Abstract
Information literacy (IL) is a vital skill for nurse scientists and nurse educators. Some might even say, research IL, is the skill needed most for nurse scientists and nurse educators. Others might say it is digital IL in this day and age. However, these are subsets of IL. I recently had the pleasure of attending the European Conference on IL in Istanbul, Turkey. I presented a poster with my librarian colleague Dr. Sherry Morgan titled “Case Studies in Information Literacy for Nurses and Nursing Education.” The purpose of this conference was to bring thought leaders from around the world to exchange knowledge and experience and discuss current issues in IL and lifelong learning. IL is a term first coined by my father, Paul Zurkowski, in 1974 in a report to the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (Zurkowski, 1974). He defined IL at that time as having the knowledge and skills to be able to generate valuable information from databases residing on main frame computers, mold information to one’s needs and to apply information resources to their work. Today information literate people have learned the techniques and skills for utilizing the wide range of information tools as well as primary sources in molding information solutions to their problems (Zurkowski, 1974). This definition is timeless and independent of technological advances such as the internet and electronic databases. These skills are as essential today as they were over 40 years ago (P. G. Zurkowski, personal communication, October 21, 2013)!
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