WELCOME
BACK ISSUES
As you read this, the New Year will be coming very quickly. Make a New Year's resolution to add to your reading in 2001! Below you'll find some good places to begin.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Frand, Jason L. "The Information-Age Mindset: Changes in Students and Implications for Higher Education." EDUCAUSE Review 35(September/October 2000): 14-24.
Frand describes ten attributes of the information-age mindset: 1) computers are not technology; 2) Internet is better than TV; 3) reality is no longer real; 4) the ability to deal with complex information is better than knowing facts; 5) solving problems by trial-and-error; 6) multi-tasking; 7) typing rather than hand-writing; 8) ubiquitous connectivity and a change in the concepts of distance and location; 9) no tolerance for delays; and 10) consumer/creator blurring. These will require a fundamental change in higher education to focus on the learning process and to choose appropriate learning technology. Good reading for academic, school and public librarians.
Luke, Allan and Cushla Kaptizke. "Literacies and Libraries:Archives and Cybraries." Psychology, Culture & Society 7.3(1999): 467-491.
This Australian article is difficult to read, but well-worth wading through. Luke and Kapitzke note that the changes in technology and, consequently, in social approaches to literacies, have changed the face of knowledge and of libraries. They argue that our current definition of information literacy and the instruction we base on that definition are out of sync with culture and with technological capacities, and have been superseded by new modes of inquiry, thinking and analysis. They recommend that critical information literacy be based on three assumptions: texts and knowledge have the ability to shape beliefs and students must learn critical strategies; libraries are places where students will construct knowledge; and critical information literacy will enable learners to reposition themselves in relation to modes and sources of information.
Rader, Hannelore. "A Silver Anniversary: 25 Years of Reviewing the Literature Related to User Instruction." RSR: Reference Services Review 28.3(2000): 290-296.
Rader reviews 25 years of library instruction literature, noting trends in topics, in literature about academic libraries, school libraries, public libraries, and special libraries, in evaluation, in publications outside the library field, and in international publishing. She lists the most influential publications from 1973-1999 and the major bibliographies published during the period. Even if your favorite is not listed (I was sorry to see that titles by Kulthau are missing from the influential publications list), you will find this an important and useful overview from the premier bibliographer of user education.
THINKING ABOUT TEACHING
Ren, Wen-Hua. "Library Instruction and College Student Self-Efficacy in Electronic Information Searching." Journal of Academic Librarianship 26.5(Sept. 2000): 323-328.
The author reviews the self-efficacy theories of Albert Bandura and posits that library instruction would be most effective if it both teaches skills and cultivates positive attitudes and motivation to use those skills. Ren studied 85 undergraduate students as they participated in library instruction and completed an assignment to use the online catalog and literature indexes. Their self-efficacy in using electronic resources was higher after participating in instruction that included hands-on practice before the instruction, although the level of self-efficacy was not always borne out by the student grades.
Smith, Stephen M. and Paul C. Woody. "Interactive Effect of Multimedia Instruction and Learning Styles." Teaching of Psychology 27.3(summer 2000): 220-223.
Smith and Woody set up an experiment to test the effects of multimedia teaching techniques by examining possible interactions between teaching styles and student learning styles. They evaluated both student perceptions and objective learning outcomes in two sections of an introductory psychology course. One section was taught in a lecture-style and the other with a variety of visual aids (including video and photos). Multimedia teaching had benefits, but did not equally benefit all students. Those who prefer visual input learned better; the performance of verbally oriented students did not improve and, in some cases suffered.
WORKING WITH ADULTS
Phelps, Marcy. "Designing Web-Based Library Instruction for Adult Learners." Colorado Libraries 26 (Summer 2000): 19-21.
Phelps describes a self-paced Web-based tutorial she developed for non-traditional students. The tutorial, based on the Big6 curriculum, includes six modules in which students follow hyperlinks, complete worksheets, and make decisions about progressing through the tutorial. Includes an outline of the design document and a template for the modules.
Puacz, Jeanne Holba and Chris Bradfield. "Surf's Up for Seniors! Introducing Older Patrons to the Web." Computers in Libraries 20(September 2000): 50-53. Also available at: http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/sep00/puacz&bradfield.htm
Provides detailed information about an Internet training program for senior citizens at the Vigo County (IN) Public Library. The authors outline the contents of the 4-session program, which includes 2 hands-on and two lecture sessions, describe their publicity plan, and share their solutions to problems.
IDEAS YOU CAN USE TODAY
Callison, Daniel. "Key Words in Instruction: Rubrics." School Library Media Activities Monthly 17(October 2000): 34-36, 42.
The new Information Power standards recommend rubrics as a performance assessment strategy. A rubric is a set of scaled criteria that tell teacher and student how performance will be judged. Callison provides an overview of the use of rubrics, details their advantages and disadvantages, describes types of rubrics, and provides illustrations of information literacy rubrics. The bibliography is especially useful.
Junion-Metz, Gail. "The Librarian's Internet: The E-Plagiarism Plague." School Library Journal 46(September 2000): 43. Also available at http://www.slj.com/articles/20000901_9114.asp
The "Surf For" column has a new name, but it still provides useful information. This is a handy list of web sites that provide definitions of plagiarism for teachers and students and advice on preventing plagiarism. Included are links to a plagiarism tutorial for students, to a source to check potentially plagiarized text for free, and to paper mill sites. Academic librarians will also want to check this out. Please note: If you go to the web site for this column, scroll down to nearly the end of the section.
MacDonald, Mary C., Andree J. Rathemacher, and Joanna M. Burkhardt. "Challenges in Building an Incremental, Multi-Year Information Literacy Plan." RSR: Reference Services Review 28.3 (2000): 240-247.
Describes the University of Rhode Island draft plan for information literacy for undergraduates, graduate students and faculty, including their working definition of information literacy and overall objectives. The plan is based on the belief that information literacy is a new liberal art that should be tied to the curriculum. The undergraduate program is focused around credit courses, which the article describes in detail. Information literacy modules will be developed for specific disciplines to center around predefined concepts and will eventually substitute for one-shot lectures. The librarians at Rhode Island plan to collaborate with faculty to assist them in teaching information literacy concepts and in building information literacy concepts into class assignments.
IN BRIEF
Edlund, Kristin. "The Challenge Strand." Big Six Newsletter E-1 (Fall 2000). Available at: www.big6.com/enewsletter/edlund.shtml [Use of research processes by 9th grade honors students]
Minkel, Walter. "Chatroom: Burden of Spoof." School Library Journal 46(September 2000): 49. Also available at: http://www.slj.com/articles/chatroom/20001001_9106.asp [False web sites to use in teaching students to evaluate their web resources.]
Morrell, Roger W., Christopher B. Mayhorn, and Joan Bennett. "A Survey of World Wide Web Use in Middle-Aged and Older Adults." Human Factors 42(summer 2000): 175-182. [Documents need and interest for instructional programs.]
Wallace, Marie. "Guide on the Side: Flip Charts--Low Tech Powerhouse." LLRX.com (August 2000) Available at: http://www.llrx.com/columns/guide42.htm
Mary Pagliero Popp is Information Technologies Public Services Librarian at the Indiana University Bloomington Libraries.
LIRT News, December 2000. Volume 23, number 2.
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