[Excerpt] At Cornell University Library (CUL) a committee was set up in January 2005 to address the issue of information literacy at the university. The committee did extensive research on this topic and developed an approach for seeking solutions. In the course of these deliberations, I volunteered to create two items to serve as the basis for ensuing discussions. 1. a conceptual framework for this policy initiative (included in this article) 2. a document that outlines the basic or core competencies common to all constituents of what is called the Cornell community (the result was the six questions which are the focus of this article).