TCNJ

8 The College of New Jersey Magazine The information influencer Ewa Dziedzic-Elliott, TCNJ librarian Dziedzic-Elliott, who grew up in Poland and attended elementary school as her country was shifting its political system from communism to a more democratic state, says she saw how information could divide generations. Those who were in school during communism, she says, held on to the mistruths that they were taught. "Historians were uncovering primary documents and proving something dif- ferent, but those who grew up with the other stories just couldn't let them go." It's why Dziedzic-Elliott fights for today's American students to be information literate. And it's why, in 2020, she joined the executive board of the New Jersey Association of School Librarians, a group who had been working on writing legislation that would require New Jersey's K–12 students to learn how to retrieve and evaluate information for academic purposes. Dziedzic-Elliott met with consultants and state legislators to push the bill through. Governor Phil Murphy signed the legislation in January 2023, making New Jersey the first state to define the skills students need to accurately assess information and to use it effectively. "Information literacy is more important now than ever before, especially with the growing prevalence of social media and online news," says Angelica Allen-McMillan, Murphy's acting commissioner of education. "There is absolutely a need to make sure that students develop those research-readiness skills before they come to college," says Dziedzic-Elliott. Next up for her is the fight for all schools to have a certified librarian because that is who is highly trained in the research methods students will be expected to develop. Ewa Dziedzic-Elliott " There is absolutely a need to make sure that students develop those research-readiness skills before they come to college." — Ewa Dziedzic-Elliott

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