Learning Lab

Smithsonian Libraries and Archives wants to help you gain a better understanding of information literacy and further your skills in this crucial area. In an age where there are myriad sources of information, unending news coverage, and a vast, often unregulated digital world, how can you tell which sources to trust for reliable information?

The stories of our past are powerful tools. They can be reminders of our successes and cautions of our failures.

In the throes of my first year of pre-pandemic teaching, when I was fresh and green and hardly older (or taller!) than my students, the term Information Literacy meant something quite different to me, and surely to all of us, than it does now. Information Literacy was once a vague set of rules and tools that were scribbled aimlessly on a mental sticky note and stuck to the side of a metaphorical laptop  – collecting dust in one’s periphery but never quite clearing into a sharp focus.