Description
Every day researchers face an onslaught of irrelevant, inaccurate, and sometimes insidious information. While new technologies provide powerful tools for accessing knowledge, not all information is created equal. Valuable information may be tucked away on a shelf, buried on the hundredth page of search results, or hidden behind digital barriers. With so many obstacles to effective research, it is vital that higher education students master the art of inquiry.Information Now is an innovative approach to information literacy that will reinvent the way college students think about research. Instead of the typical textbook format, it uses illustrations, humor, and reflective exercises to teach students how to become savvy researchers. Students will learn how to evaluate information, to incorporate it into their existing knowledge base, to wield it effectively, and to understand the ethical issues surrounding its use. Written by two library professionals, it incorporates concepts and skills drawn from the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education and their Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Thoroughly researched and highly engaging, Information Now offers the tools that students need to become powerful consumers and creators of information. Whether used by a high school student tackling a big paper, an undergrad facing the newness of a university library, or a writer wanting to go beyond Google, Information Now is a powerful tool for any researcher’s arsenal.
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Information literacy is generally defined as the ability to recognize situations in which information is needed and to find, evaluate, and effectively use relevant information from a variety of media. It is an essential skill set in all academic disciplines at all levels of education and also in professional and personal life. The recent dramatic changes in the technologies of creating, storing, and retrieving content have made information at once more accessible but also more difficult to critically evaluate, and universities have increasingly come to recognize that effective instruction in information literacy is essential to incoming students’ success in their academic careers and beyond. With that goal in mind, Matt Upson, C. Michael Hall, and Kevin Cannon have created a unique guide in graphic-novel format that instructs undergraduate students in the fundamental research skills that constitute information literacy that is both academically sound and wildly imaginative and engaging. Following the Association of College and University Libraries Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, the guide stresses skills such as determining the extent of information needed for a research project, accessing the needed information effectively and efficiently, evaluating information and sources critically, incorporating selected information into one’s knowledge base, using information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose, and understanding the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information. Each of the eight chapters ends with exercises that allow students to apply their knowledge to relevant scenarios, and the manuscript concludes with a glossary of critical terms.
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