InfoLit Idaho

Idaho library workers in public, academic, and special libraries promoting information literacy through Open Education Resources.

“Information overload.” “Misinformation.” “Fake news.” The wild, wild west that is the Internet. Now more than ever, information literacy is a crucial life skill.

Library workers are well positioned to instill and foster information literacy skills and habits. But we must first cultivate it ourselves. As members of the Idaho library and education communities with backgrounds in public, academic, and special libraries, we’ve created this resource in hopes of making information literacy concepts and instruction materials more accessible for the widest range of library workers and patrons.

Built around an introduction to the SIFT Moves model for information literacy, this site encourages you to check sources efficiently by using techniques and habits that provide context. We plan to add applications of the SIFT moves to areas like health information or personal privacy, so keep an eye on this space as this resource grows!

When you’d like to learn more about SIFT, we encourage you to read Caulfield’s Check, Please! Starter Course for further tools and in-depth explanations. You might also read his initial, briefer explanation of the moves or, if you have access to the NY Times, this discussion with him.

We also include links to complementary resources for further learning, like Stanford’s Civic Online Reasoning resources, the Stony Brook University’s Center for News Literacy resources, and Rowan University’s Evaluating Online Sources: A Toolkit LibGuide by Andrea Baer and Dan Kipnis.