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The Digital Library
Culture Morph
6/1/2007
The New Information Literacy
INFORMATION LITERACY generally has referred to the ability to know what resources to use for a given assignment, how to use them, and how to evaluate their merits. In earlier days, it was referred to as library instruction; then bibliographic instruction. But the web has played havoc with the concept. Is Wikipedia now a reliable source? Can an interview in a podcast be used for reference material? Some online sources are better than others--an obvious point for educators, but not necessarily as obvious to students. And clearly, library professionals are usually the best-trained individuals on campus to teach the nuances to students. Below, Searchpath, a resource created by Western Michigan University to teach students basic library and research skills, delineates the pitfalls of random web-based research:
LIBRARY RESOURCES
- Library resources go through a review process, performed by editors and/or peers of the authors, and then are selected by librarians for inclusion in a library collection.
- Library resources are free or discounted for use by patrons.
- Library resources are organized. When you find a book on a given topic, the books shelved nearby cover the same or similar topics.
- Library resources are meant to be kept permanently. Some collections are hundreds of years old. Library resources come with personal assistance.
- Patrons get quality.
WEB-BASED RESEARCH
- Most information on the web doesn't go through a review process.
- Some sites charge for access to their content.
- Overall, information on the web isn't organized.
- For the most part, anything published prior to the mid-1990s doesn't exist, as far as the web is concerned. And there's no guarantee that a site will be there next week, let alone next year.
- Users are on their own.
- Users get quantity.
Certainly, Rhodes College isn't alone in its merged IT/Library organization, but that doesn't mean it's a common structure. According to the
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