Students’ information literacy in Slovenian higher education

Abstract

In today’s information society, academic libraries play an important role in developing students’ information literacy. The key characteristics of the information society are the dominance of information technology and a fast-growing amount of accessible information. The skill of dealing with information has thus become an indispensable tool for surviving in the 21st century. Information literacy is an ability to acquire, evaluate and use information from various sources. It is a long-lasting process to span all the years of education. At the higher level of education, information literacy is based on the knowledge and skills acquired in elementary and secondary school. To efficiently teach students information literacy, uniform guidelines are desperately needed to serve librarians and teachers for their pedagogical work. Students can acquire information literacy skills throughout their study years only through planned and systematic teaching incorporated in the study programs.