Library Science and Information Literacy

Information literacy research examines how people find, evaluate, and use information, with particular attention to how academic libraries and instruction can build those capacities in students navigating an increasingly complex digital landscape. As search engines, social media, and AI-generated content blur the line between reliable knowledge and noise, understanding the habits and missteps of real users—across generations and institutional contexts—has become a pressing concern for educators and librarians alike. Researchers are actively debating how to assess whether instruction actually changes behavior, not just self-reported confidence, and how academic libraries can redesign their services around the ways students genuinely seek information rather than the ways librarians assume they do. The field also wrestles with what "critical thinking" means in practice when the volume and speed of online information make slow, deliberate evaluation feel impractical.

Works

113,883

Total citations

279,305

Keywords

Information LiteracyDigital LiteracyAcademic LibrariesInformation BehaviorLibrary InstructionGeneration Y