New Listserv Announcement: Information Literacy Instruction Listserv (ILI-L)

Sarah McDaniel writes \”The Information Literacy Instruction Listserv (ILI-L) began in June 2002 as a new iteration of the now-defunct Bibliographic Instruction Listserv (BI-L). ILI-L is hosted on the American Library Association server and sponsored by the Instruction Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries.For over a decade, BI-L subscribers discussed “the practical, theoretical and technical aspects of helping library users locate, evaluate, and manage information.” In recent years, librarians and educators increasingly framed discussions of these topics in the wider context of information literacy. The 1989 Report of the Presidential Committee on Information Literacy defined information Literacy as the ability to “recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.” (http://www.ala.org/acrl/nili/ilit1st.html). The new name of the list addresses this broader framework, while still encompassing all the topics discussed on BI-L.

Having the list hosted on the American Library Association server and managed by the ACRL Instruction Section List Manager will assure that this important listserv will have a permanent home. ILI-L is not a venue for ACRL Instruction Section business: a separate network of listservs is in place for that purpose. Nor does ACRL-sponsorship imply an exclusive focus on academic libraries: part of what made BI-L great was the active participation of librarians from a variety of settings, and ILI-L is intended to be equally inclusive.

For a record of the discussion on the new list so far, you can visit the online archive at http://bubl.ac.uk/mail/ilild/ I hope you’ll decide to subscribe! If you’re interested, subscription instructions are available at http://www.ala.org/acrl/is/ilil.html

Please email Sarah McDaniel ([email protected]) if you have any questions about ILI-L. \”