As many of those reading this page and using this site may already know, entering college Freshmen may have learned a variety of information researching and critical thinking skills in high school, beyond Google and Wikipedia, if they were fortunate enough to have a high school librarian with an MLS or MLIS degree.Teacher-Librarians without an MLS/MLIS degree can also help students learn these skills, though often they may not have the time or the knowledge and training to do as thorough a job. However, many students often rely primarily on Google and Wikipedia for research, and are not aware of other important information researching tools and techniques.

Public library librarians try to help as best they can, but they have many responsibilities to their broad communities, so cannot take the place of full-time school librarians. Academic (college and university) librarians do their best to help students succeed with academic research, too, including sharing means of helping them become "information literate," like this website, so they will learn how to identify, locate, evaluate, and use information effectively and ethically. And, information literacy applies throughout one's lifetime, not just for academic purposes, but also for civic activities like voting, and for personal benefit, like finding valid, up to date health information.

What can help? At the very least, we can consider what it is that Freshmen need to know when entering higher education, and then think about what everyone needs to know in order to learn how to learn for a lifetime of information researching and critical thinking. The late Mary W. George (Head of Reference, Princeton University) made a valuable contribution to this effort with her 1988 publication of an essay in Research Strategies, "What College Librarians Want Freshmen to Know?" (George, Mary. 1988. What do college librarians want freshmen to know? My wish list. Research Strategies 6(4):189.)

What would your list look like today, for lifelong learning?