Information Fluency: A Guide for Faculty

Information fluency is a set of abilities requiring individuals across all disciplines and education levels to think critically while engaging with, using, and creating information.

Seton Hill University defines information fluent students as those who, upon graduation, will be able to combine all forms of literacy to successfully:

• Critically analyze information and conceptualize the parameters of a specific topic
• Locate, access, and select relevant information in all forms
• Critically evaluate information sources
• Recognize practical, ethical, legal, and social issues related to information
• Engage in scholarly conversation with members of the Seton Hill community and beyond
• Synthesize diverse types of information into a comprehensive and coherent work
• Consider audience, purpose, and format in creating and sharing new sources of information

Why does Seton Hill University use the term information fluency instead of information literacy?

Literacy is often associated with a set of basic skills, whereas the term fluency is associated with more advanced processes and a deeper understanding of information and knowledge in a subject area.  Moreover, information fluency is a more holistic set of skills that acknowledges the inextricable connection between information and technology.  However, there is a great deal of overlap between the two concepts, and many resources in this guide will use the term information literacy.

It is Seton Hill University's mission to "educate students to think and act critically, creatively, and ethically."  Information fluency skill development is foundational to this mission, requiring students across all majors to critically evaluate information sources, create new information sources, and practice ethical information seeking and usage behaviors.  Information fluency is an important part of Seton Hill's liberal arts core, and one which permeates all areas of the curriculum.

Not only are these skills vital to students as they complete their academic work at Seton Hill, they are equally important to life after graduation.  In this time of rapid technological change and proliferating information, individuals interact with information from a range of sources and in a variety of formats on a daily basis, not just in their academic lives, but in their personal lives and in the workplace as well.  If we are to successfully fulfill Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton's goal of fitting students for the world in which they are destined to live, then information fluency must be a crucial element of a Seton Hill education.