Feeling Our Way: Emotional Intelligence and Information Literacy Competency

As IL instruction initiatives have developed, many librarians have centered their efforts around the Association for College and Research Libraries (ACRL) IL standards,2 with emphasis placed on teaching the skills outlined in the standards, diversifying the delivery methods with new technologies, and assessing learning outcomes. Less attention has been paid to understanding IL in a broader context as a set of skills or abilities at least partly influenced by dimensions of a student’s personality, learning style, or level of cognitive development. There is benefit in examining IL from a wider lens. A greater understanding of the individual dimensions within a student as a developing, growing learner can inform approaches to the practice of delivering IL instruction that may more soundly resonate with students, meeting them where they are in their cognitive and emotional development. In this paper, we explore IL from this wider lens, examining relationships between affective dimensions of a students’ personality and IL competency.