The information passed on, and time that Moonflowerdragon and others must spend on their posts just amazes me.
So thinking about Information Literacy I typed into Google - "Information Literacy Blogs".
Wow, just exactly how do you deal with 4 480 00 results?
One of my sons has been studying ancient egypt so I thought I would do exactly what most of his class would do and type "egypt" into Google - 137 000 000 results. I was able to narrow it down to 6 100 000 by typing "ancient egypt" into my search!
How does an 8 year old deal with this and who is there to guide them and filter out the fact from fiction?
I found a fantastic quote on the Central Highlands Regional Library blog Explore, Discover, Connect.
Google can bring you back 100,000 answers,
a librarian can bring you back the right one.
Neil Gaimon
This brings about my first quandry in how do I reference this - a quote within a post on a blog of Central Highlands Regional Library Corporation?
Is the author of the post the library, or the author of the post who works in the library- clplates?
clplates??? (2010, May 27). The fact that we exist [Web log post]. Explore, Discover, Connect. Retrieved June 9 from http://chrlibrary.blogspot.com/2010/05/fact-that-we-exist.html
Back to my 4 480 000 results. Let's check out the first results, they must be accurate - isn't that what most students out there would do?
InfoLiteracy Network Blog was set up in late 2007 before a conference. West (2007) a librarian introduces herself in the December post and is looking forward to presenting at an upcoming conference on the information literacy issues she faces in rural Vermont. There are no further posts on the blog however there are 2063 comments which cover everything from porn, viagra and Paris Hilton, to cheap airfares. No one contributed to this blog again.Information literacy meets Library 2.0 is a great blog and I have found lots of valuable information here. Godwin (2010) has posed the question - Is the internet making us dumber? If we are using Web 2.0 tools are we adding to this reliance of the internet? I must investigate further the Google Wonder wheel, using keywords to define what is being researched (Godwin, 2010).
The first two blogs on the first page of a search result, and very mixed results.
I think this is where it is important to define what information literacy really is.
The ability to recognize when information is needed
and have the ability to locate, evaluate and use effectively
the needed information (AMA, 1989)
We are surrounded by information as demonstrated by a simple Google search, however we must become more equipped to think about where our information originates.
Libraries provide a significant public access point to this information, so we play a key role in preparing people for the demands of this information society we live in.
American Library Association. (1989). Presidential Committee on Information Literacy: Final Report. Retrieved June 9, 2010 from http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/publications/whitepapers/presidential.cfm
Godwin, P. (2010, June 7). Is the internet making us dumber? [Web log post]. Retrieved June 9, 2010 from http://infolitlib20.blogspot.com/2010/06/is-internet-making-us-dumber.html
Godwin, P. (2010, May 26). Tools for helping your students choose their topics [Web log post]. Retrieved June 9, 2010 from http://infolitlib20.blogspot.com/2010/05/tools-for-helping-your-students-choose.html
West, J. (2007, December 1). Hello from Vermont, USA [Web log post]. Retrieved June 9, 2010 from http://www.informationliteracynetwork.net/blog/2007/12/01/hello-from-vermont/
You pose some excellent points here! I really loved reading your post! I love the quote about google giving you many answers and librarians giving you one as it is so true! That's the job we face as librarians in the Web 2.0 world. =)
ReplyDeleteAh, for citing a source within a source, the intext citation would be (could be Neil Gaiman): Gaiman (as cited in elplates, 2010)
ReplyDeleteFor your reference list you might like to read my post on citing blogs, in which I deduced a logical structure, and then when APA came up with an example, discussed why I didn't think it met APA referencing principles. According to their eventually repaired example it would read as you wrote it (except I think you will find the author is elplates). And yes we use screenname.
But I think, taking into account that CHRLC could at some point decide to move their blog to another blogging system, with a different archiving structure, the reference would provide most useful information if it includes the blog's title as well as the article's (just as one would for an article in offline periodicals):
elplates. (2010, May 27). The fact that we exist [Web log post]. Explore, Discover, Connect. Retrieved [date because blogs can be edited] from .....
Also, APA reference lists have a hanging indent. If you would like to use a hanging indent for a reference list online you can surround it with a html div tag as long as each reference list entry is surrounded by paragraph tags... :
<div style="text-indent: -4em; padding-left: 4em;">
<p>elplates. etc...</p></div>
you can see the effect of that in my post, but div tags won't work in a comment.
Davida that's a really good example of evaluating sources.
ReplyDeleteAnd source evaluation is probably one of the most important parts of informacy because it applies no matter which search tools one uses AND because although search strategies can be refined to improve results, those results still need to be evaluated.
On the note of search strategies... I'd recommend if you're looking for a blog on a topic, try Google's BlogSearch and there are a couple of books and websites about improving search skills. Something I've learned after years of being very happy with the results I get by phrasing some searches as a question - was to phrase them instead as the beginning of an answer. I think that idea came from book in the library about Google.
Another interesting thing I note is that different searchers (or the same searcher not signed in to a google account, on different computers) can get different results.
Topping my results to the same search you did are blogs I have visited before, although lower down yes Jessamyn's old network site still turned up, which I guess ends up being useful as an example about just what the google machine can*not* do.