The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) described information literacy in a landmark report as the ability to “recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information” (Association of College and Research Libraries, 1989, para. 4).
With the advent of generative AI, and AI algorithms underpinning major and frequently used technologies, information literacy (and its offshoot, metaliteracy) are more important than ever to evaluate information and produce it ethically!
I used information literacy and Mackey & Jacobson’s (2011) metaliteracy to help me construct my research methods for my doctoral research. This video is based on portions of my dissertation. (Read more about my doctoral research and read my dissertation).
There was a time when if you wanted reliable information, you had to go somewhere physical to get it, a library, an archive, a book.
Technology changed that! Information has been decoupled from its physical format, making it harder to evaluate it than ever, which is why we need info lit, and its newest iteration, metaliteracy, more than ever!
The 1970s
Information literacy was coined in 1974 by Paul Zurkowski, president of the Information Industries Association (IIA) (Kapitzke, 2003). The IIA was formed to advocate for businesses that produced and sold information, and Zurkowski conceptualized information literacy as describing the skills and knowledge that would be needed for employees to be successful in the fledgling information services sector. Interest in information literacy exploded in the 1970s and 1980s as computing’s ability to transform information access and communications became clear (Webber & Johnston, 2000).
The 1980s
Librarians, well-established as gatekeepers of print information, also saw the potential of electronic information retrieval technologies and embraced the concept of information literacy. The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) described information literacy in a landmark report as the ability to “recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information” (Association of College and Research Libraries, 1989, para. 4).
The 1990s
Soon after this landmark report, the World Wide Web became publicly available in 1993 (Hoffman & Blake, 2003). Immediately, new web-based resources began to compete with traditional published resources. Anyone could post messages to the web and create public websites. These new resources stood side-by-side with traditionally published and vetted library resources, and college students frequently treated them equally and used them interchangeably (Larsen, 1996). But while traditional resources like published encyclopedias went through strict editing processes, the web had both experts and non-experts “creating non-refereed webpages on a vast array of topics at a vast range of quality and depth” (Larsen, 1996, p. 89).
The 2000s
The freeing of information from its physical container was (and continues to be) a point of confusion for students. While print journals and books offer obvious visual clues about what they are and the experts that wrote and edited them, electronic resources divorce these print materials’ content from their format, adding an additional challenge to students conducting secondary research. With the availability of electronic information, the divorce of information from its format, and web resources competing with traditional published resources, the ability to evaluate information becomes very important. In the face of these challenges, librarians took on a new role as information literacy instructors: information guides rather than gatekeepers.
In 2000, ACRL released the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. These standards were a good start for teaching information literacy to college students, yet further technological development caused them to quickly become outdated. The early 2000s saw internet access become commonplace. Information behavior continued to evolve with the development of Web 2.0, which referred to the ability to easily create web-based content without having to code, rather than passively consume. This period also saw the rise of social media.
Metaliteracy
Mackey and Jacobson (2011) proposed expanding the concept of information literacy to incorporate finding and using information from a variety of platforms and technologies. Whereas information literacy describes consumerist behaviors used more often with text-based and traditional research resources, metaliteracy expands information literacy to encompass all of information behavior including information production across a variety of digital platforms, such as social media. Metaliteracy recognizes that responsible and ethical consumption and production of information is important in an increasingly participatory and algorithm-driven information ecosystem (Mackey & Jacobson, 2011).
The 2010s
From 2000-2010, new social media platforms were growing in popularity and offering new sources of information. In 2010, users of Facebook (launched to the public in 2006) posted 700 updates per second, while Twitter users (also launched in 2006) created 600 tweets per second (Hall, 2025; Martin, 2011). While early web-based content was static and relatively unchanging, soon social media content, search engine results, and shopping recommendations became driven by artificial intelligence algorithms in order to increase user engagement and manipulate online behavior (Botes, 2023). Sensational and emotional content is often used by algorithms to drive user behavior, yet the opacity of algorithms obscures this manipulation from internet users and allows users’ emotions to be exploited.
With the increase in types and availability of information sources, the ability for anyone to post information online, and affective nature of web-based content, once again, it was becoming more difficult in the 2010s to understand the evolving information ecosystem and which sources could be trusted (Martin, 2011). ACRL’s information literacy Standards did not account for such complexity in the information landscape. Criticism of the Standards grew because they positioned students as simply consumers of information and failed to account for the political and social aspects of information literacy, as well as the bias and misinformation that was more likely to occur in online sources (Foasberg, 2015; Mackey & Jacobson, 2011).
In 2015, ACRL released the Framework for Info Lit for Higher Education. Rather than describing skills, it offered six interconnected concepts to guide learners in developing information literacy. Instead of standards, we now have “frames” and “threshold concepts.” Some of Mackey and Jacobson’s work was reflected in the 2015 Framework, specifically the role that affection and metacognition play in information literacy. Affection referring to feelings and attitudes, and metacognition referring to self-reflection and self-awareness – the ability to think about thinking. Critics said that these concepts were watered down, and that the framework was not a practical document.
The 2020s
ChatGPT launched in late-2022, a tremendous upset to the information ecosystem.
Naturally, the ACRL Framework is currently under revision.
With the arrival of generative AI, and AI in general underpinning almost all computing technologies today, it’s critical to guide learners in using chatbots as an information technology.
Metaliteracy
I used metaliteracy’s four domains as a guiding conceptual framework in my doctoral research, which focused on how graduate students use generative AI. I found that the affective and metacognitive domains were the most important for understanding learner behavior with generative AI. In my research it turned out that attitudes and scholarly orientations played an important role in shaping generative AI use. I also found that students had a bit of a false confidence in evaluating AI output and deciding how best to use it in their academic work.
Wrap-Up
What makes generative AI especially unique is that even its developers can’t explain exactly how it works. Yet, it’s becoming the default information tool for most people.
Based on my research and more recent scholarship, I find that learners’ affective states, as well as metacognitive skills, are likely the most important levers in shaping behavior related to generative AI.
Information literacy started as a way to navigate systems. Today, it’s about navigating an entire information ecosystem—one where anyone, or anything, can create knowledge. Metaliteracy may be the best conceptual framework we have to help navigate this new information landscape.