Information Literacy Education

With the fast development of the information technology and its wide application in a broad range of fields, education institutions worldwide is paying more and more attention to information literacy, which is a fundamental skill for innovative talents in the new century. Based on the reference to 'Information Literacy Competency Standard' set by Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) and starting from the connotation of information literacy and the importance of information literacy education, this thesis has explored the approaches and methodologies of information literacy education to medical school graduates on a sample research project.Information literacy is an evolving concept, whose connotation is being continuously updated along with the development of the new age. Information literacy is an important educational subject with the feature of this new age. It is a key factor in the future information society to measure a nation's human resource quality and productivity. Information literacy education is a series of education activities aimed to cultivate and improve people's information literacy, an important component of the 'competence education'. Information literacy education matches Chinese colleges' long run objective of educating innovative talents. Based on the practical work and the reference to 'Information Literacy Competency Standard' set by ACRL, this thesis has explored the approaches of information literacy education to medical school graduates by tracing in whole process a clinic research project: The Induced Factors For Endometriosis.The thesis concludes that information literacy education should not stop at the training of skills to use information tools and information resources. Rather it should take into full consideration the characteristics of medical school graduates' work: usually their studies are closed linked to research and research teaching. Research teaching allows students to study with research products and focuses on the cultivation of information literacy. It requires students to be able to specify the feature and scope of their research projects, to efficiently search the information relevant to the project and correctly screen the information source so that the information is absorbed to their own knowledge bases and assessment systems.More importantly, information literacy education should involve in the whole process in future research projects, to cultivate students the attitude and methodology to learn independently and to participate with criticism and strong social responsibility. Information literacy education should also educate medical school graduates the ability to apply information literacy in problem solving and their innovative thinking, and therefore enhance their information literacy and turn them into life-long learners.