401 Think of information literacy as a hand

I came across this analogy of information as a hand. What a good analogy I think it is. It's by Joyce Needham (2009) on a May 21 post on the Big6 website www.big6.com

• Two of the four fingers are reading and listening (accessing information)
• The other two fingers are writing and speaking (using and communicating information)
• The thumb is the content (e.g. science, geography) or the information that needs to be accessed, evaluated and used.

Needham's post suggests that while each of the fingers and thumb are important (reading, writing, listening, speaking, content) they become even more important when they function as part of the hand (solving information problems). While the hand can function without a finger or a thumb, it's most capable when all four fingers and thumb are functioning well.

This is an excellent way to remember the information literacy components. What I like most about this analogy is that it can be created into a graphic form in order to explain to students the elements of information literacy.