Faculty Workshops at the Library: Info. Lit. Crash Course

When it comes to information literacy, no amount of lecture can replace hands-on experience. Students need practice learning how to identify and refine their information needs, locate and evaulate information, and use it wisely. Some tips I have found helpful:

• I use the ACRL guidelines as a loose "timeline." Each competency should initially be taught in sequence. If students have not accomplished the tasks leading up to the competency you are trying to teach, they will be less receptive to the information. In other words, if a student has not yet determined the extent of their information need (identified a topic), a class on how to access or evaluate materials will not be as useful to them, and therefore, not as successful.
• It is often helpful to have students work in pairs or small groups when trying to evaluate websites or other sources of information, especially if they have not had much experience with this type of task. Providing a list of questions to answer will focus students on the task.
• A possible activity: Give the entire class a predefined topic and require each one (or pair) to identify websites that would be useful under the following circumstances: personal use, inclusion in a research paper, class presentation. Have them explain why they chose the sites, and whether the standards for selection changed depending on the topic.

Students are good at differentiating a popular article from a scholarly article when the original, print copy is placed before them. They are not as confident when electronic printouts from an artilce database are given. Activities to try:

Provide a hard copy of each type of article from one of our databases, and ask students to identify which is which (and why).

To make the task harder, you might include letters to the editor or book reviews from scholarly articles. These, while coming from a scholarly publication, are usually not considered "scholarly."

February 15 & 23, 2011 - Information Literacy Crash Course

Presenter: Becca Cahill

This session is intended to help faculty who are interested in developing student information literacy skills, but aren’t sure where to start or how to incorporate skill development into class research. We will discuss widely accepted definitions of information literacy and explore activities that can be incorporated into course research projects to improve a student’s ability to find and use appropriate information. We will focus on using the Web and our research databases, but the activities are easily transferable to print materials as well.

Scroll down to see resources mentioned during this session.

As defined by the ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries), an information literate individual is able to:

• Determine the extent of information needed
• Access the needed information effectively and efficiently
• Evaluate information and its sources critically
• Incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base
• Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose
• Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally

• Accuracy
• Authority
• Objectivity
• Currency
• Coverage

These five criteria, originally outlined by academic librarian Jim Kapoun, are widely held to be the keys to accurate website evaluation. See this article for Kapoun's articulation of his approach to web evaluation and a table of questions that can be used to prompt students to evaluate materials.

Other resources for website evaluation, including a list of alternative criteria, are available through the links below:

Our notion of effective & ethical use of information is a product of our cultural backgrounds and norms. Other cultures may have radically different notions of how to use and cite other's work. Some of our international students may have never experienced the western style of research and writing, and may struggle to understand the academic standards followed in the US. As an English teacher in China, I found the following book invaluable as a tool to understand why my expectations for student work were often radically different from the results I was given.