President Obama Proclaims October National Information Literacy Awareness Month

PR Log (Press Release) – Oct 12, 2009 – According to President Obama, "National Information Literacy Awareness Month highlights the need for all Americans to be adept in the skills necessary to effectively navigate the Information Age. Though we may know how to find the information we need, we must also know how to evaluate it. Over the past decade, we have seen a crisis of authenticity emerge. We now live in a world where anyone can publish an opinion or perspective, whether true or not, and have that opinion amplified within the information marketplace."
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Presidential- ...

The ability to access the right information is a critical skill in today’s world.  More importantly, learning how to find, evaluate, and accurately apply information to solve personal, professional, and educational problems requires an information literacy skill set in order to do so effectively.  Preparing Americans to seek highly skilled jobs and compete successfully in a global marketplace is a top priority within our current economic recovery efforts. One of the most effective ways to speed up our economic recovery and guarantee our nation’s long-term stability is to make the development of human capital a cornerstone of U.S. economic policy.   In the 21st century, information literacy lies at the heart of such development.

Information literacy, or the lack thereof, dramatically impacts every profession, occupation, organization, school, and/or business in American society. Like so many well-intentioned educational reform efforts of the past, information literacy is often misunderstood, undervalued and/or overlooked. With the arrival of the Internet and the World Wide Web came a whole new set of basic skills. The 3Rs alone – reading, writing, and arithmetic - no longer represented the basic literacy skills needed by all Americans to achieve educational and workplace success in this new millennium.

Therefore, annual observance of National Information Literacy Month will focus the national spotlight on this critical skill area. By doing so, it will remind every American, every employer, every government agency and every institution, in every community across this land, that having an information literate citizenry will help pave the way to 21st century economic prosperity, wider educational opportunity, fairer social equity, stronger national security, and an enhanced quality of life for every American.

As we move further into the 21st century, information literacy will most certainly become the standard-bearer for academic achievement, workforce productivity, and competitive advantage.

The National Forum on Information Literacy celebrates its 20th anniversary on October 15 & 16 at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C.  For details, go to http://www.infolit.org/20th_anniversary/20th_anniversary ...