Associate Professor and Head of Library and Information Centre,
The Illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who can not learn, unlearn and relearn – Alvin Toffler
Higher education institutions in the 21st century are expected to develop competent information literate students capable of meeting future challenges of global competition and challenging dynamic working environment. In the fast emerging Global Knowledge Society, information literacy (IL) has become essential skill for the students to find, evaluate and use effectively the needed information to achieve their educational goals in view of the rapidly changing technologies and increasing complex variety of information resources. This paper explains the concept of IL, discusses the need and importance of IL and highlights the IL competence standards for higher education. It also discusses the IL initiatives at global level and emphasises the urgent need for the development of IL programmes in Indian higher education system.
Information literacy, Information literacy programmes, Information literacy standards, Academic libraries, Higher education
