Today at 11 was my third time facilitating an Information
Fluency session in QU 101. These are the
sessions that a group of librarians have offered to QU 101 instructors back in
May. This is where we introduce students
to big ideas in information fluency, related to individuals in
communities. These sessions lay the
foundation for the more detailed, step-by-step introductions to finding
specific resources that we do in other courses.
The challenge in lesson planning is cutting down the large
number of things we could “cover” and prioritizing as to what makes the most
sense to begin with and relate to first-semester students. Janet Valeski, Matt Flaherty and I located
two short videos, “Infowhelm” and “What's the difference between academic andpublic libraries?” and chose three of the threshold concepts from the proposed
Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Matt developed an activity asking students to
list factors of interest in choosing a college and the sources, including visits
and talking to people, that they consulted.
We introduce the academic library by staring with the mission of
libraries in general to provide equitable access to information with a variety
of viewpoints to support critical thinking, decision-making, and citizenship. The short video describes how an academic
library may be different from public libraries that some of the students re
used to, and then we focus on ABL and how we are there to consult with and
guide students through a huge, complex, and interacting information
ecosystem. A later addition is to close
with our “virtual location” – how to find the OneSearch page, then let everyone
explore from there. A survey to assess
the effects of these sessions is almost ready to distribute to the early sections.
OK, so that’s what it is, how did it go? It went with all the variations of a fairly
structured QU 101 class. I asked questions and split up the lecture parts into
smaller bits. Participation is spotty
the first weeks of class, and better with a Peer Catalyst and/or instructor
present. Students take well to the
choosing a College exercise, naming all kinds of sources from the official
university website, to Naviance (a subscription database of college information
offered by many school districts for high school students), to College Prowler for student reviews of various factors, to friends, visits and calling Admissions
with questions. These sources allow us
to talk about the process that goes into creating or collecting information, the
economic value of information and why some is protected by copyright and costs
money, and the way different communities consider sources of information for
different purposes authoritative.
Some highlights so far –
- Discussion and debate sparked by this Ray Bradbury quote: “Without the library, you have no civilization.”
- An OT student who checked up on the program’s accreditation
- A question about how public libraries are funded
- A student who asked seniors he knew about research opportunities
- PCs stepping in to expand on questions I ask and get more discussion going
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