Welcome to College Research Literacy!
This LibGuide will direct you through all of the activities for each week of class. It will be important to complete the activities as they are listed on the guide and not skip back and forth between items. Each piece of the class builds on what came before, so if you complete things out of order, necessary links or important information might be lost. You will have 2 weeks to complete each week's worth of activities. Things will work best if you keep on schedule and stay caught up as we progress thru the semester. No late work will be accepted and no extra credit will be offered.
If you have questions or concerns about any part of this course, please contact one of the instructors as soon as possible. Our contact information is available in the Blackboard class, on the syllabus and on each page of the LibGuide. Our office hours are very flexible and we will respond quickly to emails or phone calls.
As important as the concepts are that we will cover in the class, if you are not able to access and navigate the library webpage and its resources, you will not be able to get very far. Our focus for this first week of class is to have a clear understanding of what academic libraries are and what academic librarians do and how this impacts you as a student.
No matter if you've been a big library user your whole life or if the thought of going to a library makes you break out in hives, being able to successfully use the academic library will be a valuable part of your education. This week you will be introduced to the librarians at Newman (who also happen to be your instructors!) and Dugan Library's website and services. The main reading for this week is focused on academic libraries and librarians in general and it will help aid in your understanding.
You will also get a feel for this course, the types of activities, quizzes and interaction that will take place over the next 8 weeks.
Introduction
This week you will need to complete the following:
Please watch the instructor introductions before introducing yourself. We've told you a little bit about our backgrounds and the education we've had in order to become librarians.
Introduce yourself telling us:
Please take this pre-test before proceeding on to the other activities this week. Thank you!
Pre-Test
Please watch this video.
Each week will follow a similar format:
The final assignment for this course will be completing an annotated bibliography. Don't worry if you don't know how to do an annotated bibliography. Clear instructions and a sample will be given to help you through the process. The assignment will be introduced in week 3 and will be due at the end of week 8. This assignment will serve as the final for the course.
Frameworks for Information Literacy
The Framework for Information Literacy was developed over several years and introduced by the Association for College & Research Libraries in 2016. You may be asking, why should I care?
The most pressing reason why you should care is this class is based upon the framework. We believe that understanding the framework will enable you to successfully complete research assignments for class, but that it will provide a solid foundation for graduate school (if that's what's next!) or for your future career or occupation.
The video below defines information literacy and provides an overview of the six frameworks that are used to give context for researchers at all levels, from novice to experienced.
The six frameworks described in the video are listed in alphabetical order. This is NOT the order that we will explore them in this class.
Frameworks:
Ultimately, it doesn't matter whether you learn about the frameworks alphabetically or the more deliberate order we have selected. You will find that the frameworks don't form a step-by-step process, there is overlap and there may be repetition of some and non-use of others, depending on the goal of the research you're conducting.
This video explains our textbook and how it will be used.
We're linking the full copy of the textbook here along with the link to it's location online in order to provide full disclosure. Don't worry about downloading or printing the book.
Link to the online location of the book: https://textbooks.opensuny.org/the-information-literacy-users-guide-an-open-online-textbook/
Please watch this video and answer the questions below.
Please watch this video and answer the questions below.
Please watch this video and answer the questions below.
This week is a little different because we have 2 reading selections and quizzes. However, the readings are fairly short and should be fairly quick to read and answer the questions that follow.
This week we'll start of with reading the "Conclusion" to our textbook. This short, 4 page conclusion provides a nice summary for the concepts that will be covered over the next 8 weeks. After you have finished reading the chapter, please take the reading quiz.
A note about our text:
This week we are learning the definition of information literacy and the six frameworks that have been developed to help students understand how and when to use information. Our textbook explains the frameworks, but uses different language to label and describe them.
Please read this selection, "Understanding Libraries & Librarians" before answering the questions below.
You will need to login to our Blackboard class to participate in our class discussion. Please answer the question posted and interact with other students' or instructors' posts to receive credit.
This week's discussion question:
Discussion Questions:
Conclusion to Week 1
Congratulations, you have reached the end of the required assignments/activities for the first week of class!
Our hope is that you have gained a beginning understanding of the six major concepts (Frameworks) that we will be covering in class over the next few weeks as well as an understanding of how to access and complete the activities for the class.
Please take the post-test below. This is the only week that you won't take the same test before and after completing the work. These questions are based upon the content covered in this week only, and the pre-test was about the information that will be covered over the next 7 weeks of class.The final question in today's quiz is a chance for you to let us know if you've found anything confusing or have questions about the class or information covered. We want to make sure your learning experience is as valuable as possible!
