Definition: Information fluency is the ability to recognize the need for information and the ability to locate, evaluate, and use information effectively. These concepts include the use of technology to foster critical thinking and problem-solving skills in the pursuit of life-long learning. Information fluency combines information literacy with critical thinking and computer literacy skills.

Student Outcomes: Students who are information fluent are able to:

1. Know what kind of information that they need.
2. Know where to search for the information that they need.
3. Critically evaluate that information.
4. Formulate conclusions based on the information found and present those conclusions effectively.

Information Fluency Institute: During the fall semester of 2002, the Division of Information Resources at Xavier University implemented an information fluency pilot project. After evaluating the outcomes of this project, an Information Fluency Institute for Faculty was established in summer 2003. A collaborative effort by instructional technology services and library education services, many Xavier librarians contribute to and participate in the Information Fluency Institute for Faculty.

xu.tutor: A comprehensive tutorial that teaches students research skills, xu.tutor (see left menu) was created by education services for the initial information literacy grant. Continually updated and expanded, xu.tutor now features quizzes after each module in the tutorial. Quiz results and scores are automatically sent to the professor's email address, verifying the student's completion of the tutorial and their understanding of the concepts presented. More recently a fifth module was added that addresses plagiarism. Presently, xu.tutor consists of the following modules:

1. Defining the research question
2. Identifying resources
3. Improving a search
4. Evaluating websites
5. Preventing Plagiarism
6. Finding Full-Text