Examples of Information Competency Skills

by Erin Schreiner
With information competency skills, individuals can harness the power of the information available in libraries.


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Information competency skills are the skills necessary to glean information effectively from sources. Many individuals develop these skills during their school years, while others develop them after they have already entered the world of work. With these skills developed, individuals are more capable to tackling the research-related challenges commonly associated with being a student or a worker in an information-related field.

Topic Narrowing

Before individuals can effectively engage in research, they must be able to narrow their research topic. Overly broad topics will likely yield little usable research. The ability to narrow a topic is in and of itself an information competency skill. To effectively narrow a topic, the researcher must be able to determine which parts of the topic are of the greatest importance, and then focus on these segments instead of focusing on the larger topic as a whole.

Information Retrieval

The ability to retrieve information is another information competency skill. Modern researchers should be able to retrieve information from a variety of sources, including print media and digital sources, as all of these sources can contain information that is of value.

Source Evaluation

Not all sources are of equal merit, and an individual with information competency skills can weigh the strengths and weaknesses of each. The ability to determine the validity of a source is of paramount importance when trying to seek the most useful information available. This ability to evaluate should include both print and online source evaluation.

Attribution Skills

When using information from other sources, individuals must properly attribute it, giving credit where credit is due. This information competency skill requires possessing the ability to cite in an assortment of styles, as well as determine what information must be cited, to avoid plagiarism.

Using Information

After gathering relevant information, individuals with information competency skills must be able to put it to use effectively -- use the information to compose papers, complete projects or conduct work-related tasks. This information competency skill is the last in the process, as the usage of the information gathered is the ultimate goal of researching.

About the Author

Erin Schreiner is a freelance writer and teacher who holds a bachelor's degree from Bowling Green State University. She has been actively freelancing since 2008. Schreiner previously worked for a London-based freelance firm. Her work appears on eHow, Trails.com and RedEnvelope. She currently teaches writing to middle school students in Ohio and works on her writing craft regularly.

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