Taxonomy of Information Literacy Competencies

To model a connection between information literacy levels and IT education, Bloom's educational ob- jective taxonomy is presented. In conjunction with Bloom's taxonomy, the five-component representa- tion of information systems is presented. If an awareness of information systems enables one to be more information literate and if being more information literate enables one to handle IT situations better, then a representation connecting information systems and information literacy would offer insights to IT edu- cation. These two representations, Bloom's Taxonomy and the five-component representation of infor- mation systems, are combined to develop a relationship between growth in competency through educa- tion and the field of information systems. The second section proposes an information literacy competency taxonomy, (ILC taxonomy). The ILC taxonomy expresses the relationship between growth in competency and understanding of information systems. Educational programs can be represented through the ILC taxonomy in terms of the degree of attention committed to the content characterized by each area of the ILC taxonomy. The third section suggests how different programs can be expressed through the ILC taxonomy. Ulti- mately, the ILC taxonomy provides a tool for identifying what skills and behaviors within a spectrum of information literacy competencies individuals should be expected to possess, given an educational pro- gram.