According to the ACRL Characteristics, a mission statement has to include a variety of things. The first thing listed is a definition of information literacy. Sounds easy enough, right? We deal with this every day, therefore the definition should be pretty easy to come up with. Unfortunately, there are several definitions floating around out there, all of which appear to be saying pretty much the same thing in different words. For example:
"Information Literacy is the set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information." ACRL
"Information literacy is knowing when and why you need information, where to find it, and how to evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical manner." CILIP
CILIP has actually compiled many definitions in one convenient place. I know they're very similar, but I personally like the CILIP one better because it sounds a bit more personal and seems more understandable to a non-librarian. Hopefully my office won't be stormed by the ACRL police for saying that.
Anyway, choosing a definition should be pretty easy. I'm going to send both of these off to my colleagues and let them vote. I'll post later what they decide.
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