The elusive phenomenon of information literacy (IL) is traced, narrowed down, and conceptualized in three differentways: as a “label” for a field of research, as an empirical entity; and as a theoretical notion. From a perspectivegrounded in over twenty years of teaching and research in the area, a toolbox approach to information literacy ispresented. Such an approach comprises a set of sensitizing concepts which will be introduced and discussed inrelation to various aspects of IL. Accordingly, IL will be considered from the perspectives of e.g. situatedness,discourse, genre, materiality, and distributed agency. The overall ambition is to present and discuss these aspects in amanner that make them relevant to both research and educational practices focusing on IL.