Peninsula College Library Biblio-Bits: information literacy

Showing posts with label information literacy. Show all posts

20100715

Peninsula College Selected to Participate in National Institutes of Health Study

Peninsula College has been selected to be one of only five institutions nationwide to participate in a National Institutes of Health (NIH) 2010 grant dedicated to information literacy. The grant is part of President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that gives summer research experiences to health and library science educators.

The two Peninsula College faculty who will participate in the grant are Jen Gouge, Program Director for the Medical Assistants program, and David Kent, Research & Instruction Librarian. They will collaborate to adapt and disseminate an eHealth literacy assessment, originally designed at Central Michigan University, to students enrolled in Peninsula College health-related programs. The other four participating institutions are Oakland Community College (MI), Morehead State University (KY), Oakton Community College (IL), and Daytona State College (FL).

Health faculty and librarians from the five selected universities and colleges will work together to develop their students' eHealth literacy. The code name for this effort is “Focus on Information Technology: Navigation that Emphasizes Scholarly Sources (FITNESS).”

The assessment, called READY:SET or Research Readiness Self-Assessment (RRSA), was created to answer these questions:

• Do future health professionals have the requisite skills to engage in evidence-based practice and lifelong professional education?

• Can they find credible health information for their patients?

READY:SET is an online interactive application that was designed to assist librarians and faculty from different disciplines in their efforts to equip students with the skills and knowledge necessary to become effective, independent users of secondary source information from digital (electronic) sources.

Digital information competencies are defined as the key attributes, such as knowledge, skills and beliefs, manifested by people who purposefully manage and critically evaluate electronic information (e.g., digital libraries and the internet) and use it to make informed choices.

Specifically, READY:SET aims to develop these eHealth competencies:

1. What to assume:
.......1a. Capability & limitations of media
2. Where to go:
.......2a. Knowledge of channels & sources: electronic, analog, and human
.......2b. Knowledge of entry points (gateways)
.......2c. Knowledge of access barriers
3. How to use:
.......3a. Needs assessment (define task, set goal, plan strategy)
.......3b. Navigation (seek, find, refine, narrow) and critical judgment (verify, check) of content, features, and sources of eHealth multimedia (text, video, audio, graphics)
.......3c. Manipulation of eHealth tools and database search applications to get useful outputs
.......3d. Assessment of relevance (check context)
.......3e. Application of outputs (ethically use, recommend)
4. How to get better:
.......4a. Checking assumptions (question) and skill gaps (learn)
.......4b. Getting help

A National Institutes of Health reviewer described RRSA (now known as READY:SET) as "a useful innovation" where "not only individuals’ actual competence, but also perceived competence, is measured, so that those with a mis-match between the two can be identified and mentored" (NIH Scientific Review Group summary statement, grant application 1R03LM009851-01A1, 2007). The reviewer also commented, "the instrument itself contains valuable feedback mechanisms to help those taking the assessment to improve their skills, an innovative feature."

RRSA was originally designed and continues to be developed by Lana V. Ivanitskaya, Ph.D. and Anne Marie Casey, A.M.L.S. in collaboration with many of their colleagues. To learn more about information literacy, see http://infolit.org/about-the-national-forum/

20090823

Updated IL Resources & Tools Map

Photo credit: jonny goldstein

Lisa Metzer has published a really cool updated mind map of information literacy resources and tools.

Here is how Lisa describes her work:

"I now call this resource a "Visual Resource Guide for Information Literacy." The purpose of this guide is to visually aggregate resources for IL. I recently updated this visual guide very thoroughly. New topics and major revisions include screencasting software, online IL tutorials, and online citation management tools. "

20080117

Report on "Google Generation" Confirms Computer Literacy Is Not Information Literacy

The report, Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future, dated 11 January 2008, was commissioned by the British Library.

The findings confirm what OCLC found in June 2002 in its OCLC White Paper on the Information Habits of College Students about the "Google Generation" (those born after 1993). Students think of libraries as places for books and are not familiar with, nor competent in the use of, library digital resources.

Students start their search on the Web, but the amount of time spent viewing e-books and e-journal articles (four and eight minutes, respectively) indicates they are not evaluating or even reading what they find. As the report states: "It almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense." (p. 10)

Each finding in the study is accompanied by a confidence level rating. For example, in the section on myths related to the Google Generation we find this myth:

They prefer quick information in the form of easily digested chunks, rather than full-text.

Our verdict: This is a myth. CIBER deep log studies show that, from undergraduates to professors, people exhibit a strong tendency towards shallow, horizontal, "flicking" behaviour in digital libraries. Power browsing and viewing appear to be the norm for all. The popularity of abstacts among older researchers rather gives the game away. Society is dumbing down.

Confidence level: high. (p. 19)

N.B. The Library does still have books (both in print and electronic formats). However, they cannot be read in four, or even eight, minutes.

20070725

New Peer-Reviewed Open Access Journals on Information Literacy

Communications in Information Literacy (CIL) is an independent, professional, refereed electronic journal dedicated to advancing knowledge, theory, and research in the area of information literacy. The journal is committed to the principles of information literacy as set forth by the Association of College and Research Libraries. CIL is also committed to the principles of open access for academic research.

The Journal of Information Literacy (JIL) is an international, peer-reviewed, academic journal that aims to investigate Information Literacy (IL) within a wide range of settings and to make generalised observations on how Information Literacy impacts on organisations, systems and the individual.

Faculty Reading Recommendations

ARANA, M. (2006). Cellophane: a novel. New York, Dial Press.
BERNSTEIN, C. (2007). A woman in charge: the life of Hillary Rodham Clinton. New York, Alfred A. Knopf.
BESCHLOSS, M. R. (2007). Presidential courage: brave leaders and how they changed America, 1789-1989. New York, Simon & Schuster.
FRIEDMAN, T. L. (2007). The world is flat: a brief history of the twenty-first century [version 3.0]. New York, Picador.
GORE, A. (2007). The assault on reason. New York, Penguin Press.
OBAMA, B. (2006). The audacity of hope: thoughts on reclaiming the American dream. New York, Crown Publishers.
RITTER, S. (2007). Waging peace: the art of war for the antiwar movement. New York, Nation Books.
WARD, P. D. (2007). Under a green sky: global warming, the mass extinctions of the past, and what they mean for our future. New York, Smithsonian Books/Collins.
WEINER, T. (2007). Legacy of ashes: the history of the CIA. New York, Doubleday.

Librarian's List: Selected Stage Conceptions

BECK, D. E., & COWAN, C. C. (2004). Spiral dynamics. Developmental management. Cambridge, Mass [etc.], Blackwell Business.
COMMONS, M. L. (1989). Adult development: comparisons and applications of developmental models. New York, Praeger.
FEUERSTEIN, G., & GEBSER, J. (1987). Structures of consciousness: the genius of Jean Gebser-- an introduction and critique. Lower Lake, Calif, Integral Pub.
GHOSE, A., & DALAL, A. S. (2001). A greater psychology: an introduction to Sri Aurobindo's psychological thought. New York, Jeremy P Tarcher/Putnam.
GILLIGAN, C. (1982). In a different voice: psychological theory and women's development. Cambridge, Mass, Harvard University Press.
KEGAN, R. (1982). The evolving self: problem and process in human development. Cambridge, Mass, Harvard University Press.
KOHLBERG, L. (1984). The psychology of moral development: the nature and validity of moral stages. San Francisco, Harper & Row.
LOEVINGER, J., & BLASI, A. (1976). Ego development: [conceptions and theories]. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass Publishers.
MILLER, M. E., & COOK-GREUTER, S. R. (1994). Transcendence and mature thought in adulthood: the further reaches of adult development. Lanham, Md, Rowman & Littlefield.
PERRY, W. G., JR. (1999). Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years: A Scheme. Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series.
PIAGET, J., GRUBER, H. E., & VONÈCHE, J. J. (1977). The essential Piaget. New York, Basic Books.

Faculty Retreat Books for Discussion Groups (Fall 2007)

ANGIER, N. (2007). The canon: a whirligig tour of the beautiful basics of science. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company. (suggested by Dan Stengel)
DUMAS, F. (2003). Funny in Farsi: a memoir of growing up Iranian in America. New York, Villard. (suggested by Dan Yezbick)
GOLEMAN, D. (2007). Social Intelligence The New Science of Human Relationships. Bantam Dell Pub Group. (suggested by Aleilah Lawson)
LEDERMAN, L. M., & TERESI, D. (2006). The god particle: if the universe is the answer, what is the question? Boston, Houghton Mifflin. (suggested by Jeff Zirul)
MACMILLAN, M. (2007). Nixon and Mao: the week that changed the world. New York, Random House. (suggested by Steven Olson)
ROSE, M. (2005). Lives on the boundary: a moving account of the struggles and achievements of America's educationally underprepared. New York, N.Y., U.S.A., Penguin Books. (suggested by Janet Lucas)
SPENGLER, O., WERNER, H., HELPS, A., & ATKINSON, C. F. (1962). The decline of the West. New York, Knopf. (suggested by Wes Cecil)

Librarian's List: Social Epistemology

LACKEY, J., & SOSA, E. (2006). The epistemology of testimony. Oxford, Clarendon Press.
MCINNIS, R. G. (2001). Discourse synthesis: studies in historical and contemporary social epistemology. Westport, Conn, Praeger.
REMEDIOS, F. (2003). Legitimizing scientific knowledge: an introduction to Steve Fuller's social epistemology. Lanham, Md, Lexington Books.
SPINDEL CONFERENCE, HENDERSON, D. K., & TOLLEFSEN, D. (2006). Spindel Conference 2005. Social epistemology. Memphis, Tenn, Dept. of Philosophy, University of Memphis.

Librarian's List: Tat Tvam Asi and Potpourri

JACOBY, S. (2004). Freethinkers: a history of American secularism. New York, Metropolitan Books.
KELLY, E. F., & KELLY, E. W. (2007). Irreducible mind: toward a psychology for the 21st century. Lanham, Md, Rowman & Littlefield.
KRIPAL, J. J. (2007). Esalen: America and the religion of no religion. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
MAXWELL, N. K. (2006). Sacred stacks: the higher purpose of libraries and librarianship. Chicago, American Library Association.
SCHROEDER, G. L. (2001). The hidden face of God: how science reveals the ultimate truth. New York, Free Press.
WILBER, K. (2007). The integral vision: a very short introduction to the revolutionary integral approach to life, God, the universe, and everything. Boston, Shambhala Publications.

Peninsula College Library Biblio-Bits