Media Specialists at Hunterdon Central are passionate and looking forward to implementing Information Literacy into classrooms this fall.  Ms.Ford, a media specialist at Hunterdon Central believes that their skills regarding information literacy here at Central are crucial for students’ education in all schools. “I feel like our skills are the foundation of all learning,” she said.

Information Literacy Law
According to the American Library Association, Information literacy is defined as ​​”a set of abilities requiring individuals to ‘recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information,'” Critical thinking, research methods, identifying primary vs secondary sources, and identifying bias/point of view/opinion, are all skills that will be implemented in schools with a newly introduced law that will take effect this fall. 

This New Jersey Literacy Law (Legislation S588), signed by Governor Phil Murphy on January 4th, 2023 is requiring the curriculum at K-12 schools to be altered in order to implement this learning style.

The Official Site of the State of New Jersey published an article on the Legislative Law. In it, Governor Phil Murphy expressed why it’s important that this law was passed. “Our democracy remains under sustained attack through the proliferation of disinformation that is eroding the role of truth in our political and civic discourse,” said Governor Murphy. “It is our responsibility to ensure our nation’s future leaders are equipped with the tools necessary to identify fact from fiction. I am proud to sign legislation that is critical to the success of New Jersey’s students and essential to the preservation of our democracy,” he said. 

Governor Murphy believes it is crucial for students to be taught these skills. How it will be implemented is still in the works. The New Jersey Literacy Law describes, “teachers and school library media specialists.” will collaborate to teach this material. 

Hunterdon’s Centrals Media Specialists

At Hunterdon Central’s newly renovated IMC, you can find media specialists Emily Ford, Denise Spina, and Jessica Emili who are experienced and educated in media literacy. Often they go into classrooms to help out with projects and explain how to use different tools to gather research or work through a project.

“Hunterdon Central uses something called the embedded librarian model,” said Ms. Ford. “That’s why we always come to your classes, what we are teaching you can directly apply to what you’re doing. When you come down for English one, or US 1, US 2, Global Studies. We aren’t just teaching you skills in class, we are making sure you’re applying them and you see they should be used everywhere. English, Social Studies, Science, and in your personal life.”

Ms.Spina works alongside Ms. Ford in the IMC. She has similar views on this law.

“The Information literacy law is the premise of what we do. Our subject area is information science and literacy,” she said. “For us that’s what we do normally, it’s just never been a required subject to be taught by law. Not necessarily as its own subject but all the other subjects have to include that in their curriculum.”

Spina believes that this material will not necessarily be its own subject, but Hunterdon Central and other schools will definitely implement it in the core subjects. 

As far as Hunterdon Central and the media specialists are aware, the literacy law will most likely go into effect at Hunterdon Central this fall.

“We don’t have any of that yet because everytime they pass a law, they first have to get it in writing, get it approved. But there’s committees formed to figure out how that’s going to be executed and I think that’s the stage they are in right now,” says Spina. “Schools like ours, we have been doing a lot of this already, so I don’t think a ton would change as far as how we do things. But again, we’re probably going to be doing it.”

Concluding the interview with the media specialists final thoughts, “It’s a life skill,” Spina says regarding the new law. “I couldn’t be happier that this bill is finally occurring.” Ford expresses her view. “and I think we’re the first state to pass a law like this,” states Spina.

This will set a precedent for other states to adopt similar laws. This Law will set standards for schools to teach the importance of Information literacy and inform students on what it is. 

Student Survey
After surveying HC students on where they get their news from and their knowledge on the NJ literacy Law, the results gathered signify the importance of teaching information literacy at schools.

After comparing results, a majority of students got their information from a variety of sources/platforms. Considering that all of the students selected social media as one of the sources they get their current events from., it’s important to educate students on how to evaluate information, identify bias/opinions/point of view and learn about information literacy. This is because anyone could publish information that is false, biased, or misleading. 66.6% of HC students surveyed said they didn’t hear of the NJ Literacy Law.

Therefore it’s important to address the NJ Literacy Law in classrooms and this school year begin implementing its beneficial skills.

Survey Title: Where Are You Getting Your News From? And NJ Literacy Law

100% of HC students surveyed said they get their information on current events from social media (Tiktok, Instagram, Youtube, Snapchat). 22.2% From TV News (CNN, FOX, CBS, NBC, BBC). 33.3% from News Articles (NY Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal). 66.7% from Word Of Mouth (school, teacher, friends, etc.). 

77.8% of HC students surveyed said they first heard about the Chinese Spy Balloon from social media (Tiktok, Instagram, Youtube, Snapchat). 0% From TV News (CNN, FOX, CBS, NBC, BBC). 11.1% from News Articles (NY Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal). 33.3% from Word Of Mouth (school, teacher, friends, etc.). 0% didn’t hear about this. 

77.8% of HC students surveyed said they first heard about the Ukraine-Russia War from social media (Tiktok, Instagram, Youtube, Snapchat). 44.4% From TV News (CNN, FOX, CBS, NBC, BBC). 22.2% from News Articles (NY Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal). 77.7% from Word Of Mouth (school, teacher, friends, etc.). 0% didn’t hear about this. 

77.8% of HC students surveyed said they first heard about the Qatar 2022 World Cup from social media (Tiktok, Instagram, Youtube, Snapchat). 22.2% From TV News (CNN, FOX, CBS, NBC, BBC). 0% from News Articles (NY Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal). 77.8% from Word Of Mouth (school, teacher, friends, etc.). 0% didn’t hear about this. And 66.7% from Sports Channels (ESPN, TUDN, Fox SPorts, etc.)

88.9% of HC students surveyed said they first heard about the California Bushfires from social media (Tiktok, Instagram, Youtube, Snapchat). 33.3% From TV News (CNN, FOX, CBS, NBC, BBC). 22.2% from News Articles (NY Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal). 88.9% from Word Of Mouth (school, teacher, friends, etc.). 0% didn’t hear about this. 

NJ Literacy Law section:

66.6% of HC students surveyed said they no, they didn’t hear of the NJ Literacy Law, 22.2% said somewhat, and 11.1% said yes.

77.8% of students said they have learned topics regarding information literacy here at HC. 22.2% of the students said they have not learned anything about information literacy.