BLOG#4

The video "Information R/Evolution" was a great inspiration for my thoughts re. the following blog.
So, information competency is... the ability to:
Recognize the need for information
Know where to obtain information
Choose the proper source and retrieve appropriate information
Organize, analyze, and synthesize information
Use and communicate information
Is it important? YES - for those in certain careers that depend on constant need/means for information at their finger tip and more importantly for students, now of any age.
So, what does it mean to you? It means the world to me right now, being a student in a library databases class. Being a more information competent person is also helping me/has helped me in my career by being able to locate information with better ease and efficiency.
I think an information competent student knows how to better refine searching for particular topics/subjects, etc. with the skills they have learned . A student who is less competent in the skills of a person who is information competent would have a harder time for instance doing a research project on just about any given topic. Why is this? Well, as stated above, an information competent persons has the knowledge and skills to locate and obtain information, what to do with (whether it is relevant to their topic/outdated/useful, etc), and then know what to do with it next. Someone lacking such skills will have a harder time putting all the pieces together, or maybe not even know where to get all the pieces to begin, and then of course, not knowing what to do next. This will cause the unskilled person to waist a lot of time and effort.
Being enrolled in a course called Information Competency, with just one more week to go, I do will I may not be an expert researcher, but I do will as though I am an amateur (okay, maybe intermediate) information competent student.
I do plan to further my information competency skills by perhaps enrolling in the Lib. Tech. program. We shall see. However, at the least, I am more aware of the search engines out there in the www, and know the differences between reputable sources. I also know how to cite such sources.