases

interpret a URL

truncate a URL

skim and scan

use the Find Command

locate information about an author, a publisher, date of publication and secondary references

fact check

detect bias

read to evaluate the relevance and credibility of information sources and content

format a citation

The resources on our site all address these competencies. Here's a sampling:

Asking searchable questions: Keyword Challenges

Creating Optimal queries: Search Challenges

Browsing: Browsing Challenges

Locate the author: Author Tutorials

Locate the date: Date Detective

And many more... For complete access to all materials, consider an affordable annual membership. Membership has its benefits!