By Anne Trubek, Assistant Professor, Rhetoric and Composition and English in consultation with Cynthia Comer, Head of Reference and Instruction, Main Library, as part of the Mellon Information Literacy Grant Proposal: Research in the Information Age
The most compelling case for integrating information literacy into colloquia and first year seminars is found in the 1996 Report by the General Faculty Library Committee, "Information Literacy and the Oberlin Education" The abstract reads:
Access to knowledge is one of the hallmarks of a liberal arts education. As we move towards an increasingly information-based society, the ability to locate information efficiently and use it effectively has become an essential factor in the ability of our graduates to compete professionally and to pursue lifelong learning. In this document we present evidence that some Oberlin students are not able to make adequate use of either print or electronic sources of information, and we call for some modest curricular changes that would remedy this situation.
See http://www.oberlin.edu/library/services/reference/infolit/infolit.html for the entire report.
This discussion of the importance of information literacy dovetails with the description of the importance of writing to an Oberlin education. Writing and information literacy have always been intimately connected, of course; with the increased use of the internet as a form of reading and writing, the need to address research and to teach information literacy in introductory courses with a significant writing component becomes more pressing.
Yet for faculty to teach and students to do, research can seem horribly boring and mind numbingly confusing. Ideally, faculty will be able to envision enjoying teaching information literacy, and students will approach it with enthusiasm. If faculty and students can see research as a way of expanding the conversation, of testing and exploring concepts raised elsewhere in the class, as a way to become proficient at and a participant in the larger production and dissemination of knowledge, the process will become less alienating and more integrated into specific course material as well as into the goals of a liberal arts education overall.
Integrating information literacy into courses can be done many ways, and I provide some suggestions below. Whatever approach faculty choose, the goal should be to introduce students to the principles and procedures of library research in a structured environment that furthers the development of critical thinking and writing skills.
"Information Literacy and the Oberlin Education" outlines key skills that students should be able to demonstrate by the time they graduate, and provides an appropriate list of desired outcomes for colloquia and seminars. These are
--Understanding How Knowledge is Produced, Disseminated and Organized
--Knowing How to Formulate Questions
--Knowing How to Access Information
--Knowing How to Evaluate Information
--Understanding How to Make Use of Information
A full description of each of these goals can be found in the report.
We can help our students begin the process of mastering these concepts by helping them do the following:
--Know how to devise a viable research topic
--Understand the differences between scholarly, popular and other types of sources
--Distinguish between library catalogs, research databases and the non-proprietary areas of the
World Wide Web
--Know the difference between types of databases (citation, full-text, image, etc.)
--Know how to find a complete articfle once you have found a citation to it
--Understand the rhetoric of a web page: that is authored by someone, has a particular audience in
mind, and has specific goals or biases
--Understand citation conventions and effective use of quotations and citations
--Understand the definition of plagiarism and how to avoid it
Below I offer suggestions for strategies one might adopt to accomplish both the skills-based and conceptual goals outlined above. I include examples from my experiences integrating information literacy and research into Rhetoric and Composition colloquia, suggestions from reference librarians, links to useful resources and information gathered from my own research in this area. This is not meant to be an authoritative guide but a narrative account of my experiences integrating research and information literacy into colloquia.
I have found that the most useful way to integrate research and information literacy into a course is to introduce all the myriad issues involved into the actual process of doing a research essay. I try to approach the research process as I do the writing process: as I encourage students to draft an essay to figure out what they want to say, I ask them to do research in order to learn how to do research. Therefore, questions of databases vs. OBIS, footnotes versus endnotes, plagiarism, web-based sources, topic selection, argument versus summary, etc. are all addressed as students discover them during the process of completing a research-based assignment. This approach allows us to the chance to discuss issues conceptually as they arise as well as work on problem-solving skills.
Most likely, successful integration of information literacy into a colloquium will occur if you keep these goals in mind when you are conceptualizing and developing the course itself. The reference staff offered several helpful suggestions for how to do this:
-- Consider how the need for research and information literacy instruction fits across the
curriculum rather than focusing solely on the themes and goals of a particular course.
--Bring a librarian into the planning and design process for a course as early as possible,
preferably when syllabus is being created or revised.
-- Plan the timing of research and information literacy instruction to dovetail appropriately
with related course activities and assignments
--Integrate research and information literacy instruction into the overall structure of a course
and in small amounts throughout the semester
It might be useful to conceive of the purpose of a research assignment or focus in a colloquia or seminar to be how the students learn not what they learn. That is, for students to understand the complex world of information literacy as a result of completing a research essay may be more crucial to course goals than for them to become experts on the topic they eventually write about. One hazard of this goal is that students might perceive the actual research they produce as being "busy work." Below are several suggestions on how to develop an assignment that avoids (hopefully!) this pitfall while accomplishing the overall goal.
Approach: "Throw them in the deep end"
Suggested Assignment: Complete a Research Essay on any Topic.
Rationale: First year students find it very difficult to
conceptualize all the steps required when assigned a wide open, "complete a research essay on any
topic" assignment. However, they often receive such assignments in their other courses. Designing
a wide-open topic and then spending time working with students to learn about and navigate the
steps helps prepare them for future assignments in other courses. It also allows students to
freedom to work on any topic they choose and/or to choose a topic related to another course they
are taking, and thus not seem like a pointless exercise.
Approach: "Research about research"
Suggested Assignments: Reflect upon the Role of Information
Technology on a Topic of Study, Social Issue or Form of Knowledge
Rationale: Self-reflective research assignments-assignments that
ask students to reflect upon the role of information technology on education, for instance-equally
emphasize conceptual and skill-based issues. Examples of such assignments would be ones that
explicitly ask students to compare sources of information. Students could compare how a single
event was covered in different sources. For example, Stanford University published a study on the
effects of the internet on society. Students could compare newspaper articles about the study to
the actual study itself. Other examples would be ones that take up social issues related to
information technology, such as the "digital divide" or gender and cyberspace, or that ask students
to compare something from a digital source to a print-based sources (i.e. electronic and print
versions of a novel or children's educational games).
Approach: "Personal Reflection As Social Knowledge"
Suggested Assignments: Revise a Reflective Essay into a Research Essay
Rationale: Students could be asked to explore the importance of
accessing, assimilating and producing information as they explore a topic based in personal
experience. Possible approaches would be to ask students to write a reflective essay about an
individual experience and then ask them to revise that reflection into an essay that contains
research. For example, a reflection upon a memorable educational event from childhood could be
revised to include research on educational changes that had recently taken place in the United
States during the same time (for example, a narrative about a fifth-grade teacher could integrate
research on trends in primary education in the early 1980s). This approach would help break down
arbitrary divides between "personal" and "research" writing, as well as between individual and
social forms of knowledge.
Creating a set of stages for students to complete as they work on a project is essential to designing a successful assignment. Intermediate stages help students break down the process into manageable steps and helps faculty work with students on research as they proceed.
Possible steps you might require students complete before submitting a draft of a "throw them into the deep end" research assignment include the following:
--Project Proposal. One of the most difficult aspects of writing a research essay is developing an appropriate topic, and students need to learn how to do so. Asking students to submit a one paragraph project proposal that contains a description of their topic and a tentative thesis helps students formulate questions and express ideas at an early stage of the process. It also gives faculty a way to give feedback to students at an early stage about their topics, either to suggest they rethink their topic and resubmit a proposal or to ask students questions about their topic and thus model the types of questions students might ask of their research. Finally, asking students to both describe a topic and suggest a thesis allows the class to discuss the difference between summary and argument, and helps students understand that they are capable of saying something about what they are researching. This should help them approach research with a critical attiitude that will help engender authority.
--Annotated Bibliography. Requiring that students hand in an annotated bibliography before submitting a first draft can be extremely useful to both faculty and students. Annotated bibliographies help students learn how to note and document sources as they research rather than wait until the final essay is done. It prompts discussion of how to cite and document sources at an early stage (why we use it, how to find out how to do it), of different disciplinary guidelines and academic conventions (why do some professors require APA and other Chicago Style?) and of summary (how does it differ from opinion, how to focus on major points, etc.).
--Specific types of sources. Providing students with very specific requirements for what kinds and perhaps how many sources they need to use for the research essay brings up discussions of scholarly versus non-scholarly sources, web-based versus print sources, and disciplinary versus non-disciplinary forms of knowledge.
--First Drafts. For obvious reasons, asking students to submit a first draft to be reviewed by the instructor and/or peers helps students write better essays, whether or not they contain research.
The web has become an invaluable resource. Students can view digitized images of original literary manuscripts, historical photographs and advertisements from the American Memory collection, images of historical performances of theatrical productions, FBI uniform crime reports. Primary sources previously available only in archives are now becoming accessible to all. It is also becoming easier to access scholarly sources. One can research all databases from a single computer terminal, and often print out full-text versions of articles: sometimes, a student can do a very thorough research project without ever having to go to the library.
But the availability of so much information and the ease of access can cause many problems as well, of course. The perils of research include information overload, poorly assimilated material, inaccurate information, inappropriate citations and plagiarism. Of course, these have always been hazards in research. But the web exacerbates these problems because so much information on the web is unfiltered. Print-based gate-keeping mechanisms don't obtain, yet something on the web often has an aura of authority. Also, technological advances make it very easy for an unauthorized site to look authoritative. The most dangerous hazard of the web for research, however, is that the vast amount of information on the web leads many students to assume "everything is on the web" and to go to it first when doing research.
To best guide students through the research process, instructors have to help students conceptualize all the various types of information they can access through their computer screen, and how these myriad possible sources for research differ from one another. At this stage, conceptualization is key: students need to understand that OBIS is on the web but contains a guide to books that can be found in the library, research databases are also on the web but contain guides to articles that can be found at the library (sometimes), dowloadable from the web (sometimes) or through Interlibrary Loan (sometimes), and that different research databases contain vastly different types of information (i.e. the MLA contains scholarly essays on literature while LEXIS-NEXIS contains journalistic articles). Students need to develop various spatial and mental roadmaps to feel confident about themselves as researchers.
But explaining all these conceptual issues to students in the abstract first, and then asking them to try out their newfound knowledge often doesn't work, because the research process is so confusing, both conceptually and logistically. One strategy is to explain all these differences to students as they research their topic, rather than before they start.
I have consulted with Cynthia Comer, Head of Reference and Instruction, Main Library, about possible models for faculty/librarian collaboration to help students learn how to research as they research. Below are suggestions that stemmed from a discussion the reference staff conducted about possible instruction models. This overview reflects the views of the reference staff on the advantages of various formats:
One-shot instruction session:
Format: librarian meets with class during a regular class period to review strategies and
resources for completing research assignments; typically, a handout listing relevant sources is
distributed and/or made available on the web
Advantages: efficient use of librarian's time, especially for classes with large enrollments;
all students get the same information (levels the playing field); presentation is tailored to
specific course needs; librarian can demonstrate online resources, answer questions, try
on-the-spot sample topic suggestions; students receive a list of relevant sources to refer to
afterwards
Hands-on lab session:
Format: co-taught with faculty member and librarian, or only by a librarian; often combines
lecture/demo with a lab assignment or with individual exploration of research topics
Advantages: students get hands-on learning experience in presence of librarian and professor who
can guide, direct, answer questions, etc.; opportunity to put what has been learned into immediate
practice; students can work on their own individual research topics in a group setting
Individual research appointment:
Format: librarian meets with individuals or groups of 2-4 students; sometimes used in
conjunction with one-shot instruction session
Advantages: appointments are customized to each individual's/group's research topic; librarian
can demonstrate online resources, answer questions, experiment with on-the-spot variations of the
research topic; student receives one-on-one attention; librarian can move through material at a
pace that is comfortable for the student
Information literacy tutorial:
Format: self-directed online tutorial in research basics through web-based tutorial developed
by the Five Colleges of Ohio (
http://collaborations.denison.edu/ohio5/infolit/). An overview of each lesson is available at
http://collaborations.denison.edu/ohio5/infolit/intro/descriptions.htm. Topics include: The flow of
information, Selecting and refining your topic, Determining the information you need, Finding
background information, Reference sources, Library catalog, Research databases, Web research,
Search techniques, Understanding citations, Locating library materials, Evaluating information,
Citing your research
Advantages: can be accessed 24/7; students can work through material at their own rate; students
can complete only the portions that are relevant to their needs; can easily be returned to for
consultation on as-needed basis; doesn't take up class or lab time; could be effective in some of
the freshman seminars under development
Collaboration/Consultation:
Format: librarian works with faculty member to provide advice and suggestions on addressing
information literacy topics in the classroom, teaching methods, and assignments
Advantages: librarian can advise faculty member in advance of available library resources for
course research needs and help obtain new resources that may be needed for the class; librarians
can provide input and receive advance notice about upcoming assignments and research projects that
may impact reference services or put particular strain on library collections
In addition to collaboration with reference librarians, in-class workshops on research that tackle general and conceptual issues of research and guide students through their individual projects work well. The laptop classroom is an invaluable setting for such workshops.
Below are suggestions for different in-class workshops that focus on the key information literacy skills listed in Section II. Some workshops might last the whole class period, while others might take up only 15 or 20 minutes.
Knowing How to Formulate Questions This workshop will help students with the second information literacy skill, how to formulate questions about research projects. After the assignment has been distributed (and before project proposals are due, if they are required), set aside some time to discuss possible topics. You might ask every student to offer one idea they have for the essay. Write each topic on the board, Then, go through them and, as a class, discuss possible strengths and weaknesses of each topic. Questions you might address include the following: is the topic too broad? Too narrow? Is the topic posed in the form of a claim, something that can be argued? What possible theses might result from the various proposed topics? Where do you imagine one could find research on this topic? This workshop would cover issues such as how to formulate a question, the difference between topic and thesis and considering how much and where information about a specific topic might be found. It also helps students see the ideas and approaches of their peers, and allow them to offer suggestions and knowledge to each other as well as help students less sure of what they want to write generate ideas.
Knowing How to Access Information This workshop will help students with the third information literacy skill, knowing how to access information. One of the most difficult aspects of research these days is developing the right keywords to enter to find the best resources, whether in OBIS or Google. Following the topic brainstorm, you could ask students to come up with search strategies for their topics. One student could offer his or her topic, and then the rest of the class could try to search for resources. You could divide the students into groups: one group researches OBIS and OhioLINK, another research databases, another the web. Then, each group could report on the search strategies used (keywords, etc.) and information found. The class could then discuss which search terms seemed to work best and why. You could also evaluate the potential usefulness of various sources based upon the information available on the screens and model the types of questions one should ask of any sources (is the source scholarly or general? how up to date is it? Is the author an expert? Who is the intended audience?)
Knowing How to Evaluate Information When students begin to search on the web, they need to have some tools to help them evaluate web sites. Again, one might choose one web site that an individual student is looking out for their project. The class could look at this site together and answer and discuss the following list of questions:
--Who is the author of the site?
--What are his or her qualifications? Does s/he have special expertise about the subject (e.g has
s/he published other books? Is s/he an expert in the field?
--Is the site peer-reviewed?
--What is the purpose of the site? Does it provide any unique materials? (a good example might
be a digitized collection of materials from a university library)
--Who is the intended audience, as far as you can tell?
--What did you learn about the subject matter from this site?
--Is documentation provided to back up any claims made?
--Is the site organized clearly (consider issues of both verbal and visual organization)?
--Is the information here consistent with what you know about the subject from other sources?
Can you verify the information or make judgments about its reliability?
--What other sites link to this site (what company does it keep)?
--Do you recommend the site? To whom and for what purpose?
Understanding How to Make Use of Information 1 After students know what they want to write about, one could hold a workshop that asks students to document their research paths. One way to approach such a workshop would be to have student meet in the laptop classroom. Individually or in groups, you could ask them to respond to the following questions:
Students would not be able to complete all these questions during classtime, but as they are answering them, the instructor can walk around the class and discuss what they have done and are doing, helping to guide them and suggest resources or strategies.
Understanding How to Make Use of Information 2 Although it doesn't seem to be a very sexy topic, I have found workshops on quotation, documentation and citation to be quite animated, partially because students often have so many questions about these issues that they are eager to have a chance to discuss them and have their confusion cleared up. One way to approach such a workshop is to have students work in groups of two, with each pair using one computer, answering questions. For example
Go to http://owl.english.purdue.edu/Files/Research-Papers.html to find answers to the questions below. For the purposes of this workshop, assume you are writing an essay using MLA Documentation and Citation.
What's the difference between summary, paraphrase and quotation?
Why do you quote outside sources? When should you not quote?
How do you integrate quotes into your own prose? Into your argument?
How do you punctuate a quote if you are quoting less than four lines?
How do you punctuate a quote if you are quoting more than four lines?
How do you cite a source within your essay using MLA documentation?
How do you document the sources you used in an essay?
This approach requires students to do some research themselves to find answers, and it introduced them to a helpful website. It also models a reality of academic writing: the most important skill one needs learn how to quote, document and cite correctly is to know where to find the information during the moment you need it. In other words, you may need to look this information up each time you do an essay. After students have completed the questions, you could discuss them together. As you do so, questions about academic and disciplinary conventions, intellectual property, intentional and unintentional plagiarism, when to quote and when to paraphrase and the function of quotation in individual writing can be addressed, and thus address the conceptual and technical implications of the fifth information literacy skill, understanding how to make use of information.
Understanding How Knowledge is Produced, Disseminated and Organized
In addition to discussing conceptual issues as they arise during the process of doing research,
one could assign essays that address questions of larger issues of research, information literacy,
the web, libraries and other topics, either in general or as they relate to the specific themes of
an individual course. These readings might seem recondite to students otherwise, but approached
during the time they are doing their own research can lead to exciting discussions and to essays
that display an impressive amount of self-reflection (not to mention essays that are about the
research process itself!)
Below are some suggested readings. Additional possible resources can be found within the links in "Other Helpful Resources" below.
Nicholson Baker. "Deadline." New Yorker, July 24, 2000, 42-61.
Describes debates about the importance of preserving original sources, such as newspapers, and prompts discussion of the role of digitalization and the web.
Jorge Luis Borges. "The Library of Babel," Labyrinths (New York: New Directions, 1964), 79-88.
A fictional fantasy of a library that contains all that's been written, and prompts discussion of information overload and the role of knowledge and reading on personal identity.
Paul Duguid and John Seeley Brown, "The Social Life of Documents." First Monday, Vol. 1, No. 1 (May 1996); http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue1/documents/index.html
Addresses the social aspects of documents and suggests discussion of the distinction between personal and impersonal knowledge.
E. D. Hirsch, "You Can Always Look It Up - Or Can You?" American Educator (Spring 2000), 4-9.
Hirsch worries about the decline of research and conceptual skills in the digital age. A good foray into discussion of "kids these days" and the role of the web in education.
Charles Mann, "Who Will Own Your Next Good Idea?" Atlantic Monthly Vol. 282. No. 3 (September 1998), 57-82.
Mann studies the history and fututre of copyright. A good jumping off point for discussions of intellectual property and whether or not information "wants to be free"
Alex Soojung-Kim Pang. "The Work of the Encyclopedia in an Age of Electronic Reproduction," First Monday 3:9 (September 1998); http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue3_9/pang/index.html
Pang compares online and print encyclopedia. Could prompt discussion of different types of reference sources and comparisons of web-based and print sources.
Paul Roberts. "Virtual Grub Street: Sorrows of a Multimedia Hack." Harper's Magazine, June 1996, 71-77.
Roberts reports on his experiences writing for an online encyclopedia, and is critical of the quality of both his writing and the information he provides. A good complement to Pang, above.
Cass Sunstein."Fragmentation and Cybercascades." Republic.com (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 51-73; 80-84.
Sunstein is a political scientist, and examines the effects of the internet on public discourse. A good essay for debate.
Of course, for faculty too, the web can be an overwhelming source of information, including information on how to integrate information literacy into courses. The following links are but a few of the many available:
Oberlin Library Sites
The library's overall mission statement: http://www.oberlin.edu/library/servninfo/mission.html.
The overall goal for reference services: http://www.oberlin.edu/library/servninfo/reference/Default.html.
Information literacy initiatives: http://www.oberlin.edu/library/servninfo/reference/infolit.html.
Report on Information Literacy and the Oberlin Education: http://www.oberlin.edu/library/services/reference/infolit/infolit.html
Search Strategies
"Forming a Search Strategy:" http://www.library.temple.edu/libinst/SEARCHST.HTM
"Analyze Your Topic and Search With Peripheral Vision:" http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Strategies.html
Evaluating Web Sites
"Critical Tools for Evaluating Web Sites:" http://astro.temple.edu/~etrib/critical.htm
"Thinking Critically About World Wide Web Resources:" http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/help/critical/index.htm
"Evaluating Internet Research Sources:" http://www.virtualsalt.com/evalu8it.htm
Plagiarism
"Thinking and Talking About Plagiarism" with links to articles: http://bedfordstmartins.com/technotes/techtiparchive/ttip102401.htm
Reference Sources
A Glossary of Internet and Web Jargon: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Glossary.html
Oberlin Library's Guides to Citing Sources and Style Manuals: http://www.oberlin.edu/library/ref_sources/sources.html#Styles