Investigating information literacy: Fool's errand or new message?

This short think-piece describes my journey of discovery through the information landscape (from 2004 to present) and the development of a theory of information discernment which unpacks aspects of information literacy (IL)--the cognitive, metacognitive, affective and physiological states that shape how people make judgements about the information they encounter. Tracing my own path through developments in the field in recent decades sheds light both on wider changes and on shifts in my personal understanding of IL, from an initial perception of it as a relatively simple and obvious phenomenon to my current understanding of IL as something much more complex and contested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]