Graduates of the Faculty of Science will be able to use information effectively in a range of contexts.

Information Technology Literacy
Information Technology Literacy is the ability to use IT resources (such as productivity applications like word processors, on-line resources, or computer presentation tools) effectively and efficiently. This means being able to acquire, organise, analyse, evaluate, and present information using appropriate technology, and using information technology to expand the range and effectiveness of communication. Students should develop their knowledge, ability, and responsibility in the use of information technology, understand the role and impact of information technology and apply ethical, responsible, and legal standards in its use, and identify and migrate to emerging forms of technology as part of lifelong learning. Information technology literacy requires the background skills of library skills and evaluating sources.

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Information Research
Information Research is the ability to identify possible sources of required information, and to execute a successful search for that information. This means identifying the nature of the information required, identifying and locating resources that will supply the required data, evaluating the data contained in the resources, and continuing the process until the information need is met. Information research requires the background skills of information searching, library skills and evaluating sources.

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Background Skills

Information Searching involves:

• appreciating the many different forms of potentially useful information (for example, books, journals, audio, video, web, oral communication …) and identifying the most relevant sources for your needs.
  
• using catalogues, bibliographic databases, digital libraries and other sources to find information relevant to a topic of interest to you (for example, searching online abstract databases for journal articles on the same topic as your thesis project, or finding archived newspaper reports on a historical event)
  
• implementing a well-constructed search strategy, and retrieving and interpreting the search results (for example, identifying a variety of potential sources and search keywords for your topic, and then selecting databases and catalogues to search for those sources).

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Library skills are:

• the ability to locate and access information resources (such as finding books, periodicals and audio-visual material, or navigating on-line catalogues)
  
• the ability to search the catalogue, databases and indexes (such as using appropriate databases to find research paper abstracts relevant to a project you are doing)
  
• the ability to interpret retrieved information (for example, understanding the bibliographic information about a journal article resulting from a database search, and using this to find that article in the library collection).

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Evaluating sources Requires Checking:

• relevance to the topic (Is the information actually useful to you?)
  
• accuracy (Does the information fit with what you already know? Does it fit with other reputable sources on the topic?)
  
• intended audience (Who is the information intended for?)
  
• authority (Who has produced the information? Why should they be trusted?)
  
• timeliness (Is the information up-to-date?)
  
• objectivity (Is the author presenting a balanced point of view? Is there an agenda being pushed?)
  

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