"Information literacy is the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning." (ALA)

The Library at the Naugatuck Valley campus promotes knowledge practices that develop from the comprehension of core concepts as presented by the American Library Association (ALA)'s Association of College and Research Libraries in their 2015 publication Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education . The grasp of such concepts helps learners transform the way they think and act in their environment, enabling them to acquire expertise by widening their field of understanding.

Core concepts (in alphabetical order) are considered frames through which people process information: 

• Authority is Constructed and Contextual
• Information Creation as a Process
• Information Has Value
• Research as Inquiry
• Scholarship as Conversation
• Searching as Strategic Exploration

Library Instruction at Naugatuck Valley strives to prepare students to move among these concepts with increasingly skillful practices, and to apply these abilities across a spectrum of academic and social information needs.