National Information Literacy Awareness Month

(Sorry for the absence. The cold and flu season caught up to us here in the library, but we’re finally recovering!)

Anyone who’s sat through one of the library’s presentations on research has heard us talk about how difficult it can be to sort through all of the information out on the web and the importance of evaluating the information you do find. Well, we aren’t alone in feeling this way.  The President has proclaimed October 2009 as National Information Literacy Awareness Month.  You can check out the official proclamation in full, but here’s a small part of it:

Our Nation’s educators and institutions of learning must be aware of — and adjust to — these new realities. In addition to the basic skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic, it is equally important that our students are given the tools required to take advantage of the information available to them. The ability to seek, find, and decipher information can be applied to countless life decisions, whether financial, medical, educational, or technical.

Student loan protection

For those of you relying on student loans to pay for your education, we thought you might be interested to hear the news that there is now legislation designed to protect student loans.  Part of the recent economic bailout activities, the law will allow the government to buy loans, provide federal funds, and encourage lenders to continue providing loans under the federal program.