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Project Information Literacy

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Project Information Literacy (PIL) was a research institute conducting national scholarly studies between 2008 and 2025 on how early adults find and use information as they progress through, and beyond, their higher education years at an unprecedented time of rapid technological change.

Organization

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Based in California's San Francisco Bay Area, Project Information Literacy, Inc. (PIL) was a public benefit 501(c)(3) organization registered in California.[1] Alison J. Head, PhD., who was the Executive Director and Lead Researcher, is an expert in the field of information literacy research and new media.[2][3]

PIL began in 2008 as a partnership with the University of Washington Information School with Alison J. Head and Michael Eisenberg, dean emeritus and professor at the school, as Co-Directors.[4] Both Head and Eisenberg have extensive experience conducting and publishing research on information literacy and the information-seeking behavior of Internet users.[5][6][7] In 2012, PIL became a registered nonprofit with Head as sole director after Dr. Head first became affiliated with the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet & Society and the Library Innovation Lab as a Fellow in 2011[8]. In 2016, Dr. Head ended PIL’s formal relationship with the Information School and joined the metaLAB@Harvard, the Berkman-Klein Center’s “idea foundry and knowledge design lab,”[9] as a Senior Researcher.[10][11] After publishing 14 open-access research reports over nearly two decades, PIL ended all research operations in 2025 and archived its materials on the website. [12]

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Work

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PIL's studies were conducted using small teams of researchers drawn from libraries and schools of library and information science across the United States.[4] The institutional sample for PIL studies consists of 93 public and private colleges, universities, and community colleges, as well as 34 high schools located in the U.S. A 2016 study included data from Canadian institutions.[13] [14] All together, more than 22,500 participants, mostly students, were interviewed or surveyed for PIL reports.[15]

PIL established a Volunteer Sample of 260 institutions.[16] [14] Over 100 schools have partnered with PIL for their studies including Harvard College, The Ohio State University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Michigan, The University of Washington, Arizona State University, Brandeis University, Santa Clara University, University of Alaska, Wellesley College and numerous community colleges. Each PIL study underwent ethical reviews at the participating institutions and at the host institution where the study was based before data collection began.[17]

Studies used a mixed-methods approach from the social science and information literacy fields, including large-scale surveys, focus groups, content analysis, extensive interviews, and computational analysis of social media interactions. Final reports have included summaries of key findings, in-depth data, links to surveys and datasets, and recommendations. All reports produced by PIL are open access under the CC-BY-NC license; many include open access data sets. THE PIL Archive site describes their research in conference as being broken into three phases, as follows: [15]

The Finding Information Studies, 2009 - 2011

These studies examined students’ information seeking practices through the lens of their experiences—their needs, strategies, and workarounds—as they navigate complex networked spaces using rapidly changing technologies. The research broke new ground by establishing baseline information about students’ approaches to online and print information: how they found, evaluated, and used a variety of sources to complete coursework and solve information problems in their everyday lives.

The Passage Studies, 2012 - 2016

These studies investigated how early adults navigate major information transitions in their lives as they move from high school to college, from college to the workplace, and from being college students to lifelong learners. The research explores how students experience profound changes in life at the intersection of evolving technologies, pedagogies, and expectations within the contexts of academic libraries, workspaces, and everyday life.

The Zeitgeist Studies, 2018 - 2024

These studies widened the scope of information literacy research by exploring key questions of our time, especially for early adults: how they engage with news they trust in light of “fake news,” how algorithms shape their beliefs about the world around them, and how their information worlds inform their understanding of Covid-19 and climate change. Ultimately, this research investigated how students can develop information agency when confronting complex, polarizing issues with lasting implications.

  • Head, A.J., Geofrey, S., Fister, B., & Hostetler, K.(2024). How information worlds shape our response to climate change. Project Information Literacy Research Institute. August 28, 2025, from https://projectinfolit.org/publications/climate-study/
  • Head, A.J., Fister, B., Geofrey, S., and MacMillan, M. (2022). The Project Information Literacy Retrospective: Insights from more than a decade of information literacy research, 2008-2022. Project Information Research Institute. Retrieved August 28, 2025, from https://projectinfolit.org/publications/retrospective
  • Head, A.J., Braun, S., MacMillan, M., Yurkofsky, J. & Bull, A.C. (2020).Covid-19: The first 100 days of U.S. news coverage: Lessons about the media ecosystem for librarians, educators, students, and journalists. Project Information Literacy Research Institute. Retrieved August 28, 2025, from https://projectinfolit.org/publications/covid-19-the-first-100-days/
  • Head, A.J., Fister, B. & MacMillan, M. (2020). Information Literacy in the Age of Algorithms: Student Experiences with News and Information, and the Need for Change, Project Information Literacy Research Institute. RetrievedAugust 28, 2025 from https://projectinfolit.org/publications/algorithm-study/
  • Head, A.J., Wihbey, J., Metaxas, P. Takis, MacMillan, M., & Cohen, D. (2018). How Students Engage with News: Five Takeaways for Educators, Journalists, and Librarians," Project Information Literacy Research Institute. August 28, 2025 from https://projectinfolit.org/publications/news-study/


PIL's research results were disseminated through reports posted on its open access website, numerous articles, conference keynotes [18] [19] and presentations, webcasts, podcasts, and videos on its YouTube channel. PIL has been recognized as an important source of longitudinal information on the information behaviors of students.[20][21][22][23] As Barbara Fister noted in her column, "[t]his is hands-down the most important long-term, multi-institutional research project ever launched on how students use information for school and beyond."[24] PIL reports continue to be frequently cited in scholarly articles,[4] linked from academic library webpages about information literacy,[25][26] used in workshops for faculty,[27] and students.[28] The studies provide information about students' and graduates' information seeking strategies through the lens of the student experience across multiple institutional sites[26] in the U.S. and have been reported on in The Chronicle of Higher Education,[29] Inside Higher Education,[24] Education Week,[30] Library Journal,[31] the Harvard Crimson,[32] and the Poynter Institute,[33]

Provocation Series: Essays, 2021–2022

In 2021 PIL launched the Provocation Series of occasional papers on pressing issues around information literacy, building on PIL’s original research into students’ information practices in the digital age.[34] Each essay is accompanied by an author's reflection and discussion questions.

Smart Talk Interview Series, 2010–2024

PIL created a series of Smart Talk interviews[36] with leading voices related to its core purpose of understanding how early adults use information and technology to learn. Interviewees included: Ken Bain, Char Booth, Nicholas Carr, Mike Caulfield, Jenae Cohn, David Conley, Cathy Davidson, Katie Davis, Dale Dougherty, Sari Feldman, Barbara Fister, Eric Gordon, Renee Hobbs, Rebecca Moore Howard, Sandra Jamieson, Kyle Jones, Joan Lippincott, Robert Lue, Andrea Lunsford, Shannon Mattern, P. Takis Metaxas, Ryan M. Milner, Peter Morville, John Palfrey, Whitney Philliips, Russell Poldrack, Lee Rainie, Justin Reich Howard Rheingold, Dan Rothstein, Jeffrey Schnapp, Howie Schneider, Zach Sims, Peter Suber, Shyam Sundar, Benjamin Toff, Francesca Tripodi, S. Craig Watkins, David Weinberger, and Mary-Ann Winkelmes. The interviews have been compiled into a single document, Project Information Literacyʼs Smart Talks, 2010-2024, available on the archive site.

Throughout the years, PIL promoted research educational opportunities, such as hosting an annual fellowship for emerging researchers in information literacy. In 2025, PIL welcomed three mid-career professionals to the competitive PIL Research Scholars Program: Rachel Fundator from Purdue University, Heather Ganshorn at the University of Calgary and Stephanie Founds at The Ohio State University.[37]

Another PIL project, The Reading List for Life, leveraged PIL's research findings to develop a web application for adult learners in public libraries, and was a collaboration between PIL, The Open Syllabus Project at Columbia University, and the metaLAB@Harvard.[10]

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Recognition

PIL’s 2020 report, Information Literacy in the Age of Algorithms was awarded the Ilene F. Rockman Instruction Publication of the Year from the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL).[38] Two articles by PIL researchers were recognized in the American Library Association Library Instruction Round Table Top 20 instruction articles: “Asking the Right Questions” in 2019[39] and “Dismantling the Evaluation Framework” in 2021.[40]

Dr. Head, PIL’s founder, held year-long visiting scholar appointments at University of Nebraska - Lincoln (2016/2017), Purdue University (2017/2018), [3] the University of Pittsburgh University Library System (2018/2019), and Gutman Library at Harvard Graduate School of Education (2019/2020),[41] and further, Dr. Head was faculty at the Allbright Institute for Global Affairs at Wellesley College in 2019.[42] In October 2024, Western Sydney University Library and the Institute for Culture and Society in Australia hosted Dr. Head, who was awarded a Fulbright from World Learning[43] to give keynotes and to build cross-cultural communication in a three-week “PIL InfoLit Tour” in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Canberra.[18]

Funding

PIL has received funding from major granting organizations, individuals, companies and institutions[44][45]

Fulbright World Learning [43] Marcie Rothman [45]

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Other Works

Peer-reviewed articles

Proceedings

Opinion and editorials


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See also

References

External links

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