The Information Literacy User’s Guide

Elissah Becknell and Rebecca March

Self Published

Minneapolis

The Information Literacy User’s Guide by Elissah Becknell and Rebecca March is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

The original copyright statement for this textbook was:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Deborah Bernnard, Greg Bobish, Jenna Hecker, Irina Holden, Allison Hosier, Trudi Jacobson, Tor Loney, and Daryl Bullis

ISBN: 978-0-9897226-2-9

Cover design by William Jones

Published by Open SUNY Textbooks, Milne Library (IITG PI)

State University of New York at Geneseo, Geneseo, NY 14454

About

About this Textbook

Good researchers have a host of tools at their disposal that make navigating today’s complex information ecosystem much more manageable. Gaining the knowledge, abilities, and self-reflection necessary to be a good researcher helps not only in academic settings, but is invaluable in any career, and throughout one’s life. The Information Literacy User’s Guide will start you on this route to success.

The Information Literacy User’s Guide introduces students to critical concepts of information literacy as defined for the information-infused and technology-rich environment in which they find themselves. This book helps students examine their roles as information creators and sharers and enables them to more effectively deploy related skills. This textbook includes relatable case studies and scenarios, many hands-on exercises, and interactive quizzes.

About the 2019 Revision

Elissah Becknell and Rebecca March have taken this textbook and adapted it for local use at Minneapolis Community & Technical College Library.

About the Authors

Deborah Bernnard is Head of the Dewey Graduate Library at the University at Albany, State University of New York. She is also a veteran information literacy instructor. She was a member of the committee that created UNL 205 Information Literacy, a one-credit undergraduate course taught by University at Albany librarians since 2000. She also teaches a graduate course; Information Literacy Instruction: Theory and Technique. She has authored several book chapters and articles on information literacy topics.

Greg Bobish is an Associate Librarian at the University at Albany, State University of New York. He has taught credit-bearing information literacy courses since 2000 and enjoys experimenting with new educational technologies and new pedagogical approaches as he tries to convey the relevance of information literacy to his students’ lives. He has received the Chancellor’s and the President’s awards for Excellence in Librarianship.

Daryl Bullis is the Lead Instruction Librarian at Babson College. He received his BA in Classics and Russian from the University of New Hampshire, an MA in Russian and an MLS from the University at Albany, State University of New York. He has taught credit courses in Information Literacy and is currently researching best practices for adapting TBL methods to bibliographic instruction sessions.

Jenna Hecker is an instructional developer for the University at Albany, State University of New York, and teaches Information Literacy in both face-to-face and online formats. She received her MLIS from the University of Rhode Island.

Irina Holden teaches Information Literacy in the Sciences and works as an Information Literacy and Science Outreach Librarian in the Science Library at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Her research interests include science literacy, reference and instruction in both traditional and virtual environments, sustainability and first year experience courses. Ms. Holden is a native of Ukraine.

Allison Hosier earned her MSIS from the University at Albany in 2011. She is currently an Information Literacy Librarian at Coastal Carolina University.

Trudi Jacobson is the Head of the Information Literacy Department at the University at Albany, State University of New York. She and Thomas Mackey developed the concept of metaliteracy, which has infused her teaching and her research. She loves the challenge and excitement of effective new teaching methods, and is currently involved in the development of a metaliteracy badging system. She was the recipient of the Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian of the Year award in 2009. She is honored to have taught or mentored all but one of the co-authors of this book when they were graduate students.

Tor Loney is a Youth Services Librarian at Albany Public Library, concentrating on teen engagement with a focus on creative arts and emerging technologies. He previously worked as an Information Literacy Librarian and Instructor at the University at Albany, where he earned his Masters’ of Science in Information Science.

Elissah Becknell and Rebecca March are instructors in the Information Studies Department at Minneapolis Community & Technical College Library. With the expressed consent of the editors of the original publication of this textbook, we revised and adapted this textbook for our classroom use.

Reviewer’s Notes

The Information Literacy User’s Guide is written for teaching-librarians and faculty who conduct instruction either online or face-to-face. It is a contemporary take on what the information literate learner should know in the 21st century. Using the 7 Pillars of Information Literacy as the framework, the textbook is a hands-on step by step guide that can be incorporated in for-credit courses, embedded librarian projects and also one-shot instruction sessions.

The question many librarians and academics struggle with today is what does it mean to be information literate in the 21st century? Oftentimes we look at the technological innovations that have changed the very nature of information as the catalyst for this disruption, but this textbook challenges us to think about the information cycle from the base levels (what is a book, what is an article etc.) to the broader and deeper questions about information, such as what ownership means in in our participatory culture. The text transcends the basic pretense that technology has changed the meaning of information literacy and delves deeper into looking at networks, both physical and virtual, and the information gathering and creation inside those networks.

The book examines information literacy as it relates to the liberal arts, as well as the hard sciences and is layered with excellent classroom examples that can be incorporated in classes with a research component. The textbook is ideal for undergraduate level work and could be used as a companion piece to a discipline-focused class, like Anthropology or Chemistry, or could be used as the base text to an information literacy course.

Mark McBride, Director of Library Services, Monroe Community College

Mark McBride is the Director of Library Services at Monroe Community College. Mark received holds an AS from Erie Community College, BA in Media Study from the University at Buffalo and received his MLS from the University of Buffalo, as well. His background is in information literacy & metaliteracy instruction. He has ample experience planning and designing learning spaces (both formal and informal). He is an Open Education advocate and believes in the unfettered access to content for all learners.

Introduction

Introduction

You may be using this book for any one of a variety of reasons. It may have been assigned by a professor, in whole or in part. You may be using it to enhance your research techniques for your classes. Or you may see the importance of being savvy about information use and production, and have decided to learn more on your own. After all, our world is defined by our easy access to information. In fact, as is often said, we are drowning in information. Some is valuable. Some is worthless. And some is just fun, in its proper context. As you know, information comes in many different formats and sometimes, depending on the content, information in one format can be in any of these categories. For example, a tweet could be valuable (maybe an expert on a topic has just announced something groundbreaking), worthless (“Going shopping. Looking for socks that don’t fall down.”), or fun (I’ll let you decide what that message might be). So it seems that information content, context, and quality matter more than what kind of package or format the information takes. You will have a chance to read more about this later in the book. And accessing information is just one component; there is also your role as an information producer. We’ll get to that, too. You will learn a number of ways to enhance your abilities to work with the information that surrounds you.

So let’s start at the beginning. This book is entitled The Information Literacy User’s Guide. If you are information literate, you are adept at working with information. But a user’s guide can still be of assistance, since there are so many components to information. You, the authors, and just about everyone is better versed in working with some aspects of information than with others. While you will find elements in this book that you are totally up to speed on, there will be others that you have less familiarity with. Hence, the value of a user’s guide.

While this textbook refers to information literacy throughout, there are a variety of different models and subsets of information literacy: visual literacy, science literacy, digital literacy, information fluency, media literacy, and many more. Let’s highlight just one: metaliteracy. The originators of this model think of it as information literacy for today’s open, networked, collaborative information environment. It also places an emphasis on metacognition, or thinking about your own thinking. Being able to find and use information well means realizing what you know, what you don’t, and what you need to learn, and thinking about these categories throughout the process. It means being aware of how one is interacting with information, and not just reverting to long-standing habits only because they are familiar. There is a list of learning objectives for metaliterate learners at the end of this chapter, but we continue to identify occasional small changes to the objectives. The most current version can be found at http://metaliteracy.org.

You might think of the learning objectives as one of those headlines you see on magazine covers while waiting in a grocery store checkout lane: 1

6 Symptoms You Shouldn’t Ignore

50 People Who Make Your Life Better

Get 30% Richer This Year: Very Smart Money Tips

4 Panza-Blasting Moves for a Tighter Bod

Maybe there should be some catchy, motivational title for these learning objectives. (If you have a good idea, send it to one of the authors.) But, in seriousness, being aware of your own thought processes and working towards becoming more proficient in the areas included in the metaliteracy learning objectives will help you in your academic endeavors and in your everyday life. When you finish reading this introduction, take a look at the list. Are there items that you do well? Are there others that you just need to remember to follow through on? Possibly some will be less familiar to you. Recognize that they are empowering behaviors and attributes that will advance your abilities in school, the workplace, and in daily life. Knowing this may well provide the motivation to follow through with the readings and exercises in the upcoming chapters.

This book is arranged using a model called the SCONUL Seven Pillars of Information Literacy. The model was developed in the United Kingdom, and revised in 2011, to reflect today’s information world. As you would expect, its visual representation shows pillars, each one labeled with a one-word access point to a larger concept. The pillars, with short explanatory descriptions, are

- Identify (understanding your information need)

- Scope (knowing what is available)

- Plan (developing research strategies)

- Gather (finding what you need)

- Evaluate (assessing your research process and findings)

- Manage (organizing information effectively and ethically)

- Present (sharing what you’ve learned)

The authors of this book have added two additional chapters to engage you in important areas not specifically represented by the pillars:

- Visual Literacy (applying information literacy to visual materials)

- Science Literacy (information literacy in the sciences)

The developers of the Seven Pillars model explain that an individual can be more expert in some areas than others, and has the ability to increase their expertise. But interestingly, they also mention that people can become less expert in the areas designated by the pillars. How might that be? If you learned something, and then learned more, you become more adept, right? They make the point, however, that because the information environment shifts all the time, it is possible people won’t keep up, and thus become less proficient. So just as someone can climb one of the pillars, so too can he or she slip down.

Each of the seven areas incorporates both abilities and understandings. The abilities include what an individual can do. The understandings cover both attitude and behaviors. For example, someone might be aware that they should carefully evaluate the information they find and know how to go about it, yet not care enough to actually do it. Abilities and understandings work together to enable information literacy. Near the beginning of each chapter, you will find pertinent abilities and understandings lists taken from the Seven Pillars model.

As mentioned earlier, you are likely skilled at some of the elements the book will be discussing, less so at others. In other words, you will have ascended some of the pillars more than others. This is true of the authors themselves. We teach information literacy and call ourselves experts. But we can still learn from our colleagues’ chapters on various facets of the nine areas covered in this book. We hope you will also find this to be the case.

This introductory chapter is intended to be short, and will end with an important recommendation: As you learn from this textbook, remember to reflect on your new knowledge, skills, and attitudes. What are you doing differently? Did you find particular new approaches to locating or sharing information that work better? Why? Are you evaluating information more consistently? Differently? Do you feel more comfortable as an information producer? If you continue to ask yourself questions like these, and follow through based on your responses, your proficiency with information will last far beyond your memory of reading this textbook.

Note

If you encounter terms in this book whose meanings are not clear to you, start your investigation by looking at these two sites. The first provides definitions, while the second is a multilingual glossary that provides corresponding terms in six languages:

Definitions

http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/aboutacrl/directoryofleadership/sections/is/iswebsite/projpubs/idpdefinitions.pdf

Glossary of terms, with English, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French, Spanish, and Arabic:

http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/aboutacrl/directoryofleadership/sections/is/iswebsite/projpubs/idplanguagetable.pdf

Appendix

Developing Metaliterate Learners

Metaliteracy learning falls into four domains: behavioral (what students should be able to do upon successful completion of learning activities—skills, competencies), cognitive (what students should know upon successful completion of learning activities—comprehension, organization, application, evaluation), affective (changes in learners’ emotions or attitudes through engagement with learning activities), and metacognitive (what learners think about their own thinking—a reflective understanding of how and why they learn, what they do and do not know, their preconceptions, and how to continue to learn). Each aspect of the main metaliteracy learning goals presented below applies to one or more of these categories, and is labeled as such (B for behavioral, C for cognitive, A for affective, M for metacognitive).

The learning objectives recognize that metaliterate “learners,” as they are called here, must learn continually, given the constantly and rapidly evolving information landscape. Instructors and learners can meet these objectives in a variety of ways, depending on the learning context, choosing from a menu of learning activities. The objectives are conceived broadly, so as to remain scalable, reproducible, and accessible in a range of contexts.

Goal 1: Evaluate content critically, including dynamic, online content that changes and evolves, such as article preprints, blogs, and wikis.

1. Place an information source in its context (for example, author’s purpose, format of information, and delivery mode) in order to ascertain the value of the material for that particular situation. (B, C)

2. Distinguish between editorial commentary and information presented from a more research-based perspective, recognizing that values and beliefs are embedded in all information. (C)

3. Determine the value of formal and informal information from various networked sources (scholarly, user-generated, OERs, etc.). (C)

4. Evaluate user response as an active researcher; understand the differing natures of feedback mechanisms and context in traditional and social media platforms. (B, C)

5. Appreciate the importance of assessing content from different sources, including dynamic content from social media, critically. (A)

Goal 2: Understand personal privacy, information ethics, and intellectual property issues in changing technology environments.

1. Differentiate between the production of original information and remixing or re-purposing open resources. (C)

2. Distinguish the kinds of information appropriate to reproduce and share publicly, and private information disseminated in more restricted/discreet environments. (C)

3. Use technology to build a positive web presence. (B)

4. Apply copyright and Creative Commons licensing as appropriate to the creation of original or repurposed information. (B)

5. Recognize the ethical considerations of sharing information. (A)

Goal 3: Share information and collaborate in a variety of participatory environments.

1. Participate conscientiously in collaborative environments. (B)

2. Take responsibility for participation in collaborative environments. (A)

3. Compare the unique attributes of different information formats (e.g., scholarly article, blog, wiki, online community), and have the ability to use these effectively and to cite information for the development of original content. (B)

4. Describe the potential impact of online resources for sharing information (text, images, video, and other media) in collaboration with others. (A)

5. Demonstrate the ability to translate information presented in one manner to another in order to best meet the needs of particular audiences; integrate information from multiple sources into coherent new forms. (M, C)

6. Effectively communicate personal and professional experiences to inform and assist others; and recognize that learners can also be teachers. (A, B)

7. Produce original content appropriate to specific needs in multiple media formats; transfer knowledge gained to new formats in unpredictable and evolving environments. (B)

8. Value user-generated content and critically evaluate contributions made by others: see self as a producer, as well as consumer, of information. (A)

9. Be open to global perspectives; use communication with others in a global context to encourage deep learning. (A)

Goal 4: Demonstrate ability to connect learning and research strategies with lifelong learning processes and personal, academic, and professional goals.

1. Determine scope of the question or task required to meet one’s needs. (C)

2. Reevaluate needs and next steps throughout the process. (C)

3. Demonstrate the importance of matching information needs and search strategies to appropriate search tools. (C)

4. Use self-reflection to assess one’s own learning and knowledge of the learning process. (M)

5. Demonstrate the ability to think critically in context and to transfer critical thinking to new learning. (M)

6. Value persistence, adaptability, and flexibility. (M)

7. Communicate effectively with collaborators in shared spaces and learn from multiple points of view. (M)

8. Recognize that learning is a process and that reflecting on errors or mistakes leads to new insights and discoveries. (M)

9. Engage in informed, self-directed learning that encourages a broader worldview through the global reach of today’s information technology. (M)

10. Demonstrate self-empowerment through interaction and the presentation of ideas; gain the ability to see what is transferable, translatable, and teachable (learners are both students and teachers). (M)

11. Conclude that metaliteracy is a lifelong value and practice. (M)

Developed by participants involved in the SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grant, Developing a SUNY-wide Transliteracy Learning Collaborative to Promote Information and Technology Competencies for the 21st Century, based on objectives in Mackey and Jacobson, Reframing Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy, C & RL, 72.1 January 2011 http://crl.acrl.org/content/72/1/62.full.pdf+html

Contributors: Michele Forte, Tom Mackey, Kathleen Stone (Empire State College); Trudi Jacobson, Richard Fogarty, Emer O’Keeffe (University at Albany); Brian Morgan and Kim Davies-Hoffman (SUNY Geneseo); Jennifer Ashton, Logan Rath (SUNY Brockport); Carleen Huxley (Jefferson Community College)

The most up to date version can be found at http://metaliteracy.org

Endnotes

1 The first two story headlines appeared on the cover of AARP, January/February 2013, the second was on Marie Claire, February 2013, and the last was on Cosmopolitan, Spring 2013.

Chapter 1 Identify

1

Identify

In this chapter, you will learn about the first pillar of information literacy. While the pillars are normally presented in a certain order, it is important to remember that they are not intended to be a step-by-step guide or followed in a strict order. In most research projects, you will find that you move back and forth between the different pillars as you discover more information and come up with more questions about your topic. In this chapter you will learn how to identify your information need so that you can begin your research.

A person proficient in the Identify pillar is expected to be able to identify a personal need for information. They understand

- That new information and data is constantly being produced and that there is always more to learn

- That being information literate involves developing a learning habit so new information is being actively sought all the time

- That ideas and opportunities are created by investigating/seeking information

- The scale of the world of published and unpublished information and data

They are able to

- Identify a lack of knowledge in a subject area

- Identify a search topic/question and define it using simple terminology

- Articulate current knowledge on a topic

- Recognize a need for information and data to achieve a specific end and define limits to the information need

- Use background information to underpin the search

- Take personal responsibility for an information search

- Manage time effectively to complete a search

Scenario

Hunter is a gamer and spends most of his free time playing Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs). When his Information Studies professor assigned a paper about the impact of the Internet on American Society, Hunter thought it was going to be an easy A, because he could write about gaming. Unfortunately, the paper has not been going well. Hunter is only coming up with the negative impacts of gaming for his paper. He knows that MMORPGs are fun to play and that all his best friends are gamers. However, most of the other people in his life tell him that MMORPGs are a massive waste of time, highly addictive and definitely nerdy. Hunter does not have strong arguments for why MOORPGs are good for American Society and he is quickly losing interest in writing the paper.

Understanding the Context of an Information Need

One of the first things you need to do when beginning a research project is to acknowledge your personal need for information. This may seem obvious, but it is something many of us take for granted. We may mistakenly assume that we already know enough to proceed. Such an assumption can lead us to waste valuable time working with incomplete, biased or outdated information.

When you develop a topic, it is important  that you explore the existing information landscape to find out what is already out there. You need to think broadly about the information environment in which you are operating. For instance, any topic you need information about is constantly evolving as new information is discovered and added. Trained experts, informed amateurs, and opinionated laypeople are publishing in traditional and emerging formats; there is always something new to find out. Part of becoming information literate is developing habits of mind and of practice that enable you to continually seek new information and to adapt your understanding of topics according to what you find. While you are busy searching for information on your current topic, be sure to keep your mind open to new topics or arguments you have not considered. Often the information you find for your initial need will change the way you think about or frame a topic.

Undergraduate students are often assigned papers and projects that require informational research. This type of research differs from scientific research in few important ways. Informational research involves interpretation and discovery of information that is already produced. Scientific research involves experimental design and produces something tangible that can be reproduced. Another important feature of informational research is that it can be reexamined and reinterpreted at a later date because our information landscape is always changing. Informational research can be used to create an argument, analyze different facets of a topic, or introduce a body of literature.

When you understand the information environment where your information need is situated, you can begin to define the topic more clearly and understand where your research fits in with related work that precedes it.

Defining Information Needs

Hunter was abruptly confronted by his lack of knowledge when he realized that he had mostly negative things to write about MOORPGs. At this point, he has to decide whether to do some research or abandon his topic. While the path of least resistance is appealing, doing research into something  important to you can be rewarding. If Hunter finds positive arguments for MOORPGs, he can use them in his paper and in real life.

Your own lack of knowledge may become apparent in other ways. When reading an article or textbook, you may notice that something the author refers to is completely new to you. You might realize while out walking that you can’t identify any of the trees around your house. You may be assigned a topic you have never heard of.

For example: You can’t explain why your coat repels water. You know that it’s plastic, and that it’s designed to repel water, but can’t explain why this happens. You need to find out what kind of plastic the coat is made of, the chemistry of that plastic and the physics that makes the water run off instead of soaking through. Keep in mind that the terminology in your first explanation will get more sophisticated once you do some research.

All of us lack knowledge in countless areas and this is not a bad thing. Once we acknowledge that we don’t know something, it opens up the possibility that we can find out all sorts of interesting new things.

Taking your lack of knowledge and turning it into a topic or research question starts with being able to identify the knowledge you lack. We rarely start a research project from absolute zero. Most of the time you have heard something about the topic, even if it is just a brief reference in a lecture or reading. Taking stock of what you already know can help you to identify assumptions you are making based on incomplete or biased information. If you think you know something, make sure you find at least a couple of reliable sources to confirm that knowledge before taking it for granted. Use the following exercise to see if there is anything that needs to be supported with background research before proceeding.

Exercise: Taking Stock of What You Already Know

As discussed above, part of identifying your own information need is giving yourself credit for what you already know about your topic. Construct a chart using the following format to list what you already know about the topic.

- Name your research topic.

- In the first column, list what you know about your topic.

- In the second column, briefly explain how you know this (heard it from the professor, read it in the textbook, saw it on a blog, etc.).

- In the last column, rate your confidence in that knowledge. Are you 100% sure of this bit of knowledge, or did you just hear it somewhere and assume it was right?

Research Topic:

Now that you have written down everything you know about the topic, step back and look at the chart as a whole. You may be surprised at how little or how much you know, either way you will be more aware of your own background knowledge on the topic. This exercise should give you a starting point, and may help you identify specific gaps in your knowledge. It can be useful to revisit this chart as you work on your research project to see how far you’ve progressed or to double check that you haven’t forgotten an area of weakness.

Once you have clearly stated what you know, it should be easier to state what you don’t know. Keep in mind that you are not attempting to state everything you don’t know. You are letting your current information need guide this exercise. This is where you define the limits of what you are searching for. These limits enable you to meet both size requirements and time deadlines for a research project. If you have a clear goal in mind,  you can keep yourself on track as you proceed with your research.

One useful way to keep your research on track is with a “KWHL” chart. This type of chart enables you to state both what you know and what you want to know, as well as providing space where you can track your planning, searching and evaluation progress. For now, just fill out the first two columns. Start thinking about the gaps in your knowledge and how they might inform your research questions.

Defining a research question can be difficult. Your initial questions may be too broad or too narrow. You may not be familiar with specialized terminology used in the field you are researching. You may not know if your question is worth investigating at all. These problems can often be solved by a preliminary investigation of existing published information on the topic. In academic research, it is important to look for experts who have laid the groundwork for you to build upon. On a more practical note, gathering background information can provide you with commonly used terminology and arguments.  Having the right background knowledge can help you create thoughtful research questions and construct more precise searches.

Creating Research Questions and Thesis Statements

Now that you have identified your knowledge gaps, conducted a preliminary investigation on the topic and set limits on your research based on your current information need. You are ready to write out your research question or thesis statement. Research questions and thesis statements can be understood as two sides of the same coin. You can start with a research question and restate it as a thesis statement, or vice versa. The characteristics of a good research question can be used to create a good thesis statement.

A good research question has several characteristics:

- The answer to a research question should not be immediately obvious

A good research research encourages exploration. It should force you to seek out new and varied information, not just one fact or figure. The research question should not be answered with a simple yes or no. It should require that you analyze several sources of information to get a complete answer.

- A research question should help you feel focused

A good research question helps you focus on a specific context. This context could be a specific time period, human population, geographic area or set of circumstances. You have a clear sense of who or what you are researching. It does not require you seek out information indefinitely.

- A research question should address an issue or controversy, or seek to solve a problem

Whenever possible, you should articulate the controversy or issues concerning your research topic. A typical research assignment seeks to answer a question, find a solution or convince your audience of a stance. If you need a strong set of arguments or solutions, then you should ask questions that address the issue or controversy explicitly.

- A research question is hopeful

Sometimes a controversy or issue seems overwhelming. You may feel like the answer is impractical or improbable for humans to execute. Try not to despair, and do not frame your research questions in exaggerated or apocalyptic language. Also, avoid creating open ended questions that reflect your feelings about human frailty. Accept that humans are not perfect and find the workable solutions.

- An informational research question is not theoretical or revisionist

It is fun to think about alternative realities, theoretical possibilities or revised histories. If you are assigned a research project, you will find the whole endeavor more productive if you stick to what is known about the world. When scholars, academics, researchers or scientists explore the unknown they use disciplinary research methods to make new discoveries. If you go far enough in your academic journey, you will learn how to conduct original research or set up scientific experiments. Informational research requires a body of information to explore.

Do not worry about perfection. You should revise your research question or thesis statement several times during the course of a research project. As you become more and more knowledgeable about the topic, you will be able to state your ideas more clearly and precisely, until they almost perfectly reflect the information you have found.

A Wider View

While Identify is presented as the first step in a research process, you may find yourself circling back to topic development many times during a research process. It is impossible to keep up with an evolving information landscape and we often start out with incorrect assumptions or outdated information. Other chapters in this book deal with evaluating, managing and presenting information during a research process. You may revisit your initial ideas about your topic in response what you’re doing with what that information later on.

Students often think that their lived experience is not relevant to or researched in scholarly circles. Hunter was carrying baggage about Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games when he started writing about it for a class. A little preliminary research and topic development will go a long way to assuage your fears about finding scholarly sources of information. Professors, researchers, scientists and practitioners study all sorts of real world phenomena and draw interesting conclusions about what they observe.

Chapter 2 Scope

2

Scope

A person who is information literate in the Scope pillar is able to assess current knowledge and identify gaps.

The above statement is from the Seven Pillars of Information Literacy, the model of information literacy presented in the Introduction of this book. The following list, from the creators of the Seven Pillars model, provides more detail about the Scope pillar. Components include:

- “Know what you don’t know” to identify any information gaps

- Identify which types of information will best meet the need

- Identify the available search tools, such as general and subject specific resources at different levels

- Identify different formats in which information may be provided

- Demonstrate the ability to use new tools as they become available

Additionally the information literate person in the Scope pillar understands

- What types of information are available

- The characteristics of the different types of information source available to them and how they may be affected by the format (digital, print)

- The publication process in terms of why individuals publish and the currency of information

- Issues of accessibility

- What services are available to help and how to access them

Scenario

Mohamed is active in his Mosque and a student group for Muslims on campus. He was born into a Muslim family and lives in a community with Muslims from all over the Middle East and Africa. He is interested in how greater American society perceives the Muslim faith and to what extent it welcomes faithful Muslims into everyday life. He knows that there are kind and welcoming non-Muslims in his community and on campus, but he also sees tensions and conflicts between people of different faiths or backgrounds.  Mohamed wants to put together a research paper about this topic for his Writing course, but is nervous about the directive from his professor to use academic books and scholarly journals about this topic.

The Information Cycle

In addition to knowing that you are missing essential information about a research topic, another component of information literacy is understanding that the information you seek may be available in different formats such as social media postings, news items, government information, scholarly journal articles and books. Each format has a unique value. The graphic below represents a common process of information dissemination, known as The Information Cycle. It demonstrates how information is created and disseminated across society during a period of time.

When an event happens, we usually hear about it from social networks and news sources first. These first reports are concerned with what happened. To borrow from journalists, we learn about the who, what, where, when, why and how of an event. Sometimes these initial reports get the facts wrong or frame events out of context; however, as time goes by we begin to see general agreement on what happened in news sources, on social media networks and in government or police investigations. A more in-depth exploration and analysis of the event often comes later from different government officials, talking heads across our society, journalists and scholars. We see longer formats emerge: scholarly journal articles, investigative journalism, government reports, proposed legislation and policy reviews. At this point we are beginning to make meaning out of the event. Calls for action become strengthened by understanding the context. Deeper explorations of the event tie it to larger social problems, scientific theories, legislative solutions or regulatory issues. Documentaries and books are two formats that emerge much later, as a way to document history or demonstrate how different events come together to explain various scientific, social, economic and political phenomena. Events take on greater meaning as we figure out how they fit into the big picture.

When college professors ask students to use academic books and scholarly journal articles, they are asking students to seek out information that examines, analyzes, synthesizes, scrutinizes and frames issues using scholarly perspectives, theories and research methods. As Mohamed seeks out scholarly information for his college research paper, he should think about how the specific topic he is interested in exploring fits into larger social problems, scientific theories, legislative solutions or academic disciplines. Most professors do not want a simple account of the world, they want a deeper examination. Mohamed might explore what scholars have to say about the assimilation of Muslim immigrants into American society, or how Muslims and Christians coexist in American society over time or how recent events in the Middle East have affect Muslims in America. Simple web searches do not typically lead to information that addresses this degree of complexity. There are scholarly journal articles, extensive government reports, in depth journalistic pieces and documentaries on the web; however, you have to know where to look.

Free Market Information and Filter Bubbles

Because The Information Cycle begins with an event that is disseminated across social networks or news sources, it is tempting to think this is where you should start a research project. Many of us are introduced to new events, ideas, organizations, people and places in our social networks or trusted news sources. We might even have an important news article, blog post, personal experience or podcast that inspires the research project we are interested in exploring for a class. Taking your inspiration from real life events or personal experiences is a great idea, doing research in your preferred digital ecosystem is not advisable. There are two problems with conducting research through our social networks and in web browsers: most of us lack access to high quality information and most of us are subject to algorithmic intervention when we interact with the world wide web.

When you are conducting research for a college level course, most professors require the use of peer reviewed journals or scholarly publications. These high quality information resources are not typically given away for free. Many scholarly articles can be found in a Google Scholar (or other preferred browser) search; however, when you go to the website to access the article you are given a free abstract of the article but then asked to pay for the full text. The same can be true of scholarly books, you can get a free preview but have to pay for a full text view of the book online. Scholarly information is valuable and can command high prices in the free market. If you pay for access to every article or book you want to read for a research paper, you will quickly find research to be an expensive endeavor. One way to avoid this problem is a use Open Access scholarship, which is discussed in Chapter 9 Scientific Literacy. Another way to avoid this problem is to use the resources in your school library. Your tuition helps pay for this information and it has been vetted by librarians, so you know it will be appropriate for college level research.

The more subtle problem with research across social networks and through web browsers is algorithmic intervention. Companies that provide web based services, like social media platforms or web browsers, have powerful incentives to keep you engaged with their platform or application: advertising revenue and personal data collection. Facebook, Twitter, Google and other web based service providers keep your business and increase your participation on their platforms by presenting you with content that entertains or resonates with you. They employ sophisticated algorithms to make sure you enjoy connecting with people, events, ideas, organizations and advertising on their platforms. These companies also collect as much personal information about you as they can to tailor your experience and perhaps sell this data to other companies. If you use a web based platform enough you will find yourself in a Filter Bubble, a place that presents you with agreeable and entertaining information at the expense of challenging or disagreeable information. The vast majority of free web based services or applications rely on personal data collection and advertising revenue to get and keep your business. Conducting research is this kind of environment will limit your ability to find  multiple perspectives, especially perspectives that differ from your own view of the world.

Academic Libraries

Academic libraries are an important place for students to conduct research. They are not interested in collecting personal data from students or optimizing search so that students only find agreeable or entertaining content. Academic library collections are developed with students and faculty in mind. They are tailored to the academic programs, assignments and research needs of the campus. Students who become familiar with the organization and collections of an academic library will save themselves time and effort when conducting research for college classes. Academic libraries primarily collect scholarly information in a variety of formats, however you will also find information from journalists and government officials. In this way, academic libraries mirror the classroom. Professors are primarily concerned with scholarship and academic ways of thinking about the world, but they are keenly aware of how this relates to greater society.

Mohamed knows he needs to use academic books and scholarly journal articles for his paper, but it is important to understand how these required resources relate to other formats in an academic library collection. Scholarly information is published in a variety of formats, each with its own special considerations when it comes to conducting research. The following formats can be found on physical shelves and in digital searches of databases or catalogs. Consider how you might use the following formats as you conduct research at your academic library

Reference Information

In an academic library, reference information is synonymous with background information. It is the source information you use to understand the basic elements of your topic, the terminology scholars use when discussing a topic and how it fits into a larger context. Academic encyclopedias and dictionaries form the backbone of a reference collection, but you might use other primary sources or commentary collected by your academic library to learn more about your research topic. Reference collections tend to be separated from other collections physically and digitally. They are intended to be used like Wikipedia, for understanding a topic, but not necessarily as the final destination for inquiry. Unlike Wikipedia, most professors are fine with students quoting and citing academic reference resources. This is because reference resources are written or edited by academics, scholars, scientists, researchers and other experts. However, students should not stay in a reference collection if they want to go deeper into a research topic.

Books

Books have been a staple of academic research since Gutenberg invented the printing press. Most academic books come out of traditional publishers with clear editorial review policies. Research in the humanities and social sciences, which include academic disciplines such as anthropology,  literature and history, are primarily published in this format. A book can cover a research topic deeper than most other information sources. Books will give you a full picture of the topic, event or controversy you are researching. They can give you the context of a research topic, detailing the history and current situation we find ourselves in. Books tend to be the culmination of long term research and investigation, so you can mine a book’s bibliography or works cited pages for scholarly journal articles, research studies, government reports, experts in the field or other books. Also, academic books give you clear connections to disciplinary thinking on a topic, giving you insight into the important academic theories, scholars, research experiments or foundational knowledge of which you should be aware.

Newspaper and Magazine Articles

Magazine and newspaper articles are typically written by journalists who report on an event they have witnessed firsthand or after they make contact with those more directly involved. Journalists focus on information that is of immediate interest to the public and they write so that a general audience can understand the content. In research, newspaper articles are often best treated as primary sources, especially if they were published immediately after a current event. Magazine articles and longer investigative newspaper articles tend to explore why something happened, usually with the benefit of a little hindsight. Writers of these long form articles rely heavily on investigation and interviews for research. Journalists tend to be equal opportunity consumers of academic, government and popular information resources. This blending of resources makes their work more accessible for students exploring a topic or looking for a direction to take their research. Newspaper and magazine articles are considered popular resources rather than a scholarly resources, which gives them less weight in academic work.

Scholarly Articles

Scholarly articles are written by and for experts in an academic field of study.  They typically describe original research conducted to provide new insight to an academic field of study. You may have heard the term “peer review” in relation to scholarly articles. Peer reviewed articles undergo a review process carried out by professional researchers, academics and industry experts. This group checks the accuracy of the information presented in a scholarly article and the validity of the research methods used to conduct the research behind the findings. This peer review process adds a level of credibility to scholarly articles that you would not find in a magazine or news article. Scholarly articles tend to be long and feature specialized language that is meant for an expert audience. They provide the framework for researchers and scholars to build new original research projects. Scholarly articles carry a lot of weight in scholarship and professors often require their use in undergraduate assignments.

While scholarly journal articles are typically required for students doing college level research projects, they are not a great place to start your research. By their nature, scholarly journal articles are narrowly focus on one particular study or research project. It takes several studies to start drawing conclusions about a social phenomenon, scientific theory, law of nature or other piece of the academic cannon. As a novice to a field of study, an undergraduate student should start formulating their research question, research topic, and narrow research focus before they dive into scholarly journal articles.

It is a good idea to run your research topic by a professor or librarian to get recommendations about scholars, experiments, literature reviews, ethnographies or scientific studies that might be important to your understanding of the topic.  When searching databases for scholarly journal articles, it is a good idea to have a few different arguments you want to make about your topic. Having more than one argument or line of reasoning ensures that you can use different studies for different points you want to make. It also forces you to find scholarly articles that come to slightly different conclusions or design their experiments in slightly different ways.

Government Information

Some academic libraries are depository libraries for the Federal Depository Library Program and collect specific documents or publications from different government agencies, most are not. All academic libraries collect or curate government information, in print or digital formats, that is useful to their campus communities.

Government information consists of any information produced by local, state, national or international governments and is usually available at no cost. However, it can reproduced by a commercial entity with added value and cost. To use free government information, look for websites that are created by official government entities such as the US Department of the Interior, UNESCO, the State of Minnesota or the Library of Congress. You can typically conduct searches of the official websites or use databases and tools developed by a government agency to search different kinds of information. For example, the United States Congress has a searchable database of legislation and proposed bills. The US Census Bureau has a searchable database to help you explore census data. Another way to access free government information is to use web portals developed by official government agencies. Web portals are websites that bring together information of many different formats into one uniform search.  USA.gov is a large federally developed web portal that brings together information and services from many different government agencies across the United States. Many academic libraries have research guides or links out to relevant government information, databases, tools and portals.

Government information can help students understand the history, policies, legislation, programs, regulations or agencies involved in a research topic. Sometimes the government is a key player in our research interests. In this case, government information can be treated as primary source information. Many government agencies conduct original research, this can be published as government reports or scholarly journal articles. In this case, government information can be used as evidence to prove or disprove a theory or hypothesis. Many government officials have demonstrated expertise and first hand experience with our research topic. In this case, government information can lend us credible expert opinion or commentary on our research topic. Government information is useful and vast, students should approach government information with a clear research topic or research question in mind to avoid overload.

How to Be a Strategic Researcher

Mohamed has been learning about how information is created and disseminated across American society and what academic libraries collect. This knowledge should help him find academic books and scholarly journal articles on his research topic. More importantly, this information should help him be strategic about what to collect and when. The first thing Mohamed should do is gather background information and develop a research question. You can review Chapter 1 Identify if you need help with topic development. Once he is focused, he has decisions to make about where to look for information on his research topic. He might immerse himself in popular magazines and newspapers to understand what the conversation about Muslims in America looks like to everyday people. He may look for an academic book that deeply explores this topic, sets up a framework for understanding this topic and maybe even points to relevant scholars or research on this topic. He will definitely need to find scholarly journal articles, but he should do that when he has several answers to his research question that he wants to verify or find evidence to support. Government information may or may not be important to his research; fortunately, he does not have to make that decision right away.

The next three chapters discuss important knowledge, techniques and skills you need to navigate the physical and digital collections in an academic library. Web browser searching is not explicitly covered, but there are similarities to academic research and you will find some direct application.

Chapter 3 Plan

3

Plan

A person who is information literate in the Plan pillar is able to construct strategies for locating information and data.

The above statement is from the Seven Pillars of Information Literacy, the model of information literacy presented in the Introduction of this book. The following list, from the creators of the Seven Pillars model, provides more detail about the Plan pillar. Components include:

- Understanding a range of searching techniques

- Understanding the various tools and how they differ

- Knowing how to create effective search strategies

- Being open to searching out the most appropriate tools

- Understanding that revising your search as you proceed is important

- Recognizing that subject terms are of value

There are also things you need to be able to do:

- Clearly phrase your search question.

- Develop an appropriate search strategy, using key techniques.

- Selecting good search tools, including specialized ones.

- Use the terms and techniques that are best suited to your search.

Here is a visual representation of these components:

Now, take a look at the essence of these items condensed into another concept map:

Scenario

Natalie is concerned about water pollution in Minnesota. As a member of the Fond du Lac Band of Ojibwe and a Minneapolis resident, she has spent most of her life around different bodies of water in the state. She wants to write a research paper about water pollution in Minnesota, but is having a difficult time figuring out what to focus on. She is concerned about copper nickel mining in northern watersheds, wild rice cultivation, protecting the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, global warming and lakes in Minnesota and walleye harvests on Mille Lacs. Natalie feels that all of these issues are related to each other, but is wondering if she will be able tie it all together. Natalie has developed a set of research questions for her topic:

- How are Ojibwe people affected by water pollution in Minnesota?

- What can Ojibwe people in Minnesota do to protect water resources in Minnesota?

- How do tribal governments affect change at state legislatures, especially in relation to treaties and environmental protection of natural resources?

Natalie knows that she needs government information to fully understand her topic. She also needs to find academic books and scholarly journal articles because that is required by her professor. She is interested in tribal activism and wants to find a way to highlight some of the important work of protestors and activists in her community.

Selecting Search Tools

Part of planning to conduct research is determining which search tools will be the best ones to use. This applies whether you are doing scholarly research or trying to answer a question in your everyday life, such as what would be the best place to go on vacation. “Search tools” might be a bit misleading, since a person might be the source of information you need. Students often automatically search Google first, regardless of what they are looking for. Choosing the wrong search tool may waste your time and provide mediocre information, whereas other tools might provide spot-on information and quickly, too. In some cases, a carefully constructed search on Google, particularly using the advanced search option, will provide the necessary information, but other times it will not. This is true of all tools: make an informed choice about which ones to use for a specific need.

So, how do you identify the best search tools? For academic research, talking with a librarian or professor is a great start. They can direct you to specialized tools that provide access to what you need. If you ask a librarian for help, they might show you how to optimize your search. This chapter will cover generic search strategies and techniques that work in many search tools; however, a librarian can show you specialized technique in different search tools to focus your search and retrieve the most relevant results.

If neither your professor nor a librarian is available when you need help, check your school’s library website to see what guidance is provided. There will often be research guides or subject guides to assist researchers. There should also be an A-Z list of the databases the library subscribes to, including important information about the subjects and formats these databases cover. Take advantage of the expertise of librarians by using such guides. Novice researchers do not usually look for this type of help, and, as a consequence, often waste time.

Consider Asking an Expert

Have you considered interviewing people as a way to obtain information? This might be particularly appropriate if you are working on an emerging topic or a topic with local connections.There are specific things you can do to obtain better results when conducting informational interviewing. Do some background research on the topic before contacting the person you hope to interview. The more familiarity you have with your topic and its terminology, the easier it will be to ask focused questions. Focused questions are important if you want to get into the information you need. Asking general questions rarely leads to the best information. Acknowledge the time and effort someone is taking to answer your questions, but also realize that people who are passionate about subjects enjoy sharing what they know. Take the opportunity to ask experts about sources they would recommend. Natalie’s research topic lends itself to this sort of research method, but she should make sure she is ready with questions before she starts contacting environmental activists or tribal leaders in her community.

Database Research at your Academic Library

Databases are research interfaces that libraries either lease or develop for various physical and digital collections. In the day to day manner of speaking, when someone says “go search in a database” they mean go to a search interface for a particular collection of resources.

A Side Note about Library Catalogs and Discovery Interfaces

A library catalog is a database that contains bibliographic records of all of the items physically located in a library as well as select digital collections.  Some academic libraries place every digital collection they subscribe to in their library catalog search, others make selections based on their campus community. The library catalog does not search the full text of an item, rather it searches the bibliographic record or description of an item. Many academic libraries place their library catalog in a discovery interface or search. These search interfaces might have branding like onesearch or they might just look like a Google search box located on the library’s homepage. Discovery interfaces blend full text searching with bibliographic record searching, so some collections just have bibliographic records (like the circulating books) and other collections have full text availability (like a collection of scholarly journals). Discovery interfaces can be a great place to conduct research because they combine so many different formats and collections into one search. They can also be aggravating for expert researchers who know how to use the sophisticated features of databases for particular collections.

Searching Databases

Databases have interfaces that help researchers conduct simple searches and advanced searches. Advanced searching allows you to refine your search query and prompts you for ways to do this. Consider the basic Google.com search box. It is minimalistic, but that minimalism is deceptive. It gives the impression that searching is easy and encourages you to just enter your topic, without much thought, to get results. You certainly get many results. But are they good results? Simple search boxes sometimes do researchers a disfavor.

Advanced search screens show you the options available to you to refine your search, which should get you manageable numbers of relevant items. Many databases and web search engines include advanced search screens. Advanced search screens will vary from collection to collection, but they often let you refine your search in these ways:

- Implied Boolean operators (for example, the “all the words” option is the same as using the Boolean and)

- Limiters for date, domain (.edu, for example), type of resource (scholarly journal articles, e-books, patents), language, full text availability

- Field (a field is a standard element, such as title of publication, an author’s name or a subject heading)

- Phrase (rather than entering quote marks)

In most library databases, the search results page will have facets that allow you to apply advanced search refinements to your initial simple search. Commons sorts include: by date, alphabetical by author and alphabetical by publication. Common refinements include: date ranges, full text availability, subjects or topics, publications, collections, format and call number ranges. There is usually an option to add more terminology with Boolean operators. If Natalie enters the simple search terms water and Minnesota into her library catalog, the results page will include suggestions for subject refinements including: environmental policy, causes and theories of causation and conservationists. Natalie can click on any of these suggested refinements to add this subject to her initial simple search and get a set of more focused results.

Metadata

A bibliographic record is a descriptive record created by a cataloger or other metadata expert that describes an item in a collection. The description of items is called metadata, and this metadata is usually divided out into fields like: author, title, publication date and subject. Some important descriptive metadata you find in bibliographic records are: title, author, date of publication, table of contents, abstract or summary and subject/topical headings. A bibliographic record is made up of fields populated by metadata created by professionals. Subject heading searching can be a powerful way to find items in these sorts of collections. Also, starting with simple keyword searches is advisable, then you can apply refinements once you get to the search results page.

Controlled Vocabulary

If you search by subject in a library catalog you can take advantage of the controlled vocabulary created by the Library of Congress. Controlled vocabulary consists of terms or phrases that have been selected to describe a concept. For example, the Library of Congress has selected the phrase Environmental Law to represent laws and regulations governing the environment. So, if you are looking for books about American laws that impact our environment, you could enter the term Environmental Law into the subject search. Controlled vocabulary is important because it helps pull together all of the items about one topic. In this example, you would not have to conduct individual searches for environmental law, then environmental regulation, then environmental legal framework; you could just search once for Environmental Law and retrieve all the items about the laws and regulations governing the environment. Subject headings are particularly useful when you are researching something new to you or if English is not your first language. You can use this suggested terminology from databases to generate better searches and learn more about how others discuss your research topic. Once you start conducting subject searches, you will have access to the same refinements as a keyword search in your search results.

InterLibrary Loan (ILL)

Using a simple keyword search, water and minnesota, Natalie finds several good resources on her topic. She has her pick of books, e-books and streaming films. While the films look entertaining, Natalie decides to check out two print books for her research project. After writing down the call numbers, Natalie tries a different keyword search: ojibwe and activism and minnesota. This search brings up zero items in her library catalog, but she notices that she can expand her search to other libraries. Once she expands the search, she sees some interesting results including more books, a radio show recording and some government documents. The government document records link to free reports on the Department of Natural Resources website. The books and recording are available as InterLibrary Loan (ILL) requests. After consulting with a librarian, Natalie learns that she can request the books from another library and have them delivered to her campus within a few days. She decides to order these books because they are at the heart of her research interests. Physical items might take a few days to get into your library, but electronic resources can often be delivered to your campus email in just 24 to 48 hours via ILL request.

Full Text

Databases sometimes contain the full text of reference articles, scholarly journal articles, magazine articles, newspaper articles and e-books. Full text searching of resources lets researchers create searches that query the full text of  resources in the database. Full text availability means that researchers have instant access to the resources of the database, no need to walk to a shelf at the library or make an InterLibrary Loan request. When a database does not have full text searching, you are searching bibliographic records or descriptions of the various resources.

Determining Search Concepts and Keywords

Keyword searching is our typical approach to using search boxes. You start by coming up with logical keywords or phrases and then put this terminology into a search box. You let the computer find these terms in bibliographic records or the full text of items, and then these items populate a search result. A better way to construct searches is use Boolean logic, this is the form of mathematics that governs the behavior of search boxes. Boolean logic or search logic helps clarify what you mean when you search more than one term in a search box.

Before we get into search logic, it is helpful to start with terminology, the words you use to describe your research topic. Since Natalie has well developed thinking on her research topic, she can easily generate a list of important keywords and phrases that describe the information she is seeking in databases:

- “water pollution”

- Minnesota

- “Fond du Lac Band of Ojibwe”

- water

- “copper nickel mining”

- “northern watershed”

- “wild rice cultivation”

- “Boundary Waters Canoe Area”

- “global warming”

- lakes

- “walleye harvest”

- “Mille Lacs”

- “tribal government”

- “state legislature”

- treaties

- “environmental protection”

- “nature resource”

- activism

This list is not exhaustive, but it is starting to get at the main ideas of Natalie’s research topic. Some of this terminology singularly describes a concept, like: water, lakes and activism. Some of this terminology requires more than one word to describe a concept, like: Boundary Waters Canoe Area, copper nickel mining and global warming. One term to describe a concept is called a keyword and two more terms to describe a concept is called a phrase. In the world of search, any time you have more than one word in a search box, you should have search logic to clarify what you mean to the computer. Quotation marks tell a search box that you have a phrase, or a set of words that belong together in a specific order. You can see all the phrases in Natalie’s list. Phrase is the first type of search logic you are going to learn in this chapter.

Logical Operators

Once you have the concepts and terminology you want to search, you need to think about how you will enter them into the search box. Any time you have more than one word in a search box, you should clarify what you mean with Boolean search logic, expressed as logical operators. Sometimes using quotation marks and creating phrases is enough, often we have to go even further. There are several logical operators that work across databases: AND, OR, NOT, Truncation, Wildcard and Nesting. We each of these operators in depth.

Boolean Operators: AND OR NOT

AND, OR and NOT are them most commonly used logical operators. They search concepts in three different ways. They do not have to be capitalized in a search box, I simply capitalize them for the sake of clarity.

AND links concepts that are very different from one another. Natalie’s search of the library catalog is a good example: ojibwe AND activism AND minnesota. These concepts do not make up a phrase and you would not want a search to link these concepts together as a phrase. Using the AND operator, we make sure that the database knows to find items with all three concepts in the bibliographic record or full text of a potential item.  We can visualize this, imagine three circles that encompass all the items in a collection for each concept, the only items from these three circles you will see in your search result are found in the intersection where all three circles overlap.

You can think of OR as an “either or” search. It searches concepts that have similar meanings. Ojibwe is one name for the group of people that Natalie is part of, this group has other names that get applied to them like Chippewa or Anishinaabe. If Natalie wanted to make sure she found all the items in a database about her people, she might need to type all these terms into the search. OR would be a logical way to way to accomplish the task: Ojibwe OR Chippewa OR Anishinaabe. We can visualize this search, imagine three circles that encompass all the items in a collection for each concept, with the OR operator you will see every item in these circles show up in a search result.

NOT is a filter, you use this operator to take a concept out of your search result. Let us imagine that Natalie has been looking into newspaper articles about copper nickel mining in Minnesota. She might find that a recent event, like the proposed opening of a new copper nickel mine in Hoyt Lakes Minnesota by the PolyMet mining company is over represented in her search results. To filter this out, she might try using the NOT operator like this: copper nickel mining NOT PolyMet. We can visualize this search, imagine two circles that encompass all the items in a collection for each concept, the only items from these two circles you will see in your search result are found in the first before you have overlap from the second.

Truncation and Wildcard

Truncation and wildcard are logical operators that help you find multiple variant forms of a word. The most common reason for needing variant forms of word is when you want the singular and plural version of a concept. Another reason you many need variant forms is that you have a root concept that gets expressed with slightly different endings or changes to letters in the middle. You use truncation when you need multiple letters to be different in the variant forms of a word. You use wildcard when you only need one letter to be different. In order to use truncation or wildcard, you need a root word to get started. The following sets of terms have a root word that we can truncate or wildcard:

- teen* = teen, teens, teenager

- wom?n = woman, woman, womin*, womyn*

- entreprenneur* = entrepreneur, entrepreneurship

- govern* = govern, governing, governor, governance, government

- cat? = cat, cats

- g??se = goose, geese

*these last two variants of woman are sometimes used in feminist literature

Truncation is represented by the asterisk *

Wildcard is represented by the ?

In sets of terms above, three stand out as straight forward truncations with a root word: teen*, entrepreneur* and govern*. You might also think cat, as in the feline animal that many of us have as pets, is another straightforward truncation. That would not work because cat* is a root word for lots of other words:

cat* = cat, cats, cathode, catastrophe, catapult, caterpillar, and so forth…

You might have noticed that wildcard operators can work in the middle of words, wom?n and g??se are good examples of this. Goose might behave a little strangely in a search. As stated g??se could also bring up the term guise, which is not at all related to goose and geese. In most databases, you can have up to three wildcard operators in a row.

Truncation and wildcard are powerful logical operators, but you should test them for weirdness. The way you test any logical operator is to try the search without the operator and then with the operator.

Nesting

Nesting is a way to prioritize the search when you are using multiple Boolean operators.

Nesting is represented by parentheses ()

Every time you create a search with AND, OR or NOT, you are creating a search statement. If you have more than one search statement in a search box, each statement is read and executed from left to right. Without parentheses, this left to right execution can get confusing. Since Natalie has such a nice list of search terminology, we can take her words and combine them into Boolean searches with nesting.

- “Boundary Waters Canoe Area” AND (PolyMet OR “copper nickel mining”)

- (Ojibwe OR Chippewa OR Anishinaabe) AND (activis? OR conservationis? OR environmentalis?) AND (Minnesota OR Wisconsin)

- water AND pollution AND Minnesota

- (Ojibwe OR Chippewa OR Anishinaabe) AND water

- pollution AND (water OR watershed? OR lake? or river?) NOT “storm water”

- “wild rice cultivation” AND “copper nickel mining”

- “global warming” AND (water OR watershed? OR lake? or river?)

- “copper nickel mining” AND (water OR watershed? OR lake? or river?) AND pollution

- (“walleye harvest” OR spearfishing) AND “Mille Lacs”

- (“water right?” OR “land use right?”) AND (“tribal government” OR “Fond du Lac”)

- (activis? OR conservationis? OR environmentalis?) AND water AND Minnesota

- “copper nickel mining” AND leach* NOT PolyMet

As you look over the list, you might see some patterns:

1. OR search statements seem to always be in parentheses

2. NOT search statements seem to always in at the end of a search string

3. AND search statements seem to be everywhere

We can visualize a nested statement, to see how the parenthesis keep search statements behaving properly. Let’s look at this complex search string: (Ojibwe OR Chippewa OR Anishinaabe) AND (activis? OR conservationis? OR environmentalis?) AND (Minnesota OR Wisconsin)

The parentheses force all the synonyms or words with similar meaning together. These OR searches become comprehensive search statements that get combined in many different ways. You basically get items with one word from search statement 1, one word from search statement 2 and 1 word from search statement 3.

Another good visualization is this search string: pollution AND (water OR watershed? OR lake? or river?) NOT stormwater

In this example, the parenthesis pulls all the synonyms or words with similar meaning together. The order of the search statements gets read left to rights, so pollution AND (water OR watershed? OR lake? or river?) are searched and combined as:

- pollution + water

- pollution + watershed?

- pollution + lake?

- pollution + river?

Finally, any item with the term stormwater is filtered out of the search result. Filtering out articles about stormwater should get rid of articles that talk about urban and suburban stormwater runoff problems, which Natalie may see as environmental water problems outside the influence of tribes in Minnesota.

In general, nesting can be a power logical operator when we use multiple Boolean operators in a search string.  When organizing search statements, place AND and OR search statements before NOT search statements. Place all OR statements in parentheses, to keep synonyms or like terminology together. Read your search statements left to right and see if things make sense. Create a visualization if you want to see how these statement behave in a search environment.

Putting it all Together

Databases are the primary way researchers access information in an academic library. It is important to understand the features of advanced search interfaces, to help construct advanced searches or refine simple searches within these environments. It is also important to create searches that computers understand, with correct logical operators and relevant terminology to your research topic. Generating a list of relevant terminology for your topic often means you need to do some preliminary research or have some personal experience with the topic you select, both of which helped Natalie create searches and find relevant resources. It is always advisable to do topic development before diving deep into research.

Chapter 4 Gather

4

Gather

Scenario

Harry Dosital is feeling overwhelmed by one of his class assignments. Harry would have been happy if the assignment was to write a traditional research paper but his professor has asked the class to solve a real life problem. The professor has asked the class to imagine a small city undergoing a natural disaster such as a flood or a tornado. Each group in the class is required to plan a hypothetical information command center for this city. The professor explains that the government needs to obtain accurate, up-to-date information on the scope of the damage and injuries sustained due to the disaster. This information is vital for the city to be able to provide adequate emergency and medical assistance to its citizens. Harry can see that this is an important function for any city in the midst of a crisis but he is not sure about where to get reliable information to help him construct a plan for the city.

Harry and his classmates do some brainstorming and decide to approach this assignment as if they were actually producing a research paper. Their first step will be to research recent disasters. They reason that this will provide some information about the way some cities have gathered information during disasters. If an information gathering strategy worked for other cities, it will work for their hypothetical city. There certainly have been a lot of natural disasters recently, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find some information. Super Storm Sandy and Hurricane Irene are two recent events that immediately come to mind. The group starts to research Super Storm Sandy with Google and Wikipedia.

Harry and his classmates are engaging in the Gather pillar of the Seven Pillars of Information Literacy model. Just as municipalities needed to gather reliable information in order to provide vital services to their citizens, Harry and his group members need to gather information that will help them complete this assignment.

These information needs are components of the Gather pillar, which states that the information literate individual understands

- How information and data are organized

- How libraries provide access to resources

- How digital technologies provide collaborative tools to create and share information

- The issues involved in collection of new data

- The different elements of a citation

- The use of abstracts

- The need to keep up to date

- The difference between free and paid resources

- The risks involved in operating in a virtual world

- The importance of appraising and evaluating search results

They are able to

- Use a range of retrieval tools and resources effectively

- Construct complex searches appropriate to different digital and print resources

- Access full text information, both print and digital, read and download online material and data

- Use appropriate techniques to collect new data

- Keep up to date with new information

- Engage with their community to share information

- Identify when the information need has not been met

- Use online and printed help and can find personal, expert help

The abilities connected with the Gather pillar overlap, in some aspects, with those in other chapters. Where this is the case, those abilities are not addressed in this chapter.

Proficiencies in the Gather pillar

Information Formats and the Internet

Traditionally, information has been organized in different formats, usually as a result of the time it took to gather and publish the information. For example, the purpose of news reporting is to inform the public about the basic facts of an event. This information needs to be disseminated quickly, so it is published daily in print, online, on broadcast television, and radio media. More in-depth treatment of information takes longer to research, write, and publish and traditionally was published in scholarly journals and books.

Today, information is still published in traditional formats as well as in newly evolving formats on the Internet. These new information formats are loosely defined as Web 2.0 formats and can include electronic journals, books, news websites, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and location postings. The coexistence of all of these information formats is messy and chaotic. The process for finding relevant information is not always clear.

One way to make some sense out of the current information universe is to thoroughly understand traditional information formats. We can then understand the concepts inherent in the information formats found online. There are some direct correlations such as books and journal articles, but there are also some newer formats like tweets that didn’t exist until recently.

Let’s look at the news industry. Many traditional newspapers are shutting down and those that remain are retrenching. While there are many reasons for this, one of the major trends has been the rise of the Internet. In the United States, more than 50 per cent of the population reads the news online.

Indeed, online news sites provide a different and, some might argue, a more relevant experience for the reader. They offer video and sound, up-to-the-minute updates on breaking news, and the ability to interact with the content by posting comments. Another important feature of online news is that search engines can deliver content from the site in response to a query. In other words, readers don’t have to visit a site such as the New York Times in order to read its content.

This has both positive and negative consequences. The positive consequence is that readers can quickly and conveniently obtain information from a variety of sources on a topic or event. The negative consequence is that it is more difficult to evaluate the credibility of the sources. The Evaluate chapter in this book provides some good strategies for evaluating information sources.

For Harry and his group, all of this means they will have to research many different kinds of information resources in order to create an effective information command center.

Twitter and Blog Postings

Many of the group’s Google results are Twitter feeds and blog postings. These did not provide a lot of information. After all, a tweet consists of only 140 characters. However, these resources did help Harry’s group by suggesting key people, cities, technologies, and other resources associated with Super Storm Sandy to research. Often a blog posting will provide a link to a longer, more useful resource. The students’ review of blogs and tweets also provided an otherwise unthought-of insight. As Harry and his group were reviewing Twitter feeds posted during Super Storm Sandy, they noted that people were using Twitter to inform their friends and relatives about their whereabouts, their health, and the conditions of their surroundings. Since electricity was not available, most televisions and radios did not work, but mobile technologies like Twitter served as effective communication tools. Once Harry realized this, a Twitter feed was quickly incorporated into his command center’s communication plan.

Newspaper Articles

One of the members of Harry’s group suggested they should consult a newspaper to see what role the newspaper played to help the city understand the destruction caused by the storm. The group chose the New York Times. The New York Times can be accessed online and articles from the day of the storm can be viewed. However, the group found that more useful information was published in the New York Times in the days after the storm. Harry’s initial search of the New York Times for articles containing the phrase super storm Sandy published on October 29, 2012 resulted in some blog postings from reporters and many stories about damage from the storm. But when Harry reentered his search without a date limit, he retrieved articles that analyzed how the region’s municipalities performed during the storm. It takes time to conduct this type of analysis, so looking for information that was published days, weeks, or months after the storm took place was a good strategy.

Many other newspapers can be accessed online or at a local library in microfilm. Microfilm is a film image of the print version of a newspaper. Most libraries hold many years of newspaper issues on microfilm. A microfilm reader is required to view the microfilm version of a document. Libraries that own newspapers on microfilm also provide the microfilm readers.

Primary Sources

Another member of Harry’s group recalled that he had cousins in New York City who experienced Super Storm Sandy firsthand. He offered to interview his cousins about their experiences during the storm. This type of information is known as a primary information or source. Primary sources are accounts from a person or persons who have firsthand knowledge of an event. Speeches, photographs, diaries, autobiographies, and interviews are all primary sources.

In this case, the primary source is still alive and is accessible to Harry’s group. However, some researchers are not so fortunate. If this is the case, primary sources can still be found in a variety of locations and formats. There are many online sites that have created digitized collections of copies of diaries and letters from historical events. It is important to remember that primary sources are not limited to a single format. You may find them in books, journals, newspapers, email, websites, and artwork.

Scholarly Journal Articles

The results of the research that Harry and his group has done are useful, but Harry is concerned that there might be too much focus on Super Storm Sandy. He wants to find more information on crisis and disaster management in general. Harry thinks that there might be general standards or practices that should be incorporated into his group’s plan. Journal articles and books might provide this information.

Harry starts his search for journal articles by using a multidisciplinary database because he is not sure which specific disciplines will cover the information he seeks. He constructs and executes a search query and finds that the abstracts included in the results help him choose several peer-reviewed, or scholarly, articles to read.

Scholarly journal articles usually include an abstract at the beginning of the article. An abstract summarizes the contents of the article. In an abstract, key points as well as conclusions are briefly described. Abstracts are often included in the database record. Researchers find this information helpful when deciding whether or not to retrieve the whole article.

Most of the articles that Harry chooses are available in PDF format from the database, but there are a few articles that look very relevant that don’t have links to a PDF. Harry really wants to read these articles so he decides to try to find out if there is another way to obtain the full text. He consults a librarian who instructs him to look for the title of the journal (not the article) in the online catalog. The catalog record will provide information on whether the journal is available online from another database or if it is available in print.

Journals, and the articles they contain, are often quite expensive. Libraries spend a large part of their collection budget subscribing to journals in both print and online formats. You may have noticed that a Google Scholar search will provide the citation to a journal article but will not link to the full text. This happens because Google does not subscribe to journals. It only searches and retrieves freely available web content. However, libraries do subscribe to journals and have entered into agreements to share their journal and book collections with other libraries. If you are affiliated with a library as a student, staff, or faculty member, you have access to many other libraries’ resources, through a service called interlibrary loan. Do not pay the large sums required to purchase access to articles unless you do not have another way to obtain the material, and you are unable to find a substitute resource that provides the information you need.

There is one more feature Harry found while searching in databases: some offer the option of an alert service. This feature allows Harry to enter the most productive search strings, as well as his email address. When new items are added to the database that fit his search, he receives an alert. Harry found this to be a great way to keep up to date with new articles on his topic without having to initiate a new search.

Books

Next, Harry’s group looks for books on the topic. They search the library’s online catalog using search terms that were successful in their database searches. They find some great titles and head to the library stacks to retrieve them.

Most academic libraries use the Library of Congress classification system to organize their books and other resources. The Library of Congress classification systems divides a library’s collection into 21 classes or categories. A specific letter of the alphabet is assigned to each class. More detailed divisions are accomplished with two and three letter combinations. Book shelves in most academic libraries are marked with a Library of Congress letter-number combination to correspond to the Library of Congress letter-number combination on the spines of library materials. This is often referred to as a call number and it is noted in the catalog record of every physical item on the library shelves.

Harry uses the call numbers to locate some books that he found in the catalog. He is happily surprised to find that there are also some really useful books sitting on the shelf right next to the books he previously identified. This is a handy way to find additional information resources on a topic. It is more efficient to first search the online catalog to locate relevant resources and then search the shelves.

Library of Congress Classification

A General Works — includes encyclopedias, almanacs, indexes

B-BJ Philosophy, Psychology

BL-BX Religion

C History — includes archaeology, genealogy, biography

D History — general and eastern hemisphere

E-F History — America (western hemisphere)

G Geography, Maps, Anthropology, Recreation

H Social Science

J Political Science

K Law (general)

KD Law of the United Kingdom and Ireland

KE Law of Canada

KF Law of the United States

L Education

M Music

N Fine Arts — includes architecture, sculpture, painting, drawing

P-PA General Philosophy and Linguistics, Classical Languages, and Literature

PB-PH Modern European Languages

PG Russian Literature

PJ-PM Languages and Literature of Asia, Africa, Oceania, American Indian Languages, Artificial Languages

PN-PZ General Literature, English and American Literature, Fiction in English, Juvenile Literature

PQ French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Literature

PT German, Dutch, and Scandinavian Literature

Q Science — includes physical and biological sciences, math, computers

R Medicine — includes health and human sexuality

S Agriculture

T Technology — includes engineering, auto mechanics, photography, home economics

U Military Science

V Naval Science

Z Bibliography, Library ScienceCitations

Citations

As Harry’s group starts to read and digest all of the information they have gathered, they notice that many articles and books contain references to other articles and books. Even Wikipedia entries contain references. These consist of citations to resources that authors have quoted or paraphrased in their work or have used to research for their publications. Some of these citations look like they would provide great information. But the group is confused. They don’t know if the citation is to a book or an article or something else.

Citations can be confusing. There are many different citation styles and not many hard and fast rules about when to use a particular style. Your professor may indicate which citation style you should use. If not, the general rule of thumb is that the Social Sciences and Education disciplines use APA (American Psychological Association) citation style, while the Humanities and Arts disciplines use MLA (Modern Language Association) or the Chicago style. You can find detailed information about how to format a citation in these styles by consulting the latest Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, for APA citations, the most recent copy of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, or the current Chicago Manual of Style. You should be able to find copies of these publications in the reference section of your library. You can also obtain guidance on formatting citations in the APA and MLA style from the University at Albany’s Citation Fox, available online at http://library.albany.edu/cfox.

However, just knowing what citation style is used doesn’t always clear up the confusion. Each different information format is cited differently. The most common formats that you will encounter are books, chapters in books, journal articles, and websites.

Conclusion

Harry and his classmates have spent time gathering information to help them create a realistic and accurate crisis command center. They accessed and used Web 2.0 information sources in the form of Twitter feeds and blogs. They used online newspapers and online journal articles. They even gathered some very useful hard copy books. During this process, the students learned about different ways that information is organized including the Library of Congress classification system. Harry was amazed at the wealth of quality information he was able to gather. It took him a while and the process was more complicated than just searching the web, but Harry now feels more confident about acing the assignment. He also feels that he learned more than how to set up a command center. He learned how to engage in academic research!

Exercise: Comparing Search Strategies

Find a newspaper article about a national event, such as the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Make note of your search strategy.

Next find a newspaper article about a local event, for example, a flood in your area or a local crime or election. Make a note of your search strategy for this search.

Compare the two strategies. How are they alike? How are they different? Which newspaper article was easier to find? Why?

Exercise: Primary Sources

Take this quiz online!

1. Where would you find a speech by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in which he said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”?

1. Web site of Presidential Speeches

2. Newspaper article dated Oct. 29, 1941

3. A print publication titled “Vital Speeches of the Day,” which has been published since 1934

4. All of the above

2. Which of the following sources is the most likely to contain an interview with Steven Spielberg about his film “Lincoln,” produced in 2012?

1. Article from a news magazine dated November 23, 2012

2. A blog written by a fan of Steven Spielberg

3. IMDb –A large online database of movie and television information

4. All of the above

3. Which source would have the original copy of a diary written a woman who lived in Tennessee during the Civil War?

1. The Library of Congress American Memory Project web site

2. The Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

3. Local public library’s collection

4. All of the above

4. Which of the following is a primary source?

1. A review of the film “Lincoln” by Steven Spielberg

2. A nonfiction book about the Civil War titled The Fall of the House of Dixie : The Civil War and the Social Revolution that Transformed the South

3. The Facebook privacy policy

4. A reporter’s article about an event that happened yesterday, written from information gathered from bystanders

Check your answers

Exercise: Identifying Citations

Take this quiz online!

1. Joshi, M. (2013). Inclusive institutions and stability of transition toward democracy in post-civil war states. Democratization. 20(4), 743-770.

1. Journal Article

2. Book

3. Book Chapter

2. Janney, Caroline E. Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: 2013. Print

1. Journal Article

2. Book

3. Book Chapter

3. Blattman, Christopher and Edward Miguel. “Civil War.” Journal of Economic Literature 48.1 (2010): 3-57. Print

1. Journal Article

2. Book

3. Book Chapter

4. Barney, William L. “Rush to Disaster: Secession and the Slaves’ Revenge.” Secession Winter: When the Union Fell Apart. Robert J. Cook, William L. Barney and Elizabeth R. Varon. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013. 77-96. Print

1. Journal Article

2. Book

3. Book Chapter

5. Cooper, W. J. (2012) We have the war upon us: The onset of the Civil War, November 1860-April 1861. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

1. Journal Article

2. Book

3. Book Chapter

6. Cockrell, T. (2013). Patriots or Traitors: Unionists in Civil War Mississippi. In M.B. Ballard (Ed.), Of times and race: Essays inspired by John F. Marzalek (pp 23-35). Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi.

1. Journal Article

2. Book

3. Book Chapter

Check your answers

Chapter 5 Evaluate

5

Evaluate

Introduction

Emilio has resolved to eat healthier and work out more. He just finished his first year of college and is not ready for the summer soccer season. As a nursing student, Emilio took a required nutrition course and he thinks he has the basics down. However, his feels his course work did not fully address diets for athletes with performance goals. In addition, he wants to develop a workout routine that he can maintain during the school year.

While writing a paper for the required nutrition course, Emilio learned about the health and science databases in his college library. He knows there are a lot of fad diets and “get pumped quickly” workouts on the web and he does not want to waste his time on gimmicks. He has been collecting interesting nutrition articles shared through his social media networks and he is following several fitness instructors on Instagram. Emilio is a bit intimidated, but he is going to take his research to the next level. He is going to see if the articles and fitness instructors he found through social media are using evidence based practice. He is going to start building his nutrition and workout plan today.

The Evaluate pillar states that individuals are able to review the research process and compare and evaluate information and data. It encompasses important knowledge and abilities.

They understand

- The information and data landscape of their learning/research context

- Issues of quality, accuracy, relevance, bias, reputation and credibility relating to information and data sources

- How information is evaluated and published, to help inform their personal evaluation process

- The importance of consistency in data collection

- The importance of citation in their learning/research context

They are able to

- Distinguish between different information resources and the information they provide

- Choose suitable material on their search topic, using appropriate criteria

- Assess the quality, accuracy, relevance, bias, reputation and credibility of the information resources found

- Assess the credibility of the data gathered

- Read critically, identifying key points and arguments

- Relate the information found to the original search strategy

- Critically appraise and evaluate their own findings and those of others

- Know when to stop

Finding and Reading Resources Quickly

Most students struggle to find time to do everything. Researching an academic paper could be the kind of time consuming process that pushes them over the edge. Professors have high standards for the kinds of resources they want students to use and they expect students to cite information and use information in the right context. This chapter covers two important, but sometimes time consuming, steps in the research process: evaluation and analysis. Evaluating and analyzing resources matter when you need information to make important decisions or evidence based conclusions. These skills help you judge the reliability of resources and put those resources into action. While these skills are emphasized in academic research, they are equally useful to students making important personal decisions, like Emilio.

There are shortcuts to evaluation and analysis, which can save you time and effort. One big time saver is to use the academic library. The resources you find in databases and on shelves have been placed there by a librarian, so these resources have already been evaluated to a certain extent. Using academic resources can also save time when you starting reading and analyzing the text. Traditional academic publishing required standard formatting that has carried through to the digital age. You can use this formatting to your advantage.

This chapter will explain the concepts behind evaluating and analyzing resources. It will also outline processes and guiding questions you can use to do evaluation or analysis effectively.

Distinguishing Between Information Resources

Information is published in a variety of formats, each with its own special considerations when it comes to evaluation. Consider the following formats.

Social Media

Social media is a quickly rising star in the landscape of information gathering. Facebook updates, tweets, wikis, and blogs have made information creators of us all. These platforms have a strong influence on the way we gather and disseminate information. Social media is often the first place we learn about current events or discover new items of interest. Anyone can create or contribute to social media, and there are no gatekeepers to fact check for accuracy or censor slanderous or hateful speech. So do people really use social media for research? Currently, the main use for social media like tweets and Facebook posts is as primary source accounts of the human experience around historic events or social phenomena.  You might look for the social media posts of the politically powerful, intellectually important or social influential to gain their insights. Eyewitness accounts and reactions may also be important sources of information for context.

News Articles

These days, social media platforms are the first place to get information about a big news story. News media often post to social media as they learn new facts and insights. Longer form news articles and reports are generated quickly as the story progresses. News articles are written by journalists who report on an event they have witnessed firsthand, or after they make contact with those more directly involved. Journalists focus on information that is of immediate interest to the public and they write so that a general audience can understand the content. These articles go through a fact checking process, but when a story is big and the goal is to inform readers of urgent or timely information, inaccuracies may occur. In research, news articles are often best treated as primary sources, especially if they were published immediately after a current event.

Magazine Articles

While news articles and social media tend to concentrate on what happened, how it happened, who it happened to, and where it happened, magazine articles tend to explore why something happened, usually with the benefit of a little hindsight. Writers of magazine articles also fall into the journalist category and rely heavily on investigation and interviews for research. Fact-checking in magazine articles tends to be more accurate because magazines publish less frequently than news media have more time to get the facts right. Depending on the focus of the magazine, articles may cover current events or just items of general interest to the intended audience. The language may be more emotional or dramatic than the factual tone of news articles, but the articles are written at a similar reading level so as to appeal to the widest audience possible. A magazine article is considered a popular resource rather than a scholarly one, which gives it less weight in academic research.  However, magazines can be a more accessible resource to explore why something happened.

Scholarly Articles

Scholarly articles are written by and for experts in an academic field of study.  They typically describe original research conducted to provide new insight to an academic field of study. You may have heard the term “peer review” in relation to scholarly articles. Peer reviewed articles undergo a review process carried out by professional researchers, academics and industry experts. This group checks the accuracy of the information presented in a scholarly article and the validity of the research methods used to conduct the research behind the findings. This peer review process adds a level of credibility to scholarly articles that you would not find in a magazine or news article. Scholarly articles tend to be long and feature specialized language that is meant for an expert audience. They provide the framework for researchers and scholars to build new original research projects. Scholarly articles carry a lot of weight in academic research and professors often require their use in undergraduate assignments.

Books

Books have been a staple of academic research since Gutenberg invented the printing press. A research topic can be covered more deeply in a book than most other information sources. Also, the conventional wisdom for books is that anyone can write one, but only the best ones get published. This is becoming less true as books are published in a wider variety of formats, which is something to be aware of when using a book for research purposes. Most academic books come out of traditional publishers with editorial review still in place. Research in the humanities, which include academic disciplines such as literature and history, is primarily published in this format.

Evaluating Information Resources

CAPPS: Currency. Author. Publisher. Point of View. Sources.

When choosing a resource for your research, what criteria do you usually use? Gauging whether the resource relates to your topic probably one. How high up it appears in your search results may be another. Beyond that, you may base your decision on how easy a resource is to access. These are all important criteria, to varying degrees, however they may not be the best criteria when you are conducting academic research. Professional researchers and academics have criteria they use to evaluate resources as they conduct research. These criteria help them determine if a resource is worth incorporating into their project or not.

When you evaluate a source of information, you are judging it. In academic research the goal of evaluation is to make sure you use resources that are reliable, authoritative, truthful and appropriate for academic research. The following criteria outline different aspects of a resource that you should judge. Evaluation starts with the resource, but usually requires more investigation into how the resource was researched, authored, produced and disseminated.

Currency

Time has an interesting relationship with information. Currently published information is typically what we seek when conducting academic research. However, resources with older publication dates are sometimes more accurate, written by someone with more authority or created in a different context that is more relevant to our research topic. The following list of questions should be considered when you evaluate the currency of a resource you are using for academic research:

- When was this resource published or last updated?

- When was the research in this resource conducted?

- How does the date of publication influence the accuracy of the information presented?

- Does your research topic demand current information or is older information useful?

- How often is research updated in this academic discipline?

Author

The author of a resource is one of the most important criteria to evaluate when conducting academic research. The best sources of information are written by authors with expertise, which can be gained in their career, their education or through their hard work on an issue. When you select resources written by authors with high academic credentials and demonstrated expertise, your academic research project gains more authority and reliability. That does not mean journalists, activists, politicians, celebrities, religious figures or everyday people should be avoided. Resources produced by these authors should evaluated using the same questions and framework as academic authors. The following list of questions should be considered when you evaluate the author of a resource you are using for academic research:

- Has the author written other works with similar content?

- What are the author’s credentials?

- Does the author have an advanced degree in the topic they are writing about?

- Do they teach at a college or university?

- Are they a professional researcher at a university, government agency or private company?

- Are they a journalist with a long career or subject expertise for their publication?

- Do you see a bias or a particular point of view in this author’s affiliations?

- Are they a member of a “think tank” such as the Kato Institute or the Brookings Institute?

- Are they a “talking head” or someone recognized as a media personality?

- Are they associated with an activist organization that is concerned about the issues they write about?

Publisher or Publication

A publisher or publication has a great deal of influence on the resources they publish. For researchers evaluating a resource, publisher and publication websites are important places to learn about the audience, mission and editorial policies that shaped the resource. Many publishers or publications are serving a well defined audience that has certain expectations of the content.  In cases where author information is scarce, publishers and publications can lend credibility to a resource or provide insight into why a resource was produced. The following list of questions should be considered when you evaluate the publisher of a resource you are using for academic research:

- Does the publisher or publication have a reputation for publishing quality information?

- Does the publisher or publication have a bias or a particular point of view?

- Does the publisher or publication have a clearly articulated editorial policy?

- Does the publisher or publication have a mission or values statement?

- Does the publisher or publication try to reach a particular audience?

- Is the publisher a university press, large commercial publisher, small publisher, or alternative press publisher?

- If the publication is a scholarly journal, do you see a mission statement that supports original scholarship or research?  Do you see a peer review policy and editorial board full of experts in the field?

Point of View or Bias

Neutrality is a difficult state for humans to achieve, most resources express a point of view or exhibit bias. It is in the nature of publishing to reach a particular audience and produce something they will buy. Understanding the point of view or bias of an author, publisher or publication can help you understand the purpose or intention of the resource. You can use the point of view or bias in resources to your advantage, especially when you produce argumentative research papers. When you need to be more objective or neutral for a research project, you should seek out resources that express different points of view and come from different kinds of authors and publishers. Acknowledging the points of view or bias in your sources will help you understand your own points of view or bias. The following list of questions should be considered when you evaluate the points of view or bias of a resource you are using for academic research:

- Is the resource produced by scholars, activists, journalists, politicians, talking heads, the government or a private business?

- What is the purpose of the resource? Is the purpose to inform, entertain, teach, activate or influence?

- Is the author giving a factual report, presenting a well-researched scholarly opinion, or relaying a personal opinion?

- Who is the intended audience: the public, the politically active, students, academics or researchers?

- Does the author offer several points of view or are they focused on one view?

- Can you identify objective writing (both sides of the argument) or a subjective bias (expressing one’s own point of view)?

- Is the writing style of the author clear and understandable?

- Does the author legitimately need to use complex language because of the subject matter, or do they use complex technical language to possibly confuse the reader?

Sources

Most published resources are produced from other sources of information. You can find an author’s sources in the citations, bibliography, works cited page, footnotes, endnotes or in-text references of a resource. These sources of information show you how the author conducted their research.  Scholars often dive deep into scholarly books and journal publications or conduct original research to reach their conclusions.  Journalists conduct interviews, comb through government information, seek out eyewitness accounts and talk to experts in the field. Authors disclose their sources of information to assure their audience of their credibility and accuracy. A resource without sources should not be trusted. The following list of questions should be considered when you evaluate the sources of a resource you are using for academic research:

- Can you determine where the author gathered information?

- Does this resource have citations, bibliographies, works cited pages, footnotes, or in-text references to outside sources

- Is the information from original scholarly research including case studies, experiments and observations?

- Are there helpful charts, graphs, or pictures provided? What do these graphics represent?

- Is the information from journalistic investigation including interviews, government reports, think tank reports or eyewitness accounts?

- Are the sources outdated or possibly incorrect because of their age?

- Can you verify the accuracy and trustworthiness of the sources?

- Has the author gathered a comprehensive assortment of sources to support their assertions and conclusions?

Analyzing Information Sources

3E: Explore. Examine. Explain.

Analysis typically happens after evaluation, but can be an interchangeable process. Analysis is about understanding the content of a resource and relating it to your research focus. It requires close examination of the resources in question, so you can pinpoint the most relevant information and possibly narrow down the number of resources you use for a research project. The ultimate goal is to identify resources that answer your research questions and give you evidence to work with. 3E is a framework you can use to identify relevant content in your sources of information.

Explore: Analyzing Information Resources Quickly

Many academic sources of information are created with standard formatting guidelines that make it easier for users to browse and understand quickly. When you begin analyzing your resource, pay close attention to the following features of a book or article. Quickly scanning these parts of the resource can help you determine if the resource is worth pursuing further.

Introductions, Forwards, Prefaces, Abstracts

The purpose of introductions, forwards, prefaces and abstracts is to introduce the reader to the larger work. They hint at what the author is trying to accomplish with their book or article. Abstracts in particular will detail research methods used and ultimate conclusions in a scholarly article. Introductory sections can include information on why the topic was chosen, the author’s interest in the topic, why the topic is important, or the lens through which the topic will be explored. Knowing this information before diving in to the article or book will help you understand the author’s approach to the topic and how it might relate to the approach you are taking in your own research. These sections might also help you evaluate the author.

Table of Contents

Most of the time, if your source is a book or an entire website, it will be divided into sections that each cover a particular aspect of the overall topic. It may be necessary to read through all of these sections in order to get a “big picture” understanding of the information being discussed or it may be better to concentrate on the areas that relate most closely to your own research. Looking over the table of contents or menu will help you decide if you need the whole source or only pieces of it.

Indexes

Academic books often have an index or two.  This is typically a list of topical terms with pages numbers to different parts of the book. These topics can help you pinpoint pages or even paragraphs about your research interest.

References, Bibliographies, Works Cited, Footnotes and Endnotes

If the resource you are using is research-based, it should list out the sources of information. Sources of information can be found within the work, these are typically footnotes, endnotes, in text citations or in text references. Academic books and scholarly journal articles usually have bibliographies or works cited pages at the end of the work, where all the sources of information used in the work can be found. This large list of sources can give you a big picture view of the research the author engaged in. Some academic books list out the sources in bibliographies or works cited pages at the end of each chapter. Newspaper and magazine articles typically mention their sources of information in the narrative of their work. That makes it a little more difficult to track down exact reports, studies or research referenced. If the newspaper or magazine article is web based, hyperlinking is a newer approach to creating in text references for the readers to look into. If you really like what an author has to say in their book or article, the references can lead you to other relevant articles, books, reports or people to look into. This is called mining the bibliography.

Examine: Analyzing Information Resources Closely

Once you have identified relevant articles, books, websites and sections of books, you need to do a more in depth analysis of your resources. Analysis can help you find answers to your research questions, solutions to your problems and logical arguments to organize your thoughts. This examination of specific resources is the most time consuming part of your research process because it requires careful reading of your resources. Often this examination is done while you are developing your final research project.  Keep in mind that the overall goal of analysis is not just to present a collection of gathered evidence.  The goal is to strategically gather evidence that will answer your research question. To do this effectively, you need to take time to read and examine resources.

One rhetorical framework that might help you be strategic comes from Aristotle, he gave names to three modes of persuasion: Ethos, Pathos and Logos. According to Aristotle, using these three modes of persuasion helps you develop a balanced set of arguments that can reach the hearts and minds of your audience. Below are definitions of these types of arguments and examples of evidence that might help you make this kind of persuasive argument.

Ethos:

The use of authority, expertise and credibility to persuade your audience.

- Look for experts in the field, this expertise may be attained with degrees, experience or positions of power.

- Quote experts on a particular topic, especially if they say something insightful or impactful.

- Use information, theories or frameworks created by an expert.

- Adopt the language of experts, use precise terminology.

Pathos:

Appeals to the emotions of your audience: pity, anger, fear and hope.

- Look for real world examples to demonstrate problems or solutions in action.

- Use vivid details and images to engage the reader’s emotions and imagination.

- Appeal to the values and beliefs of the reader to take action.

- Adopt the language of pity, anger, fear and hope when you need to make this kind of argument.

Logos:

Uses data, statistics, and all types of reasoning to persuade your audience.

- Look for the arguments other experts use to persuade.

- Find the context of your problem and solution: historical, social, biological, epidemiological, psychological, etc.

- Outline your arguments in different orders to see what makes logical sense or makes the most impact.

- Gather data, statistics, case studies, reports and other original research to demonstrate your points.

Another helpful way to think about logical arguments comes from the sciences. Inductive and Deductive reasoning are logical ways of thinking about cause and effect or hypothesis and evidence. Outlined below are the processes of logical reasoning and how they relate to evidence:

Deductive Reasoning:

- Starts with a broad generalization and then applies it to a specific case to affirm or disprove the generalization

- Begins with a generalization or theory

- Develops a hypothesis or solution to test or examine

- Designs and runs the experiment, develops logical statements or proofs, examines the evidence for a solution

- Proves or disproves the hypothesis with a logical conclusion from the experiment, proof or examination

Deductive reasoning is used in the Scientific Method. It is also plays an important role in philosophical logic, syllogisms are pairs of logical statements that can be used to test theories. When testing a generalization or theory, you typically need to use methods from an academic discipline like the Scientific Method or Syllogisms. The goal of this test or experiment is to reproduce the same result over and over again to prove or disprove a hypothesis. When you do informational research, you are examining possibilities or examining evidence. The nature of information makes it difficult to definitely prove or disprove a hypothesis or solution, but you can use this approach to create logical arguments explaining a theory.

Inductive Reasoning:

- Makes broad generalizations from a representative case, specific observations, set of facts or evidence

- Starts with a representative case, specific observations, set of facts or evidence

- Looks for patterns in the observations or infers an explanation for the evidence

- Ends by proposing a theory

Inductive reasoning is the opposite of deductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning should be based on a sufficient amount of reliable evidence. The representative case, specific observations, set of facts or evidence must fairly represent the larger situation or context. When conducting informational research, inductive reasoning is often used when we encounter new evidence. It can be an important process for helping us relate the little pieces to a larger whole.

There are many more ways to think about evidence and arguments. Asking professors or other persuasive people can give you more ideas. Not all of the evidence you gather will be equally relevant and good.  You want stories that reveal the human dimension of your topic, expert voices to lend authority and research findings to demonstrate effective solutions. Focus on finding the best possible supporting evidence that will illustrate your research focus and help to support any argument you are hoping to make. Throughout your examination of resources, keep your research question in mind. The best evidence will always directly address your research question.

Explain:  Interpret and Make the Argument Your Own

Once your resources have been critically examined, you need explain what you have learned or concluded. There are many formats for presenting research findings: written papers, visual presentations, literature reviews, research projects, oral presentations, creative pieces, art works and many more. Emilio’s nutrition and workout plan will look different from a research paper on optimal nutrition and workout findings for male athletes. Understanding the final product of your research helps structure the research findings.

Most academic research papers or presentations require a minimum of three arguments. Multiple arguments strengthen your position because an adversary has to disprove each argument to win the debate. Multiple arguments that work together can help reinforce your ultimate conclusion. Emilio, for example, probably has arguments for “high protein diets” and “low calorie diets” that he has to make decisions about. It may be the case, that these diets are not mutually exclusive and all arguments should inform the nutrition plan. It may also be the case, that the evidence for one diet plan is stronger or that more experts agree on one particular approach to nutrition. Emilio’s understanding of his research needs should help him make decisions about which arguments to seek out and ultimately adopt. If he is evaluating his resources critically and analyzing them closely, decisions about which argument to follow or use get easier.

Critical thinkers accept that information resources are not created equally. When they bring information from various resources together, they make decisions about what gets in and what gets left out. Critical thinkers make connections between resources and produce a well informed final understanding.

Conclusion

Emilio has a clear goal for his research and a good understanding of the information environment he lives in. He is willing to accept that information from his personal social networks should be verified by academic experts. Emilio is capable of developing an excellent nutrition and workout plan. However, a lot depends on his willingness to engage in evaluating and analyzing his resources.

Chapter 6 Manage

6

Manage

Now that you have gone through the processes involved to find and evaluate information, the next step is to start working with it. This is where the Manage pillar comes in: it focuses on the need to organize information professionally and ethically.

Individuals understand:

- Their responsibility to be honest in all aspects of information handling and dissemination (e.g. copyright, plagiarism, and intellectual property issues)

- The need to adopt appropriate data-handling methods

- The role they play in helping others in information seeking and management

- The need to keep systematic records

- The importance of storing and sharing information and data ethically

- The role of professionals, such as data managers and librarians, who can advise, assist, and support with all aspects of information management.

They are able to

- Use bibliographical software if appropriate to manage information

- Cite printed and electronic sources using suitable referencing styles

- Create appropriately formatted bibliographies

- Demonstrate awareness of issues relating to the rights of others including ethics, data protection, copyright, plagiarism, and any other intellectual property issues

- Meet standards of conduct for academic integrity

- Use appropriate data management software and techniques to manage data

It is wonderful to have access to information. It empowers us humans with data and knowledge that leads us throughout our busy days and helps us organize our leisure time more efficiently. GPS devices and mobile phones help us get to unfamiliar destinations. We can find places to eat, to stay, and to get entertainment. All of this information is at our fingertips due to modern technology. We all take advantage of this technology to some degree and use this information to our advantage.

But there is another type of information—not just the kind that provides directions. We seek such information when we are ill and need to look up medical advice. We also seek information when in school—very few subjects require only the use of a textbook. We need to search for information and then use it in our intellectual work, because every paper or project produced in college is a product of someone’s creativity.

So how should we handle this product of creativity (a.k.a information)? Let’s think about a simple example: apple picking in the fall. It is a popular thing to do, especially here in the Northeast where most of the authors of this textbook live. People come to the farm, get bags or baskets, gather apples, and then line up to weigh them and pay. The farmers’ hard work is being rewarded.

Now imagine a different situation. You worked hard and wrote a very good paper and your roommate just copied a couple of paragraphs and inserted them into her own paper because the topics were related. Was this fair? How were you rewarded for your hard work? Nobody is saying that your roommate should have paid you, as you would pay the farmer for apples. But she should not use your intellectual capital without attribution to you! What she did was an act of plagiarism—you will read more about it soon!

You might publish an article in your college newsletter. This article is your intellectual personal property and you hold the copyright, which means that no one has the right to reproduce all or any part of it (i.e. copy it) without your permission. If your roommate decides to use some information from your article in her paper, she should provide a citation (the information that will help the reader identify and find your article should they decide to do so). If she is using direct quotes from your article, again, she would need to put double quotes around your words and provide information about the author (you, in this instance) to avoid plagiarism. Keep reading to find useful information about avoiding plagiarism.

Copyright and plagiarism are just two aspects of intellectual property that you need to deal with. You have to respect copyright, i.e. the rights of the author and avoid plagiarism. However, there are more aspects to it. Have you heard of patents? If you are planning a career in science and technology-related fields then you also have to learn more about patents. Patents deal with creators’ rights to their invention of new machinery or processes. Plants and design can also be patented. You can find useful information at the United States Patent and Trademarks Office (USPTO) http://www.uspto.gov/patents/law/. Trademarks and trade secrets are other aspects of intellectual property that you may have to deal with.

In addition to being aware of plagiarism, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets, you need to be mindful of open access issues, which relate to valuable research data and academic publications posted online for everybody to read. However, you cannot always just use the data from open access sources. You often need to ask the author for permission. Many open access publications use Creative Commons licensing. You can read more about open access in the Science Literacy chapter.

There is a lot to learn about using information legally and ethically, but this knowledge will empower you in your academic work and ultimately allow you to succeed. The following examples and tips will get you off to a good start.

Unintentional Plagiarism

Have you ever thought about why teachers and professors seem to spend way too much time urging everyone to be sure to cite all of their sources properly? You’ve heard it all before: footnote this, endnote that, put this in the bibliography, capitalize this word, where are the italics, the commas, periods, hanging indents, yada yada yada! It’s enough to make you give up and just wing it. But hold on a second while you gather your thoughts. Why do your professors always spend so much time urging you to do something that seems to have little practical purpose?

Scenario

Faiza is working on her 10-page research paper for her Women’s Studies class about headscarf bans in European countries. From what she has read, the bans are justified as important to maintain secular spaces. However, she cannot imagine any government telling her how to dress in public. More importantly, she feels that headscarf bans ignore hijab and the deeper values of modesty and respect expressed by faithful Muslim women. Faiza wants to explore how headscarf bans infringe on religious freedom and women’s rights.

Time is tight for Faiza–it’s 3:30 a.m. and her paper is due at 9:00 a.m.  She finished the last sentence at 5:15 am, did a spellcheck and voila! Done! Groggy yet awake she went to class, turned in the paper and waited for her grade. She received an email from her professor that read, “There are some major issues with your research paper that I need to discuss with you. Please see me.” Uh oh. What could it be?

When she nervously went to see him, Professor Muntz told Faiza that she hadn’t cited any of her sources, and because she included a lot of direct quotes in her paper, she was guilty of plagiarism. She received an F on her paper and may be referred to the school administration for academic dishonesty.

Was she really guilty of something that bad? In fact, yes she was. In this chapter we will discuss the importance of managing your information sources and some tips on how to easily and effectively avoid Faiza’s pitfall.

Real World Cases

Students often feel that they are being singled out in regard to plagiarism and academic dishonesty. But that is far from the case. There are numerous examples of scholars and other professionals who have been caught plagiarizing. One such person is Doris Kearns Goodwin, a famous historian who wrote the noted Team of Rivals: the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (2006). She included material in an earlier book, The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys (1987), from three other sources without citing it, according to an article written by Michael Nelson.1

Although she has since published other works, her reputation has been tarnished, and people may not take her work as seriously because of this. Unfortunately, as Nelson points out in his article, she is not the only well-known historian caught plagiarizing.

Another example, with a dramatic outcome, is that of Eugene Tobin. He was the president of Hamilton College in New York State, when it was discovered that he had included plagiarized material in speeches he had given over the course of almost a decade. He resigned from his position as the head of this prestigious institution, admitting his guilt.2 Other college presidents and administrators have also been caught violating academic trust: if you try a search using the terms plagiarism and college president, you may be dismayed at the number of results.

Like some of the historians Nelson cites in his article, many students fall into a trap when they do research because they fail to mention where they found all of their information. Thousands of students in schools, colleges, and universities are guilty of committing plagiarism, but often they don’t know they are plagiarizing.

Let’s look at plagiarism and how to avoid it, and then continue on to some other intellectual property issues you may need to deal with.

What is Plagiarism?

In short, plagiarism is when you use words, thoughts, or ideas that belong to someone else without giving them credit. In the classroom (and in the world of publishing), documenting your information sources is the only way others can tell how thorough and careful you’ve been in researching your topic. If you don’t tell readers where your information came from, they may think (and many do) that you either made up the information or “stole” it . Failing to cite your sources is plagiarism.

By managing the sources in your papers, you encourage others to do the same and you can be a go-to expert for your friends and classmates when they need help with how to find out how to cite sources properly. The information and advice you impart may help them avoid serious difficulties. Some students truly don’t know that they are doing something wrong when they paraphrase information without citing the information source. They might feel that paraphrasing the words of someone who is clearly an expert on the topic is the best way to write an accurate paper. And because they aren’t quoting it directly, it doesn’t need quote marks or attribution, does it? While the penalties they receive might (and this is a big “might”) be less severe than someone who buys a paper online or copies and pastes big sections of material into their work, the penalties could still be substantial. Raising your friends’ awareness so they won’t face this situation would be a kind thing to do.

Keeping Track of Your Sources

Try this the next time you do research. If you find some great articles on your topic, collect the following information about each as soon as you realize they will be helpful resources:

- Author name(s)

- Title of the article

- Name of the journal

- The volume number

- The issue number

- The date of the issue

- The name of the database where you found the article

Or, if you found a book, note the following once you think it might contain useful information:

- Author name(s)

- Title of book

- Place of publication

- Publisher’s name

- Year of publication

Or, if you found a website you want to use, collect the following details before you leave the site:

- Author name(s)

- Title of article or webpage

- Title of overall website

- The date of the webpage (if any)

- The URL (or web address)

You might be able to get some of this information with a simple screenshot, but be sure to fill in any missing elements.

This information is often referred to as bibliographic information or metadata. It consists of essential information that identifies the information resource used to inform a research project.

You may not use every single item that you found when you gathered your sources, but having a list of all of the sources you considered will help you keep track of everything you use for your paper.

As you read each source, write down any of the authors’ ideas, quotes, or thoughts you want to use and be sure to write down page numbers, if the source provides them. When you put your paper together, you will then have all the information you need to properly cite any quote, idea, or thought that came from each source.

Reference Management Software

Many researchers take the time to gather all of this information before they start writing. However, when they are ready to compile their footnotes or bibliography they can’t find their preliminary notes. It may be the case that some notes are in one notebook, other notes are in a file in their computer and still others are missing entirely. Fortunately, software has been developed that helps researchers manage their source material. You may have heard of some of these reference management products. Endnote, Refworks, Mendelay, and Zotero, among others, all help manage the information gathering and retrieval process.

In addition to providing one central location for all of your references, these reference managers can

- import bibliographic information directly from a library catalog database,

- provide additional space for personal notations,

- create a bibliography or list of references in a variety of citation styles such as APA, MLA, Chicago, and more.

Some academic libraries provide access to Endnote or Refworks. If your library does not, Zotero is available free for use with the Firefox browser and Mendelay is also available at no charge from www.mendelay.com.

When to Cite

Now that you have gathered all of your information resources, you need to be mindful about how you used them in your research project. There are some very firm rules about what constitutes plagiarism:

- If you copy a sentence or paragraph verbatim (exactly) from a book, article, website, blog posting, or anywhere online or in print, you must provide information on the author and the publication in which the sentence or paragraph appears. This is known as “citing a source.”

- If you use some of the exact phrases in a sentence or paragraph, even if you are not copying the whole sentence or paragraph, you must cite your source.

- If you use original information that you have obtained from an interview or conversation with someone, you must cite your source.

- If you do not use the exact sentence or phrase but paraphrase it, or use the ideas inherent in the exact sentence or phrase, you must cite your source.

- If you reprint images, maps, diagrams, charts, or tables, you must cite your source.

- If you embed video files or audio files into your work, you must cite your source.

Exercise: Plagiarism Quiz

The following paragraph is from an article titled, “The Economist Explains Saudi Arabia’s Dress Code” in the January 28, 2015 issue of The Economist  (https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2015/01/28/saudi-arabias-dress-code-for-women) .

But a survey in January 2014 found that conservative attitudes remain pervasive among the population: despite half the sample saying women should be free to choose what to wear, two-thirds reckoned women should wear the niqab and another 11% the burqa—stricter forms of dress than the one currently enforced.

Which of the following sentences does not plagiarize?

a. According to a survey, about three quarters of those polled felt that Muslim women should have to wear some sort of headscarf.

b. Wearing hijabs has become more prevalent nationwide. Almost half of all Muslim women in the U.S. wear headscarves.

c. According to the Issues & Controversies, about 43% of Muslim women in the United States wear headscarves (Issues & Controversies, 71).

d. None of the sentences contain plagiarism.

Citation Styles

Citing sources and avoiding plagiarism should always be an author’s intent, but it is easy to get confused about how to cite. Citation styles were introduced in the Gather chapter, but it is worth repeating that there are many different citation styles. The three styles that are used most often are APA (American Psychology Association), MLA (Modern Language Association), and Chicago. There are no hard and fast rules about when to use each style. Professors often have a preference for one style over another, so make sure that you check with your instructor about which style they prefer.

Here are examples of the same book cited in three different citation styles.  The book is titled:  The Poverty Industry:  The Exploitation of America’s Most Vulnerable Citizens. Notice in the examples below that the same information is included in each citation, but the placement of information varies, as does the use of punctuation and capitalization.  Citation styles are very specific, so, if you are creating your own citations, it’s a good idea to get familiar with the specific rules of each style.  Remember that citations for different formats (books, magazine articles, films, etc.) will also require different information. Generally, citations include:

- The name of the author or creator of the work

- The title of the specific work

- Other contributors (if applicable)

- Version and number (if applicable)

- The name of the publisher/sponsoring organization/website

- The date of the publication

- Date of access (for online resources)

Here’s a citation for the book in the MLA Citation Style:

Hatcher, Daniel L.. The Poverty Industry: The Exploitation of America’s Most Vulnerable Citizens. New York; London: New York University Press, 2016.

Here’s a citation for the book using the APA Citation Style:

Hatcher, D. L. (2016). The poverty industry: The exploitation of America’s most vulnerable citizens. New York; London: New York University Press.

And here’s a citation for the book using the Chicago Style:

Hatcher, Daniel L.. The Poverty Industry: The Exploitation of America’s Most Vulnerable Citizens. New York; London: New York University Press, 2016.

Creating properly formatted citations has become easier in recent years with the introduction of reference management software and citation generators. A citation generator is software that will help to correctly format your citations. Some popular citation generators are Easybib and RefWorks both are available for a fee. If you are a college student, check with your school library, they often have subscriptions to certain citation generators that allow students free access (mostly free–tuition helps pay for the subscriptions).  There are also free citation generators available online. You can search the web to retrieve them. These generators are handy to use but they often contain errors so it is important to check the results for accuracy. The following resources are useful tools for all writers.

- Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th edition for APA citations

- MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers

- The Chicago Manual of Style

You should be able to locate the three manuals in the reference section of your library, and here’s a

link to a wealth of help for citing your work: Minneapolis Community & Technical College Library’s Citation Guide

Where to Go For Help

Even if you are a very organized person and have diligently collected bibliographic information on all of the information resources that you consulted during the research process, you may misplace essential information on a resource. You may think that since you can’t find this information, you will be unable to use it. But there is another option—consult a librarian. Librarians have comprehensive knowledge about how information is organized and retrieved. They also have a wealth of information resources at their fingertips. Even if you can’t retrace your steps to find the missing data, it is likely that a librarian will be able to help you find the bibliographic information you need. Librarians can also help you determine when and how to cite your work. They may even be able to help you navigate citation generators and reference managers. Librarians at your library are available to help you in person, by telephone, and via email and chat. Consult your library’s website for contact information.

Ethical Issues and Intellectual Property

The Manage pillar includes the practice of professional and ethical use of information. Ethical treatment of information assumes that you are treating an author’s rights appropriately and avoiding an act of academic dishonesty such as plagiarism. As a creator of information yourself, you should understand the importance of respecting other authors’ rights and following the general rules set forth in legal documents (see the Useful Links about Intellectual Property section for citations to some of these documents).

There are many examples of intellectual property issues that you can find in the media. For example, in June 2013 as the authors were working on this textbook, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned the law that had previously allowed gene patenting. It might sound strange, but up until now if you were a scientist who studied the human genome and happened to discover a new gene, under the earlier law, you could patent it, thus assuring that whenever a person needed to have a medical test involving the gene they would have to pay you as a patent holder. These types of tests usually weren’t covered by insurance companies and were very expensive.

As an information creator, you want to be respectfully treated by others. That is why you should constantly strive to improve your ability to practice fair treatment of other authors’ works, including being cognizant of copyright, patents, and other issues associated with intellectual property.

Academic Integrity

You have already learned about plagiarism, often enemy number one when it comes to academic success involving research and writing. But there are other issues under the larger umbrella of academic dishonesty. First of all, every academic institution has a set of academic regulations that explain what is expected of students. Students are required to make themselves familiar with these rules.

Other examples of dishonesty that are mentioned in academic regulations are multiple submissions (one may not submit one project for two different classes), cheating on examinations, and forgery. Professors are dismayed when they have to talk to the students about these issues because, inherently, every teacher wants to believe that his or her students are honest. Unfortunately, plagiarism is so common that educators have begun using plagiarism detection software, such as Turnitin (see the Useful Links section). You obviously don’t want to be identified as committing plagiarism by this software.

It is imperative to understand that everybody has to be accountable for their own work and respectful of the work of others. Future scholarship depends on the accuracy and integrity of prior scholarship. That is why, when doing research one must use the information produced by other people responsibly, i.e. provide citations within the text and a list of references at the end of the paper with full citation information that will allow retrieval of the document. Remember what you have learned in this chapter about managing your sources and citation style. If you are diligent about applying this knowledge and careful about giving credit where credit is due, you should have no worries.

Bibliography

Association for Molecular Pathology et al. v. Myriad genetics, Inc. et al. 569 U.S. (2013), http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-398_1b7d.pdf

Consolidated Patent Laws, USC 35 (2013). http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/consolidated_laws.pdf

Isserman, Maurice. “Plagiarism: A lie of the mind,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, 49, no. 34 (2003): B12.

Nelson, Michael. “The good, the bad, and the phony: Six famous historians and their critics,” The Virginia Quarterly Review, 78, no. 3 (2002): 377-394.

Turnitin, 2013. http://turnitin.com/

United States Copyright Office, Copyright Law of the United States and the related laws contained in the Title 17 of the United States Code, Circular 92 (2016). https://www.copyright.gov/title17/

Endnotes

1 Nelson, 2002

2 Isserman, 2003

Chapter 7 Present

7

Present

Scenario

Hunter from the Identify chapter has done a lot of work since the last time we saw him. His research supports his thesis statement and he’s got something to say. Now he needs to figure out how to say it.

He writes a 10-page paper starting with his thesis statement, followed by some facts from his research, and then briefly concludes that he has proved his point. He hands it in to his teacher and he’s finished. Except that he starts to feel like he just did an awful lot of work for an audience of one person. Who else might be interested and how might he reach them? How can he communicate his message in ways other than a straightforward paper? How can he get the most out of his effort?

Presenting the Results of Your Research

In earlier chapters we discussed how to identify a research topic and how to focus in on specific questions that we hoped to answer. Then we discussed ways to search for, organize, and evaluate information that would help to answer those questions. Now it’s time to think about the best way (or ways) to present the information.

Individuals adept at the Present pillar can apply the knowledge they have gained. They can present the results of their research, synthesize new and old information and data to create new knowledge, and disseminate their work in a variety of ways.

They understand

- The difference between summarizing and synthesizing

- That different forms of writing/presentation style can be used to present information to different communities

- That data can be presented in different ways

- Their personal responsibility to store and share information and data

- Their personal responsibility to disseminate information & knowledge

- How their work will be evaluated

- The processes of publication

- The concept of attribution

- That individuals can take an active part in the creation of information through traditional publishing and digital technologies (e.g. blogs, wikis)

They are able to

- Use the information and data found to address the original question

- Summarize documents and reports verbally and in writing

- Incorporate new information into the context of existing knowledge

- Analyze and present data appropriately

- Synthesize and appraise new and complex information from different sources

- Communicate effectively using appropriate writing styles in a variety of formats

- Communicate effectively verbally

- Select appropriate publications and dissemination outlets in which to publish if appropriate

- Develop a personal profile in the community using appropriate personal networks and digital technologies (e.g. discussion lists, social networking sites, blogs, etc.)

Proficiencies in the Present pillar

Processing What You Find

In many or even most cases, during the process of finding a variety of information sources, you’ll begin to develop an answer to your research question. Even if you feel that you’ve already found the proof you need to support your thesis, it is still important to review the information and data you have to be sure you’re clear about what it is (and isn’t) telling you. Be careful not to let your own opinion lead you into a misinterpretation of your sources.

One useful way to consolidate the information you’ve found is to summarize what you think it says, and then find a definite source for each specific item in your summary. You can start by filling in the final box in the chart below, from the Identify chapter.

However, an expanded version of this same box can tell you a lot more about where the information is from, and will also prove useful when you need to cite a specific bit of information in your bibliography. In the left column of the following box, list what you have learned, bit by bit. In the right column, list where you found it. If it was found in more than one source, list them all and think about which one you find to be the most reliable or useful. Depending on where and how you present your findings, you may be called upon to defend your sources, so it pays to be prepared for this.

This exercise is just one way to process your information and may not be the best way for everyone. Summarizing in paragraph form is another way to accomplish the same task, with the added benefit that what you write in the summary can often become part of your final product. Just be careful that you aren’t using paraphrased material without properly citing the source it came from. Verbally summarizing your findings, and especially your arguments in favor of your conclusions, to a friend, classmate, or teacher is an excellent way to confirm your mastery of the topic. While the means of summarizing can vary, the key at this point is to make sure you understand what you’ve found and how it relates to your topic and research question.

Thesis Statements

In chapter 1, you were introduced to the idea of a thesis–a potential answer to your main research question.  The information you have gathered for your research topic should hopefully answer your research questions and you can now form a proper thesis statement. A good thesis statement not only introduces your reader to the topic, but also helps you to focus your argument or position.

Your thesis statement should be three to five sentences in length, but is made of 3 parts:

- First part:  Describe the main issue of your broader topic upon which you will focus

- Second part:  Make a statement, claim or argument (take a position on your topic)

- Third part:  Propose a solution or a call to action

Using Hunter’s research example from Chapter 1, let’s create a thesis statement to support his argument that  MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games)  are good for American Society:

MMORPGs have been demonized in American society as a waste of time and childish.   Online games are more sophisticated than critics acknowledge and online gamer communities provide supportive social networks. MMORPGS have been shown to increase creativity, enhance social connections and are a productive use of gamers’ time.  American society needs to re-examine their stance on MMORPGs.

Things to remember about thesis statements:

- A thesis statement is a tentative answer to your research question

- Thesis statements must make a claim or state an argument.

- The thesis should be debatable (must be something that people could reasonably have differing opinions about)

- The thesis statement should be narrow and specific

- Thesis statements are not statements of fact, nor are they simply statements of opinion.  They are a blend of both—opinion backed up the promise of supporting facts.

- The key difference between an opinion statement and thesis statement is that a thesis statement expresses to the reader that the claim being offered has been thoroughly explored and is defendable by evidence.

- It’s a good idea to think about what the other side of the argument is when you are constructing your thesis statement

Creating an Outline

Once you have come up with your thesis statement, you can further focus you thoughts by creating a research topic outline. Creating an outline allows us to organize all of the research we have conducted into a logical and informative structure.  Outlines can help you figure out how to connect all of the ideas found during your research, and whether or not you have enough evidence to support the main points you want to make.

Conventions of the Research Topic Outline:

1. Identify your Research Topic

2. Outline the Main Headings of your argument

3. Create Sub Headings as needed

4. Include relevant Evidence from you research portfolio analyses to strengthen your argument

Start your outline by brainstorming and listing all of the ideas you want to include in your research paper.  Next, start to organize all of those ideas by grouping related ideas together, arranging your ideas into main sections. Then express general ideas and subsections within each main section, try to get down to expressing specific ideas.  Finally, include specific examples from your research to support your main and/or subpoints.

Now that you’re confident in your knowledge of your topic, you can formally answer your original research question when you present what you’ve found. Did your original thesis/hypothesis turn out to be true? If so, say so! If not, why not? Be sure you’re able to state specifics that prove or disprove your projections. Was anything a surprise? Do any of your findings suggest future research possibilities?

One of the most satisfying parts of doing research is having something to add to a topic’s base of knowledge. Think about what you found in relation to your original research question and compare it to all of the sources you examined on your topic. Did you discover something new? If your research involved experiments, you may have new results or data sets that others can use. Even if you didn’t generate new data, maybe you saw new connections between existing sources that no one has written about before. Think about this as you begin to put together the presentation of your findings, you may have something to share!

Choosing How to Present

The way you finally present your research findings is largely dependent on your original goals. If you were researching for a class project, it’s likely that the teacher provided you with fairly specific requirements and it would obviously be a good idea to stick to them.

Even if you did initially do the research for a class project though, you may find yourself in a situation similar to Norm at the beginning of the chapter, wanting to share your work more widely. You’ve already done the work, so why not get all the benefit you can?

Some of the more common ways of presenting information are discussed below, but the descriptions of them are not exhaustive and remember that these are not nearly all of the options. In addition, you can often combine more than one method of presentation to highlight different elements of your findings or to reach multiple audiences.

Written

Writing is the most established way to share your research findings. Benefits of writing include the ability to proofread, edit, and rewrite to get your presentation exactly right. Done skillfully, writing can hold your audience’s attention and effectively deliver information. Done poorly, it can confuse or bore your audience to the point that they stop reading. To avoid this second possibility, if at all possible, have someone read your writing before you give it to the final audience. Take constructive criticism to heart, so that your voice is clearly heard.

Traditional Paper

One of the most common ways to present research findings, especially for students, is in a short paper written as a class assignment. The way this type of paper is formatted is determined by the teacher, and is fairly straightforward. The goal is usually to demonstrate to the teacher that you have understood the topic and can draw some conclusions from what you’ve learned.

Thesis/Dissertation

At higher levels of education, you may be called upon to write a thesis paper or even a dissertation. At this point, you are entering the realm of high level professional or scholarly expertise, and will be expected to produce original ideas and the necessary supporting research to contribute to your field. The type of writing in theses and dissertations varies depending on the subject area, but generally these manuscripts are longer and more detailed than a traditional class paper. They also use more discipline-specific language, and can take several years to complete.

Scholarly Journal Article

Articles published in scholarly journals undergo a peer-review process (see the Evaluate chapter) to ensure that they are reliable and significant additions to the literature on a topic. If you get to a point in your research where you feel you have a contribution that others could use, investigate the possibility of submitting an article for publication, especially if your research is relevant to your intended career. It can be difficult to determine which journal to submit your article to, so don’t hesitate to ask teachers, colleagues, or even the editor of the journal if your article’s content is appropriate.

Blog/Tweet/Other Social Media

A relatively new option for getting your information out to a wide audience is to use social media tools. If you have your own blog or website you can easily publish your findings for the entire world to see (getting people to actually look at it is another issue, with many possible solutions). You can also use Facebook, Twitter or other tools to let people know what you’re working on and to direct them to more detailed information that you’ve posted elsewhere online. While this may seem unusual, it is becoming more and more popular for researchers to share work online as it progresses, so that other interested parties can contribute and ask questions, making the final product more robust, whatever form it ends up taking.

Spoken

Presenting information verbally might seem easier than writing or terrifying, depending on your experience and personality. Ideally you will be thoroughly prepared and able to clearly explain your findings, while also being able to respond effectively to unanticipated questions. It takes practice and a deep knowledge of your topic to do this—even the best speakers get flustered once in a while. Don’t be afraid to say you don’t know the answer and always offer to follow up on a question.

Class Presentation/Speech

As with the class paper, a class presentation is one of the first experiences most students will have with verbally presenting their research. One great benefit of this type of presentation is that you will most likely receive detailed feedback on how well it was received and perhaps even get some suggestions on how to improve your delivery. Your fellow students will also be faced with the same task and can even provide this type of feedback before the actual presentation takes place.

Conference Presentation or Poster Session

As your expertise on a topic grows, you may want to reach a wider audience. You will also want to reach an audience that is interested in your topic. An excellent place to find this audience is at a professional conference in your field. Aside from the many other benefits of attending professional conferences, presenting at a conference will help you begin to make yourself known to other researchers in similar subject areas. Responding to audience questions will give you the chance to prove that you really know your material or, alternately, can point out gaps in your knowledge that may lead to new research opportunities. Poster sessions are a great way to get your feet wet, as your poster will be available for you to refer to and the atmosphere is not quite as overwhelming as standing in front of a full audience for a presentation.

Audiovisual

Visual images can have an immediate impact on how your audience reacts to and understands your presentation. Choose them wisely and use them at appropriate times! You can read more about how different visualizations of information affect the way that information is received in the Visual Literacy chapter. Below are just a few brief thoughts about how you might use visuals in your presentations.

Powerpoint/Prezi/Other Presentation Software

Powerpoint has been around long enough that most everyone knows it. For many purposes a slideshow that you speak over, or even a slideshow that is posted online for individual viewing, can succinctly get your point across. Newer presentation tools such as Prezi (prezi.com) use a similar underlying idea but enable you to create more dynamic presentations directly online. Keep in mind that in most cases, tools such as these are meant to accompany a speaker and to use them effectively takes forethought and practice.

Images

Images can be powerful tools to grab attention, condense information, and tell your story. Different types of images can be useful in different contexts. In an art class you may use reproductions of famous paintings or drawings, or images you’ve created on your own. In a business class, graphs and charts may be more appropriate. Just make sure the images you choose actually make your presentation more effective rather than distracting attention from your main point.

Song

Keeping your audience in mind, don’t be afraid to present your material in an unusual manner. If you can create a song (as one example), you may make your audience curious enough to stay around for more detailed information later!

Video

With the tools available now, it is possible to create a quality video product to present your information without extensive training or a lot of money. New online tools are constantly being introduced (and retired, unfortunately) which enable you to enter your content (words, images, video, etc.) and have it processed into a completed video in a short amount of time. Your library is also likely to have tools available for you to use to create video and audio projects, including not only the editing software, but often the video cameras, microphones, and hard drives you’ll need to create original content. Don’t hesitate to ask a librarian for both access and help using these resources. Many libraries also offer introductory courses on the software they provide to get you off to a running start.

Choosing a Presentation Format

The examples above give you an idea of the variety of presentation venues available, but its up to you to decide which is most appropriate at a given time. If you’re unsure, experiment.

Exercise: Present Your Information in Different Formats

Take what you’ve learned about your topic and express it as a written paragraph, a 140 character tweet, and a Prezi. Try to draw a picture that clearly explains your findings. Which of these seems most complete? Which seems most effective? Which seems most attention grabbing? Which was the hardest to do? Attempting this exercise might help you to make your decision about which format to use, although there are other things to consider first, particularly your intended audience.

Audience

Who you plan to present to affects how, when, and what you will present. If you’re presenting your findings in a paper that only your teacher will ever see, you will focus exclusively on what that teacher has asked for. When you’re presenting for a less well-defined audience however, you must imagine what they may already know (or not) about your topic, as well as what might interest them and what forms of presentation might be most appealing to them.

Exercise: Plan for Your Audience

How do the different audiences affect what you might or might not include in your presentation about your topic? How do they affect the ways you might choose to present the information?

Many times you will present to an audience composed of various groups or unknown groups (particularly if you’re posting the presentation online). If you’ve considered a number of different audiences and chosen the content and methods most likely to appeal to most of them, your chances of success will be higher than if you only include what is most interesting to you.

Your Role in Creating and Sharing Information

When you finally do publish the results of your research, there are some things to think about in terms of what happens next.

What will you do with the information now that you’re finished with it? If you’ve written a paper for a class there may be only one copy. Do you save it and the associated notes you’ve made in case you need them later or do you throw it away once you get the grade? It can be difficult to project what may be useful in the future.

If you’ve published more widely, there are likely to be more copies, either physical or digital. Who is responsible for maintaining those copies? In a more formal situation such as a scholarly journal, the article will be maintained as part of the archives of that journal. (However, there are some questions about online-only journals. What happens if the journal goes out of business? Some journals have contingency plans for this, but not all.) If you’ve given a speech, do you keep the notes? If you’ve published on a blog, are you archiving the blog, or will it disappear once you stop using it? Even if you decide to save absolutely everything, unless you have a plan for organizing it, you may not be able to find a specific item when you need it.

Another consideration about what happens after your work is shared is what the reaction to it might be. This depends on the audience, but if you’ve created something really interesting or important, you may find that there is follow-up to be done. You might just be responding to comments on a blog posting or you could find yourself presenting your findings at conferences and continuing to develop your research on the topic. There may be negative feedback as well, and this is where thinking ahead about how you can support each of your arguments is important. Online, of course, there may be everything from kudos to spam and you’ll have to decide how seriously to take all of that feedback. As time goes by, you may find that your work is being cited by other researchers, which is a wonderful validation of your efforts.

You are a Creator of Information

During the research process, at times it can feel as if you are just collecting what others have written or said, and that your presentation is just going to repeat what is already known on the topic. While this may be true for introductory-level papers, once you know a little more about your topic, you will be synthesizing what you’ve discovered, and drawing your own conclusions. Once you publish these conclusions you will have created new information.

Before the advent of online tools, publishing your new information was difficult and often expensive. It was hard to reach a large audience because of the physical limitations of producing and distributing paper copies of publications. Now anyone can publish anything and make it available to the entire Internet-connected world in a matter of seconds. This means that you have a great opportunity to share your ideas and to communicate with people around the world who are interested in similar topics. It also means that you have to carefully consider what you publish because anyone, even an unintended audience, can find what you’ve published.

In addition to being able to share information freely, you also have access to tools to create and edit audio and video materials that were prohibitively expensive to create or adapt not too long ago. You can now share more interactive and engaging material with a wider audience than ever before. This is a great opportunity and a great responsibility— use it wisely!

Wider Connections

When you begin to share your own work, you gain insight into the processes of producing and publishing information, which will help you the next time you need to find sources for a research project. Now that you know what it took for you to produce information in a given format, you know what other creators had to do to produce their work. This can help you decide which sources will be most reliable and valuable for your own research.

Presenting your information is usually considered the final step in the research process. You tell the audience what you’ve found out and you go home. However, as we’ve seen, sometimes in the process of presenting or preparing to present, you uncover new questions and need to Identify that new information need. Or you may discover that what you thought was a reliable source was not so reliable and you need to Evaluate a little more. The research process is not linear, but a continuous cycle with various entry and exit points that change depending on your goals, topic, and methods. Ideally, for those who enjoy it, it never ends!

Chapter 8 Visual Literacy

8

Visual Literacy

Scenario

Louis was recently hired as an office assistant for an advertising firm. His first project is to create a presentation to describe the firm’s services to potential clients. His boss specified that it should be as visual as possible and be designed for a large projector screen. If the firm likes the work, it will be adapted into both a website and a printed pamphlet. Louis has some experience with creating PowerPoint presentations for school and has used Pinterest and other image-related tools, so he figures this will be a piece of cake.

Introduction

This chapter is different from most of the others in this textbook, in that it does not focus on one particular aspect or pillar of information literacy. Instead, it looks at a specific area of information literacy: visual literacy. So, while each of the previous chapters looked closely at only one pillar, this chapter will look at each pillar as it relates to the field of visual literacy.

Visual literacy has never been more critical. The Association of College and Research Libraries states,

The importance of images and visual media in contemporary culture is changing what it means to be literate in the 21st century. Today’s society is highly visual, and visual imagery is no longer supplemental to other forms of information. New digital technologies have made it possible for almost anyone to create and share visual media. Yet the pervasiveness of images and visual media does not necessarily mean that individuals are able to critically view, use, and produce visual content. Individuals must develop these essential skills in order to engage capably in a visually-oriented society. Visual literacy empowers individuals to participate fully in a visual culture.1

Currently, most models of information literacy do not include visual literacy elements. Emerging models such as transliteracy and metaliteracy do incorporate aspects of visual literacy, but these models have not yet become mainstream information literacy approaches. Because of this gap, the authors of this textbook agreed on the need for a separate chapter dedicated to the subject.

A note on the lack of images in this chapter: You may find it surprising that the chapter about visual communication has very few pictures. This has to do with the high level of copyright restriction for publishing images; unlike text, one cannot quote a visual work and simply cite it without permission (more on this later). We requested consent to use several of the images referenced in this chapter, but at the time of publication, the permissions were not yet granted. The images we do use are within the public domain, and links and references have been provided for others so that you can view the images’ external sources.

Definition of Visual Literacy

Visual literacy is the ability to identify, gather, evaluate, manage, use, create, and share visual material in an effective, ethical, and self-aware manner. Over the years, individual disciplines have created widely varying definitions that emphasize only one particular aspect of visual literacy. This chapter aims to take the broadest possible view, using an inclusive definition that can be applied to any field.

Brief History of the Term

The history of visual communication goes back to the cave paintings 30,000 years ago; the description of it only 2,500 years. . . .Visual literacy is 2,500 years old (as a skill) and 30 years young (as a term). 2

The idea of visual literacy is not new. Using images to communicate precedes the use of text by many thousands of years. Discussions about the concept of visual language have been around for quite a while as well. Perhaps most famously, Sir Francis Bacon discussed visual literacy in the 1600s.3 Subsequent scholars in areas ranging from art history and appreciation to philosophy and psychology have continued to grapple with the concept. The field of photography has a long relationship with visual literacy. Henry Holmes Smith, an author and professor of photography at Indiana University in the 1950s, is credited with coining the term visual literacy.4 Smith described it as “a visual language, one that probably cannot be taught until it is codified. . . . I can hardly wait to read some general principles on picture reading….”5

Several years later, in 1969, a group of scholars and artists from a wide range of disciplines founded the International Visual Literacy Association, bringing the concept and the term into the mainstream. IVLA continues to be the standard bearer for visual literacy, publishing a journal and sponsoring an annual international conference.

Value of Visual Literacy

If students aren’t taught the language of sound and images, shouldn’t they be considered as illiterate as if they left college without being able to read or write? – George Lucas6

We live in an increasingly visual society. Since the creation of the computer desktop icon, there has been an exponential shift toward communicating with images. Whether for research, employment, or social interaction, visual literacy has never been more important. It is especially critical in the workplace, and will only become more so. Increased visual literacy also makes us smarter! Studies have shown that becoming more visually literate leads to greater overall intelligence and is correlated to greater performance in technical areas.7

Use of images has advantages for communication as well. One study found that humans process visual images several thousand times faster than text,8 while other research has shown that information conveyed with images is more intuitively understood and better recalled.9 Visual literacy is also unusual in its ability to span cultures and languages in a way that text does not.10 It is also remarkably conducive to metacognition. Literary theorist John Zuern states,

Visual materials engage us in a dialogue with those ideas out of which we gain an understanding based less on memorization and mastery than on critical, intellectually supple inquiry. Moreover, visualization can spark invaluable ‘ah-ha’ experiences that push learners’ understanding of concepts beyond an instrumental ‘application’ of ideas in a particular discipline . . . and open them to philosophical reflection on their own social, cultural, and political lives.11

A well-known example of this is the photograph, Flower Power, taken by Bernie Boston in 1967. This is the famous image of a Vietnam War protester placing a flower in the barrel of a rifle held by a soldier. For many, this photograph came to symbolize the national divide between those who were for and against the war, in ways that no amount of words could.12 Many feel that the increase of photojournalism during this era was a significant catalyst in changing public opinion and speeding the United States’ withdrawal from Vietnam.13

Visual Communication Challenges

Many think, as Louis first does, that we are all naturally skilled in visual literacy. But visual communication is in fact more difficult to learn and use than text. Part of this difficulty is related to the subtleties of visual communication. Whereas we know whether we can read a given word, it is easy to unwittingly misread an image. It is also much harder to copy or create images than letters.14 Using visual imagery to communicate a specific message is not simply a matter of a clear substitution of images for words, but is instead a complex process with no agreed-upon rules. Standards of image use and interpretation vary by discipline and there is no singular alphabet or grammar.15 So, becoming visually literate involves not only learning how to find and use images but also understanding the range of meanings they may have in different contexts.16

With this in mind, let’s check in to see how Louis is doing.

At first things went smoothly. Louis created a basic presentation and then looked online for pictures to add. He found many websites that had most of the images he was looking for and he was able to copy and paste from these sites into his presentation. But now he is having some trouble. For one thing, some of the images don’t look great when he zooms in, and he is worried about projecting them. Also, he would like to be able to change some of the images by adjusting brightness and colors and, for one, he wants to take out the background. Finally, he feels that the presentation is still pretty boring: there are a lot of facts and figures to share, and the slides are filled with lists and tables of data. He is sure there are tools to improve all of these issues, and probably places to look for examples, but he doesn’t know where to start.

Applying the Seven Pillars

Identify

This pillar focuses on understanding one’s information needs so that a research question or goal can be formulated. What does this look like when applied to visual literacy? Let’s start with Louis. He needs visual materials for a business presentation. This sounds simple, but there are many important details that he did not stop to consider. He needs to consider the audience: what is their culture? Is there a specific dialect of images—certain logos or symbols that have special meaning? Are there images to avoid because of their particular meaning either within the company or the broader industry? The intent is also important. In this case, the purpose is both to inform and persuade; each will influence which images are chosen and how they are used. There are also technical aspects: the presentation will be given in multiple formats, each with its own set of best practices and considerations. This includes ethical and legal aspects, which vary depending on the purpose and venue, and should especially be considered for any commercial use of images.

Based on these factors, Louis’ research goal seems to be: find images in a variety of formats and resolutions that he can legally use for both in-house and public marketing. In general, tools for this stage can include subject manuals and magazines, websites of peer organizations, previous publications created by the institution one is working for, as well as relevant physical spaces. For Louis, it would make sense to look at the company website and all other materials, any previous presentations used, the product itself, the company offices (including architecture and even dress codes), as well as competitors’ work.

Scope

This pillar centers on knowing your own knowledge and gaps, and being aware of what information is available. For visual literacy, this starts with your current ability to find and create images, and your awareness of what tools are available for these tasks. Finding and creating aren’t just digital skills, but can include looking through magazines and books, creating collages, taking photographs, drawing, and more. Knowledge of available resources includes knowing where to discover more material, a process greatly aided by knowing your own gaps in knowledge and experience. In Louis’ case, he knows that he does not have photo editing skills. This knowledge will help him direct and focus his search: he needs to either find images that don’t need adjusting or he has to find and learn how to use photo editing tools. The awareness that images can be altered is also a critical aspect of the scope of visual literacy. Besides knowledge of tools, it is critical to know what types of images exist, what their particular qualities are, and how these influence usability and accessibility. Specific examples include photographs, paintings, videos, cartoons, and icons, to name a few. Also, one should discover existing formats and their differences and advantages. There are numerous physical and digital formats each with distinct and important differences in resolution, size, adaptability, and accessibility.17

Many resources are available to assist with this stage of the process. There are countless physical and digital image repositories, including libraries, museums, galleries, and websites such as Picasa, Flickr, Pinterest, and many more. And, there are just as many tools for manipulating visual materials, including paint, scissors, scanners, software such as Photoshop, and several excellent programs that can be used online or downloaded for free. It is also possible to find classes offering help in using these tools, frequently offered by area schools, libraries, or community centers.

Exercise: Observing the Visual Landscape

Go to Google Images and study the results for searches using each of these terms:

professor

librarian

baby

Now, reflect upon what you found:

- What patterns did you notice?

- What assumptions underlie, or are promoted by, these images?

- How do you think Google Images finds the pictures?

Plan

This pillar involves choosing the best search tools and developing effective search strategies. Plan is closely related to the Gather pillar described next: you will find yourself going back and forth between these two pillars in the course of your research. In the gathering stage, as you enact the strategies you formulated in the planning stage, you will naturally find yourself revising your strategies and creating new plans. In this chapter, we will focus on the thinking components of Plan and the action elements of Gather. For Plan, concerns specific to visual literacy begin with knowing where to look for various types of visual materials. In addition to the previously mentioned sites, there are excellent dedicated image collections available through the Library of Congress, New York Public Library, and ARTstor (which requires a subscription). It is important to keep in mind that most of these images are NOT copyright free; they cannot be freely used for some purposes without permission. Several online resources do exist for images that are free to use (with attribution), even for commercial purposes. Some standouts include Stockfreeimages, Openphoto, Imageafter, as well as Pixelperfectdigital and Morguefile, which all have excellent advanced search options. Flickr also offers an advanced search that has the added feature of allowing you to view only images with Creative Commons licenses supporting reuse. For classical art, two good online resources are Art Resource (which displays artworks from hundreds of museums around the world) and Web Gallery of Art (notable for its many high-resolution images).

Image searching can be challenging because subject terms for images have not been standardized. Most sites don’t offer advanced searching, leaving it up to the researcher to find the best strategies. What works best for one repository often does not suit another, so part of this stage involves learning the internal logic of each resource. Thankfully, there are some techniques that allow for searching across several sites. Conducting a Google image search is currently the best method, due to Google’s excellent advanced search option that allows for limiting by size, format, usage rights, and more. Google also allows you to search using an image as your search term, which can be terrifically helpful since it bypasses the problem of variations in words used to describe images. This is a perfect example of visual literacy: using one image to describe another image! This method can also be used to find information about an image you have, such as the species of a bird you photographed or the artist for a particular painting.18

Before we proceed, let’s check in again with Louis.

Louis has decided to start fresh. He realizes that his project should focus on a clear goal, and that he wants to find images that clearly communicate his topic right from the beginning of his presentation—rather than adding them at the end as an afterthought. Knowing that he has limited experience in manipulating images, he attends a free Photoshop course taught at a local library. There, he learns some basic editing skills, as well as the differences between formats such as JPG and PNG, and what sizes and resolutions work best for different purposes. Armed with this new knowledge, Louis identifies several online image repositories that he plans to use. Once he finds the most appropriate images, he will download them and possibly alter some to better suit his needs. His next step is to start searching for and downloading images.

Gather

This pillar concentrates on using the strategies outlined in the planning stage to locate and access information. This is a particularly challenging process for visual literacy, although it may initially seem easy. While a vast amount of visual material is available online, and some good tools for finding it exist (as identified in Scope), conducting specific searches is quite difficult. Finding a precise image often requires hours of trial and error, and exploring multiple resources, and even when advanced searching is possible it may not yield the desired results. Often, descriptions for images are user-generated tags that lack consistency (even within a repository) and that change over time as new tags are added. This means that determining accuracy is quite difficult: is that actually a picture of Karl Marx, or is it Santa Claus as one tag says? Finding specific formats and resolutions is similarly challenging. For one, most images freely available online are not of high enough resolution or proper formats to be used for publications or large projections. And finding those that are is difficult because of inconsistencies in terminology. A few representative examples: JPG and JPEG are both used to describe the same format, while dpi and ppi are not the same but are often used interchangeably—and these are some of the most-used formats and considerations for digital images!

Accessing images is equally challenging, at multiple levels. There is a wide range of the level of accessibility for visual materials, from watermark-protected images for sale (and often requiring signup to access) to high-resolution images that are easily accessed and legally free for all to use (quite rare). Often, the difference between the two is not immediately apparent: pop-up screens demanding payment often appear only once you have searched for and selected an image that you want to use. Now, reading the previous sentences, you may have thought, “But I get images easily all the time! Flickr, Pinterest, Google Images: just Right-Click and it’s yours!” This brings us to the other key aspect of online image accessibility: copyright. While it is true that one can often easily and instantly download an image, this is almost always in violation of copyright. From an earlier example: if you search online for Flower Power Bernie Boston, you will find links to hundreds of webpages posting this photograph. Most of these sites are doing so illegally, without permission of the copyright holder, which in this case is the Worcester Art Museum. Many websites seem specifically designed for open use, such as Pinterest, but nearly all of the postings are illegal while being firmly within the site’s stated intent.19 For images, it is often up to the researcher to make sure he or she is on ethical and legal solid ground. We will discuss this further in the sections on managing and presenting.

For visual materials, another important aspect of access involves saving copies. Because you will often want to use an actual image, rather than merely quoting or referencing it as you might a text, it will be necessary to have a copy of the image to use. This could mean a photocopy, scan, tracing, hand drawing, photograph, or, more often, a digital reproduction. Besides knowing how to copy or save an image, it is important to have a detailed record of its source. This can help you find the original image again later and has other benefits we will discuss in the Gather and Present sections of this chapter.

Evaluate

This pillar focuses on the evaluation of information in an ongoing review of one’s research process. Key elements related to visual literacy include determining quality, bias, and accuracy, as these are all especially tricky to determine for visual materials.

Quality

Quality in this case refers both to the substantive value and the visual strength of an image. An example to demonstrate the difference between the two: a deer crossing sign is quickly and universally understood (high substantive value), but does not achieve its purpose if it is faded (low visual strength). Evaluating for substantive value is as important for visual materials as any other resource type and involves many of the same considerations, including looking critically at key elements and identifying subjects, relationships, context, and purpose (including intended audience). Visual strength is equally important and includes such qualities as brightness, clarity, contrast, hue, and saturation. These are important elements to consider both for evaluation and image creation. The size and format of an image also affect visual strength since what looks good in one venue may not in another; that wallet size photo of your sweetheart will probably be quite grainy if you make it into a poster. Some of these factors will be immediately apparent, as with the faded sign, but others require looking at the metadata for an image to determine file type, image size (which is not the same as the displayed size), resolution, and more. Legality is another key area of quality to assess. Who is allowed to use this image and for what purposes? There is a wide range of possible permissions and it is critical to determine whether your intended use is permitted. Many people have been sued—and fined or even jailed—for using images outside of a creator’s intent. If you cannot determine what type of image reuse is allowed, you are better off not using the image.

Bias

Bias can be particularly hard to identify for images. Often it is not the image itself but its context or description that displays a bias. Sometimes it is what is not shown that reveals bias, as when something is cropped or left out of the frame for a specific intent. Other times the very fact of an image being used is revealing, as when the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten printed caricatures of Mohammed despite knowing this would be offensive to many Muslims. (In a remarkable added twist that highlights the many layers of visual literacy, when Yale University published a book about this incident it chose not to include any of the images.)20

Accuracy

Accuracy is especially important to consider when evaluating images, since they can be easily altered in ways quite difficult to detect and are also often incorrectly described. The first step in assessing for accuracy involves looking carefully to see whether an image is believable and whether the captions seem to match the contents. One should consider both internal consistency (Does it look right, without strange shadows or edges or elements that seem off?) and external probability (Is this depicting a plausible thing or event?). Look for areas that appear too perfect or appear to be exact replicas of another area; tool marks left by software such as an unnaturally straight line, or a sudden break in color. As with any resource, consider the source: who published the image and why? It is also important to examine the metadata, ranging from the written caption to the digital information hidden within the image. Is this information consistent with the image, are the dates and descriptions correct? If the image is not original and is being reused, is it properly cited? A warning sign that an image is not a reliable resource is when there is no citation but the visual material is clearly from some other source.

All evaluation should be done in relation to your research goal: the most critical concern should be whether an item fits in the project context. Evaluation can inform your research process, with the search both responding to and suggesting adjustments to the original research question or desired product. Similarly, it is important to critically appraise your own role in the process, looking for your own biases or habits that could limit results. Comparing your perceptions with others through discussion and mutual review can also be very revealing.

Exercise: Accuracy and Bias

Look closely at the following maps: what differences do you see?

Now, compare these maps to a current globe.

- Are all three equally accurate?

- What implied messages could be interpreted by some of the visualization choices made?

- The map on top is from 1942, and the bottom map is from 1999, both printed in the United States. How might these facts be reflected in the layout of each map?

Manage

This pillar relates to information management—organizing your findings to aid comprehension, preservation, and retrieval. As with any other area of information literacy, for visual literacy information management begins with collecting your materials. We discussed the importance of recording source information when copying or saving; at this stage you will want to make sure that information stays linked to the correct image. There are a number of ways to do this, ranging from including it in the file name (AnselAdamsYosemite.jpg) to simply pasting the image and its identifying information in a word document. Many image processing programs will allow you to embed this information within the image itself. Whatever method you use, it is essential to do so in a consistent manner to support effective organization. It is also very helpful to name images in descriptive and clear ways that distinguish them, such as YellowLightningBoltBlackBgrnd.png. Additionally, you may want to create folders for different subjects or image types.

Citation

Citation for visual materials can be tricky, but it is critical for both managing and presenting your findings. Using an established citation format facilitates organization of images both within a publication and also for your own use. It also maintains a connection of the source information to the image, which will be important when you want to use or reference the image later. It is important to be able to create a bibliography in at least one citation format, since both professors and publishers will require you to document your sources. There are several programs that work for textual and visual materials, to assist you with this process, as well as print and online guides specifically for image citation (one is linked in the Additional Resources list).

Another management tool that can be very useful is keeping a research journal or similar record of your process. Documenting where and how you sought information (including specific search terms and strategies) and what you found can be very helpful. A research journal can help you with future searching and also supports sharing your process and helping others with their research. Many of the best tools available today were created from a previous searcher recording and sharing their experience: there is nothing stopping you from contributing! Doing so also brings you into conversation with other scholars who can help you substantially improve your work.

Now let’s look again at what Louis is up to.

Because his work will be used commercially, Louis narrowed his search to only sites supporting this type of use. He performed focused searches for specific images, making sure they had high enough resolutions for large projection and could legally be reused commercially. He carefully evaluated each image for relevance to his project, and for accuracy, and originality. One image looked familiar, so he used it to do a reverse image search that revealed that the Flickr user who posted it was not, in fact, the image creator. The image was not free to use, so he wisely chose to exclude it from his presentation. He kept a running log of his process and recorded citations for each image that he collected. He also pasted a copy of each image into a Word document. He then made folders for different types of images and sorted the files in them by format type. He now has a searchable pool of images to use in creating his presentation.

Present

This pillar focuses on summarizing, synthesizing, and communicating your work to others. This is the pillar with the widest range of connections to visual literacy. Many books have been dedicated to this topic alone. In this chapter we will highlight the central aspects of Present, and share some methods and tools you can use. As mentioned in the Present chapter, a fundamental aspect of this pillar is recognizing that we are all information creators. This is also true for visual communication, although we may not be as aware of our creator role in using visualized information. Have you ever used an emoticon? Created a doodle? Sent someone a photo you found online? Made a collage? All of these involve creation and imaginative reuse of images. These activities also require the ability to understand and communicate using visual language, which in many ways is the essence of visual literacy.21 Now let’s look at the basic components of Present.

Summarizing & Synthesizing

For visual materials, the line between summarizing and synthesizing is often blurred, because one often does both when presenting information visually. The act of visualization is itself a form of synthesis. It is important for you to be aware of what data came from where, and to note your own contributions, including your commentary (intended or not). It is very easy to forget a source and then fail to provide a citation, thinking all of the project is original work. You can also easily fail to recognize your own bias and believe your work is just an objective summary. For these reasons, we strongly recommended that you have others review your work and provide critical feedback before publication. Citations are also important for summarizing and synthesizing, because they will help with both remembering your sources and giving credit to the creators. However, as mentioned throughout this chapter, providing citations does not protect all or even most image reuse: always make sure to look carefully at the copyright information for any visual material.

Communicating

Communication begins with determining your purpose and then selecting images and presentation methods that best support your objectives. When you plan to use visual communication, it is helpful to work visually from the start and use tools designed for that purpose. Concept mapping is a widely used visualization method that involves drawing concepts and connections on paper (or a computer screen), which can be helpful in getting free of verbal/intellectual patterns and starting to think visually. In this process one often finds that a certain visual logic arises, an intuitive sense of arc and layout that guides what content is chosen and how it is used. This is an important stage, because it involves immersing yourself in the internal rules and logic of the world of images.22 These activities should align with the final research goal and take into account the purpose of the project. The character of your intended audience should inform presentation style and type, image selection and size, and color schemes, as well as the tools and processes you use for editing images. For instance, while you might show large cartoon images zooming around a circus-themed background when presenting to young children, this likely would not be the best way to reach a worker’s union. An added consideration that is often neglected is when not to use images. While visual communication is powerful, using an image to make every point may not be the best strategy: imagine learning that your partner is breaking up with you via emoticon and I’m sure you will agree. In any case, many excellent tools exist for every stage of presentation, ranging from concept mapping tools such as Bubbl.us and Mindomo to a vast array of editing and presenting tools. Some notable examples include presentation software such as PowerPoint and Prezi; timeline generators Dipity and Tiki-Toki; online photo editors Microsoft Publisher, Photoshop, Pixlr, and Splashup; and flexible and dynamic word cloud generators Wordle and Tagxedo.

Data visualization, which involves creating graphical displays of information or infographics, is another important area of visual communication. Using graphical displays is not new, but with many designers shifting from presenting information in traditional graphs and number tables to more inventive depictions in which every aspect including shapes and colors add significance, data visualization has recently gained significant traction. Infographics can be simple, such as pyramid-shaped graphs about ancient Egypt, or complex, multi-layered presentations such as the IVLA’s Periodic Table of Visualization Methods. The massive infographics on the Kulula Airlines fleet of airplanes is a wonderful and novel example of using data visualization.23 It is important to point out that it is easy to mislead with graphics, both intentionally or inadvertently. You should always check and re-check any infographic you develop for accuracy and bias. Soliciting external feedback can help you verify your work. (For a real-world example of misleading data visualization, go here.) As for the creation process, there are several helpful tools, including Microsoft Excel, Hohli Charts and Google Charts for making a variety of graphs; Gliffy for making flowcharts, Venn diagrams, etc.; and Visual.ly, Piktochart, and Infogr.am for making dynamic infographics.

An often overlooked component of presentation is the presenter him or herself. Many visual literacy scholars consider facial expression and body language to be key aspects of visual communication,24 with some including broader performance aspects such as object use and placement.25How you present has significant impact. You should give careful thought to attire, stance, gestures, and expressions—especially when presenting to audiences of nationalities that may have different cultural associations from your own.

Exercise: Putting it All Together

- First, type out a thesis statement and three supporting arguments.

- Next, determine your audience.

- Now, using only images (which cannot contain text), demonstrate both your thesis statement and three supporting arguments. You can create images, use found images, or both.

- Each component can be either a single image (if this clearly communicates the thesis or argument) or a multimedia project (such as a Prezi) linking multiple images.

- Create correct citations for any image you did not create, using the APA or MLA style.

- Share your work by emailing it to a friend, using it for a class, or publishing it online in a blog or elsewhere.

Going Forward

Many believe that we are living in the most visual era yet, with today’s students being the most visually immersed generation the world has seen. Visual literacy has never been more critical, and is considered a key workplace skill26 viewed by employers as on par with the ability to read and write.27 Now, more than ever, it is critical to become aware of your own visual communication skills, to actively practice and improve them, and to create new work. There has never been a greater need, or potential, for creators to actively and ethically reach out and share their work with others. In this chapter, we have tried to give you an outline for using images, as well as some resources to help you on your way. We have walked, along with our friend Louis, through the landscape of visual literacy. You may wonder how everything worked out with him, but we intentionally left this open, because that question is for you to answer. Now it is your turn to go out and share your voice: there is a world waiting to be read and be visualized.

Select Quotations

Francis Bacon

Emblem…reduces intellectual conceptions to sensible images; for an object of sense always strikes the memory more forcibly and is more easily impressed upon it than an object of the intellect…And therefore you will more easily remember the image of a hunter pursuing a hare, of an apothecary arranging his boxes, of a pedant making a speech, of a boy repeating verses from memory, of a player acting on the stage, than the mere notions of invention, disposition, elocution, memory, and action.28

Henry Holmes Smith

Symbol systems and symbolic action constitute not only the greatest perils, but also the greatest hopes of mankind.29

Philip Yenawine

[Visual literacy] involves a set of skills ranging from simple identification—naming what one sees—to complex interpretation on contextual, metaphoric, and philosophical levels. Many aspects of cognition are called upon, such as personal association, questioning, speculating, analyzing, fact-finding, and categorizing. Objective understanding is the premise of much of this literacy, but subjective and affective aspects of knowing are equally important.30

Tad Simons

’Seeing is believing’ goes the old saying, but this axiom has never been less true than it is today. We live in an age where photos, video, and film can be digitally altered to represent any reality imaginable…so it has never been more important to acquire the intellectual skills necessary to distinguish between visual fact and fiction, information and manipulation, reporting and propaganda.31

Roger Fransecky and John Debes

When developed, [visual literacy skills] enable a visually literate person to discriminate and interpret the visible actions, objects, symbols, natural or man-made, that he encounters in his environment. Through the creative use of these competencies, he is able to communicate with others. Through the appreciative use of these competencies, he is able to comprehend and enjoy the masterworks of visual communication.32

Additional Resources

A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods: http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html

Columbia University’s Image Size and Resolution Guide: http://learn.columbia.edu/mc/resources/documents/resolution-guide.pdf

David McCandless’ Ted Talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/david_mccandless_the_beauty_of_data_visualization.html

David McCandless’ Blog: http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/

Edward Tufte’s Website: http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/

Boston University’s Guide to Finding and Using Images: http://www.bu.edu/library/guide/findimages/

Colgate University’s Image Citation Guide: https://sites.google.com/a/colgate.edu/colgatevr/citing-images

Christine L. Sundt’s Copyright & Art Pathfinder: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~csundt/copyweb/

International Visual Literacy Association Website : http://ivla.org/drupal2/

ACRL Visual Literacy Standards Graphic: http://acrlvislitstandards.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/visualliteracyarray2.jpg

ACRL Visual Literacy Standards Website: http://acrlvislitstandards.wordpress.com/

Bibliography

Arnheim, Rudolph. “Gestalt Psychology and Artistic Form.” In Aspects of Form: A Symposium on Form in Nature and Art, edited by Lancelot Whyte, 196-208. New York: Pellegrini & Cudahy, 1951.

Avgerinou, Maria, and John Ericson. “A Review of the Concept of Visual Literacy.”British Journal of Educational Technology 28, no. 4 (1997): 280-291.

Bacon, Francis. The Works of Francis Bacon. Vol. 4, Translations of the Philosophical Works. Edited by James Spedding, Robert Ellis, and Douglas Heath. London: Longman, 1857.

Brill, Jennifer, Kim Dohun, and Robert Branch. “Visual Literacy Defined−The Results of a Delphi Study: Can IVLA (Operationally) Define Visual Literacy. Journal of Visual Literacy 27, no. 1 (2007): 47-60.

Burmark, Lynell. Visual Literacy: Learn to See, See to Learn. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2002.

Brumberger, Eva. “Visual Literacy and the Digital Native: An Examination of the Millennial Learner.” Journal of Visual Literacy 30, no. 1 (2011): 19-47.

Chen, Yih. “Design Features of Visual Symbols.” Audiovisual Instruction 17, no. 5 (1972): 22-24.

Christopherson, Jerry. “The Growing Need for Visual Literacy at the University.” In VisionQuest: Journeys Toward Visual Literacy, edited by Robert Griffin, J. Hunter, C. Schiffman, & W. Gibbs, 169-174. Philadelphia: International Visual Literacy Association, 1996.

Cohen, Patricia. “Yale Press Bans Images of Muhammad in New Book.” New York Times, August 13, 2009.

Daly, James. “Life on the Screen: Visual Literacy in Education.” Edutopia, 2004. http://www.edutopia.org/lucas-visual-literacy.

Debes, John. “The Loom of Visual Literacy: An Overview.” In Proceedings: First National Conference on Visual Literacy, edited by ClarenceWilliams and John Debes, 1-16. New York: Pitman, 1970.

Elkins, James. Visual Studies: A Skeptical Introduction. New York: Routledge, 2003.

Flynn, William. L. “Visual Literacy—A Way of Perceiving, Whose Time Has Come.” Audiovisual Instruction 17, no. 5 (1972): 41-42.

Fransecky, Roger, and John Debes. Visual Literacy: A Way to Learn— a Way to Teach. Washington: Association for Educational Communications and Technology, 1972.

Hortin, John. “Visual Literacy and Visual Thinking.” In Contributions to the Study of Visual Literacy, edited by Lucile Burbank and Dennis Pett, 92-106. Philadelphia: International Visual Literacy Association, 1983.

Ipri, Tom. “Introducing Transliteracy: What Does it Mean to Academic Libraries?” College & Research Libraries News 71, no. 10 (2010): 532-567.

Jacobson, Trudi. “How Metaliteracy Changed My Life, My Teaching, and My Students’ Experiences.” Paper presented at the Academic Libraries 2012 Conference, Syracuse, NY. June 2012, http://www.nyla-asls.org/AcademicLibrariansConference/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/panel_presentation_public.pdf.

Klosowski, Thorin. “Clever Uses for Reverse Image Search.” Lifehacker (blog), April 16, 2013, http://lifehacker.com/clever-uses-for-reverse-image-search-473032092.

Krum, Randy. “Infographic Airplane! From Kulula Airlines.” Cool Infographics (blog), February 19, 2008, http://www.coolinfographics.com/blog/2010/2/8/infographic-airplane-from-kulula-airlines.html.

Lengler, Ralph, and Martin J. Eppler. “A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods.” Visual-Literacy.Org, http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html.

Mackey, Thomas P., and Trudi E. Jacobson. “Reframing Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy. College & Research Libraries 72, no. 1 (2011): 62-78.

Messaris, Paul. Visual “Literacy”: Image, Mind, and Reality. Boulder: Westview Press, 1994.

Montogomery, David. “Flowers, Guns and an Iconic Snapshot.” Washington Post, March 18, 2007. http://www.washingtonpost.com.

Newman, Bruce. “Some Concerns about Pinterest.” Westchester County Business Journal 48, no. 9 2012):18.

Newton, Julianne H. The Burden of Visual Truth: The Role of Photojournalism in Mediating Reality. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000.

Pett, Dennis. “One Person’s Perspective: History of the International Visual Literacy Association.” International Visual Literacy Association, 1988. http://ivla.org/drupal2/content/one-persons-perspective.

Simons, Tad. Preface to Visual Literacy: Learn to See, See to Learn by Lynell Burmark, v-vi. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2002.

Smith, Henry Holmes, James Enyeart, and Nancy Solomon. Henry Holmes Smith: Collected Writings 1935-1985. Tucson: Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, 1986.

Thomas, Sue, Chris Joseph, Jess Laccetti, Bruce Mason, Simon Mills, Simon Perril, and Kate Pullinqer “Transliteracy: Crossing Divides.” First Monday 12, no. 12, 2007. http://www.firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/index.

Velders, Teun. “The Roots of Visual Literacy: Reflections on an Historical Perspective.” Journal of Visual Literacy 20, no. 1(2000):1-8.

Visual Literacy Task Force. “Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education.” College & Research Libraries News 73, no. 2 (2012): 97-104.

“What Resolution Should Your Images Be?” Media Center for Art History, Columbia University.http://learn.columbia.edu/mc/resources/documents/resolution-guide.pdf.

Yenawine, Philip. “Thoughts on Visual Literacy.” In Handbook of Research on Teaching Literacy Through the Communicative and Visual Arts, edited by James Flood, Shirley Heath, and Diane Lapp, 845-846. New York: Macmillan Library Reference, 1997.

Zuern, John. “Diagram, Dialogue, Dialectic: Visual Explanations and Visual Rhetoric in the Teaching of Literary Theory.” In Visual Media in the Humanities: A Pedagogy of Representation, edited by Kecia Driver McBride, 47-73. Knoxville, TN: Univ. of Tennessee Press/Knoxville, 200

Endnotes

1 Visual Literacy Task Force, 2012, 1

2 Velders, 2000, 7

3 Bacon, 1857, 437

4 Pett, 1988

5 Smith, 1986

6 Daly, 2004

7 Burmark, 2002; Messaris, 1994

8 See note 6.

9 Chen, 1972

10 See note 6.

11 Zuern, 2004, 47-48

12 Montogomery, 2007

13 Newton, 2000

14 Chen, 1972

15 Elkins, 2003

16 Avgerinou & Ericson, 1997

17 What resolution should your images be? (n.d.)

18 Klosowski, 2013

19 Newman, 2012

20 Cohen, 2009

21 Avgerinou & Ericson, 1997

22 Arnheim, 1951

23 Krum, 2008

24 Messaris, 1994; Fransecky and Debes, 1972

25 Debes, 1970

26 Burmark, 2002

27 Simons, 2002

28 Bacon,1857, 437

29 Smith, Enyeart, and Solomon, 1986, 89

30 Yenawine, 1997, 845

31 Simons, 2002, v-vi

32 Fransecky & Debes, 1972, 7

Chapter 9 Science Literacy

9

Science Literacy

This chapter is devoted to the concept of science literacy. You have probably heard of specific types of literacy: computer literacy, visual literacy, media literacy, and many more. Science literacy is yet another, and, as you can probably guess, it is related to the natural sciences. To better explain science literacy let’s begin with a story that goes back to 1986. April 26, 1986 was the day of the worst accident in the history of nuclear energy. This is when there were several explosions at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. The explosions caused a fire that released radioactive fallout into the surrounding atmosphere. When this event took place, the author of this chapter was studying electrical engineering at Lvov Polytechnic Institute in Ukraine, which is about 300 miles from Chernobyl. The news of the disaster was kept from the Soviet public for several days, so as not to cast a shadow over approaching May Day celebrations. However, we engineering students learned about the disaster almost immediately, as some of our fellow students returned from Chernobyl where they had been doing student internships. The stories they told were frightening, but at that time nobody knew exactly what to expect, as a disaster of this scale had never occurred.

When the accident was finally officially announced, chaos ensued. No one knew how to react or what to do. What exactly was radiation? How dangerous was it? How far could radioactive clouds travel, and where was this cloud headed? A lack of accurate information and an overabundance of rumors did not help people cope with the situation. People shut their windows against the hot May weather for fear of letting in radiation. Air conditioners were practically non-existent at that time (and still are nowadays in Ukraine, for that matter). Someone said that iodine helped fight radiation, so supplies of iodine quickly disappeared from pharmacies. We drank tea with iodine, we put it into water, and it wasn’t pleasant.

Let’s investigate which coping strategies were effective and which were not. Let’s begin with radiation. Does it travel through the air? Sure, it does. Does it help to close the windows to stay safe? Not really— radiation can get through glass and brick. Only heavy metals like lead can stop it. What about iodine? Does it really counteract the effects of radiation? This answer is not easily determined without some investigation. Of course, physicists, especially those specializing in nuclear physics, would know, but what about members of the general public?

Exercise: Iodine Case Study

1. Go to Google (or any other search engine such as www.bing.com or www.exalead.com) and type in iodine and radiation. Usually search engines do not need the connector and (nor that it necessarily be typed in upper case) as it is assumed that you want both of the terms to be present. When you do your searches online you may use different connectors (so-called Boolean operators—check the explanation in Plan chapter). They are or, and, and not. However, Google makes an exception for or—you should type it in upper case for it to be recognized as a connector. This strategy is useful when you expect to find limited information in a search on an unusual topic. The operator or can be very helpful to connect synonyms thus assuring better results.

2. Examine the results carefully. You most likely will find articles from popular media such as newspapers and online news websites. Watch for sources that have the .gov (stands for government) domain: do you see one from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)? Let’s take a look.

3. The page you’re looking at has the following URL: http://emergency.cdc.gov/radiation/ki.asp. This is a page from the “Emergency and Preparedness Response” site. If for some reason you do not have it in your results, just type in the URL or click on the link in this text. From this site we can learn some quick facts:

- The chemical name for iodine is potassium iodide (KI). It’s actually a salt of stable (not radioactive) iodine.

- In the case of a radioactive event the radioactive iodine is released into the air and can be absorbed by the thyroid gland. To counteract the absorption, you can take potassium iodine (not radioactive). The non-radioactive iodine will be absorbed first, thus preventing thyroid from absorbing more (in this case radioactive) iodine in the next 24 hours.

- It is important to take iodine only on recommendation of the doctor or public health official who is dealing with the consequences of the radioactive spill.

4. Among the results of our Google search you may see a short article from Los Angeles Times http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar/14/news/la-heb-iodine-tablets-radiation-quake-nuclear-plant-20110314 (June 25, 2013), which quotes the International Atomic Energy Agency about distributing “230,000 units of stable iodine to evacuation centers” near the Fukushima Daiichi and Fukushima Daini nuclear power plants in March 2011, when a tsunami struck the coast of Japan and damaged two nuclear plants.

5. Now back to the question—was it useful for people in Ukraine to take iodine after several days passed from the disaster? The answer is no, because it would only have been beneficial within first 24 hours after the exposure to radioactive iodine.

Defining Science Literacy

Now we are ready to discuss general science literacy, which means knowing enough about science to make good decisions in situations like the one just described. This ability is referred to as science literacy or scientific literacy. Science literacy can be measured thanks to Jon Miller, a political scientist who conducted research on how to measure this ability. Miller has published his findings in several books and articles, which are listed in the recommended readings on science literacy list at the end of this chapter. Unfortunately, his results were not encouraging: the number of American adults who met his criteria for science literacy was quite low, 28%.1 On the other hand, the United States rated higher than several of the other nations included in Miller’s study.

The number of adult Americans who are scientifically literate may be attributed to the undergraduate general education requirements at colleges and universities in the U.S.: higher education requirements that are unique to this country. Every college undergraduate has to take a certain number of science courses even if they are not majoring in the sciences. In fact, Miller found that the strongest predictor of science literacy in adults is completion of three to four science courses in college. The second strongest predictor of science literacy is having a college degree.2 In other words, if you’re in college (and there is a good chance you are, since you are reading this textbook), your chances of becoming science literate are already much better than those of your high school classmates who chose not to go to college.

Now we’re ready for the definition of science literacy:

Science literacy is being well versed in all matters pertaining to basic science and scientific laws, to the extent that one is able to make sound decisions concerning their wellbeing and the wellbeing of their families, communities, and society as a whole.

This definition may look too broad; after all, it suggests that everything from our personal well-being to that of entire nations rests, at least in part, on science literacy. But proponents of science literacy make this very point by distinguishing five different types of science literacy: civic, cultural, practical, aesthetic, and consumer.

Civic Science Literacy

This is regarded as one of the most important science literacies, as it speaks to people knowing enough science to relate scientific laws and discoveries to matters of government and legislation. Someone with civic science literacy understands enough about science to comprehend the likely consequences of legislation involving scientific matters. For example, let’s return to our conversation about nuclear disasters. It’s no secret that the world needs sources of clean energy, taking into consideration how industrial pollution harms the environment and contributes to global warming. Nuclear energy is considered clean; there are no residual pollutants released into atmosphere through the production of energy using nuclear power. However, it is also common knowledge that nuclear energy can have disastrous effects on human health and the environment.

The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II made this abundantly clear. Growing up in the former Soviet Union, we were shown images of Japanese children with leukemia making origami and told that this was something that should never happen again. And yet it did happen again, and right in Ukraine. The Chernobyl disaster released four hundred times more radioactive material into the atmosphere than the nuclear bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. More recently, in 2011, a tsunami caused a reactor meltdown at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster was the worst since Chernobyl and received the same severity rating on the International Nuclear Event Scale.

You may be thinking, OK, I get it. Nuclear power is potentially dangerous. But what do I do? Well, if you are a model of civic science literacy, you investigate the pros and cons of nuclear power to form an opinion as to whether we need this type of power generation. Once you form your own opinion, you can communicate with your congressmen and senators, and tell them what you think. You can exercise your power as a citizen by participating in decision-making that requires some knowledge of science. This is what civic science literacy is all about: using science to be an active and informed citizen. Hydraulic fracturing (also called fracking) is another example of an issue that calls for civic science literacy.

Practical Science Literacy

Practical science literacy entails knowing enough about scientific and natural laws to make decisions about one’s day-to-day life and livelihood, as opposed to government and legislation. For example, a friend of mine who works as a landscape designer and permaculture gardener spent several months in the mountains of India studying the local residents’ agricultural practices. She learned that they had developed specific farming methods that make the best use of the local terrain and climate, such as irrigating the fields in spring with the melting snow that runs down from the adjacent mountains. These people are applying principles of permaculture— adopting the most effective and sustainable agricultural methods for their particular ecosystem— and, in so doing, demonstrating sound practical science literacy.

Consumer Science Literacy

Consumer science literacy is related to practical science literacy. It refers to a person’s ability to know enough science to make sound consumer choices whether he or she is shopping for food, medications, clothes, electronic devices, automobiles, or other items. For example, there are many recent publications in public media about genetically-modified organisms (so-called GMOs) and whether they are safe to consume. In order to make a decision about whether to buy genetically modified vegetables, one needs to understand basic processes that involve genetic engineering.

Cultural Science Literacy

This type of science literacy is the scientific knowledge that is generally assumed to be possessed by someone who is culturally literate, that is, someone familiar with the general knowledge and idioms that make up the dominant culture of his or her society. In other words, being culturally literate entails a mastery of certain scientific concepts and principles. For example, when you read an article about nutrition in a popular newspaper or magazine, you don’t expect the author to explain what vitamins, protein, and calories are; these are things the author assumes you already know. And, of course, you do. Or do you? What are calories? How would you find out?

Aesthetic Science Literacy

Aesthetic science literacy refers to the ability to appreciate the beauty of scientific ideas. An avid proponent of science literacy, James Trefil provides an excellent explanation of this type of science literacy in his book, Why Science?. Dr. Trefil, a physics professor, writes that he finds it helpful to bring the attention of friends to certain natural phenomena that, if unexplained, might go unnoticed or would not be appreciated in full, such as the very rare sight of a triple rainbow or sun dogs, two spots of light that sometimes are seen next to the sun. His friends, he says, are usually very grateful for the experience of uniting science and natural beauty in one great story.3

Citizen Science

So-called citizen science is a great way to improve general science literacy, especially for adults. Citizen scientists are science enthusiasts who help scientists in various disciplines conduct their research, primarily by collecting data. For example, there are citizen astronomers who watch the sky on a regular basis studying various celestial objects and phenomena, from stars and planets to galaxies. They take pictures of celestial objects and events, and post them online so that professional astronomers can download them and use them in their research. In other words, researchers mine the visual data collected by citizen scientists and then develop scientific theories and discoveries based on them. Another example is amateur bird watching. Birdwatchers provide valuable data—for example, about where certain species are migrating—to professional ornithologists who might otherwise lack this data, as it takes many people to conduct this type of research. And not only do citizen scientists provide data to the professional scientific researchers; in the course of their data collection, they also increase their own knowledge and improve the overall science literacy of their community. Another way science literacy is increased is through museums. Have you ever been to a science and technology museum, a nature preserve, or a conservancy on a school trip? If you have, you may remember how much you learned about science during those trips.

Creating and Disseminating Scientific Information

Scientific publications come in many different forms such as books, conference proceedings, technical reports, and peer-reviewed, or refereed, articles. Primary research articles are especially important in the world of scientific information. Such articles, often referred to as primary sources, are written by the scientists who actually conducted the research being described or reported in the article. Not every scholarly article published in the natural sciences is a primary research article, and it’s important to be able to tell these primary sources from articles that summarize or comment on scientific research conducted by others, so-called secondary sources. Good examples of secondary sources are the articles published in the science section of the New York Times or Scientific American; such popular articles report on recent scientific breakthroughs and discoveries, and generally cite primary research articles published in scholarly journals like Science and Nature.

Popular articles are written by science journalists, whose job is to make scientific research intelligible to people who are not scientists by profession. These journalists typically indicate where the research they are describing can be located, so that interested readers can track down the original study by searching the catalogs and databases at their local public or college libraries. All they need are the names of the authors who wrote the article and the journal in which it appeared. You can practice this in the following exercise.

Exercise: Tracing a Primary Research Article From Secondary Publications

1. Browse through one of the popular scientific publications such as the science section of the New York Times (comes out on Tuesdays) or Scientific American. Find a short article that looks interesting and is easy to understand.

2. Look for the following:

- an article that is reporting about a recent study that has been published in a scholarly journal;

- the title of the journal;

- the name of the author(s); and

- an indication of when the original study appeared: sometimes the secondary source will say that the research was published in a latest issue of Science or Nature.

3. Once you find some of these facts (journal title and the authors should be sufficient), you can start to search for the primary source in the resources provided to you by your school—the library catalog or databases.

4. Catalog search: in a catalog search, you can find out whether your school subscribes to a particular journal by searching for the journal by title.

5. Best case scenario: your library has it! The next step will be to figure out the available article format(s). You might have several options:

- Electronic version—great! It means you can access it right away. Once you get to the online (or electronic) version of the journal, you are given a choice of searching within this publication. An author search should be sufficient to locate the article.

- Print version—good! You can search in databases or a discovery service tool such as eDiscover for your article by entering the journal title and the authors. Once you locate the record about the article, which will include volume and issue number, page numbers, the article title, you can also find the call number and take a walk to the shelves where you will find the issue of the journal that includes your article.

- Microform version—still good! Again, after searching databases and locating the exact information about the article, you should be able to locate the appropriate microfilm reel or microfiche on the shelf. Before the widespread and easy access to online versions of materials, microforms were used to save space by photocopying and preserving documents on film. Libraries are equipped with microform readers—if you need help using a reader, ask the library staff.

Open Access

Perhaps you have already heard of open access—after all, this book is an open resource! Many researchers in different disciplines, including the natural and social sciences and the humanities have agreed to make their research available online and free of charge. You can find a lot of good material in such publications. The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is one of the largest collections of open access publications. You can check it out at http://www.plos.org/.

Science.gov and More

Did you know that a good deal of scientific research is financed by the United States government? Check out the Statistical Abstract of the United States and you will see how much money is budgeted for research and development in the areas of life sciences, engineering, and many other scientific fields. This research has to be made available to the public because it is paid for with tax dollars. That is why it is possible to search through various databases using the government gateway to scientific information, Science.gov., and to access full text at this site on topics in the fields of health and medicine, physics and chemistry, applied science and technology, and natural resources and conservation.

Another good way to look for scientific information is to browse through the websites of individual government agencies such as the Department of Energy, or the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and PubMed (also listed under the registered trademark MEDLINE—you will see the two terms used interchangeably). The NLM database contains many of the latest publications in various medical fields. If you are searching for information for class projects or personal needs, you can find some surprising results in these databases.

Data Repositories

Researchers accumulate a lot of data in the course of their work, and not all of this data is used in their publications. Sometimes this data just sits in filing cabinets waiting to be discovered; in the worst case scenario, it may get lost for good. Now scientists can preserve their data and make it available to other scholars by using digital data repositories. Data repositories can be either institutional or private, depending on their creators and hosting entities. The SUNY Digital Repository—a fairly recent initiative—allows researchers from all SUNY campuses to deposit their data into one warehouse where it can be accessed by anybody. Some data repositories are discipline-specific, such as the NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) from the National Institutes of Health. It is another example of information which is provided for free by the federal government. You can find it at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.

Science Zines

Our discussion up until now has primarily focused on scientific information consumption; the different ways of learning what others already know about science. But it’s important to bear in mind that you are a creator as well as a consumer of information. When you produce your own writing and social media projects, you are creating unique information entities that other people can use, especially if you publish them for free on the web. The realization that information dissemination takes place at both large and small scales led to the development of science zines. Science zines are small pamphlets, usually created on 8.5″ x 11” sheets of paper, and folded into small booklets. They are distributed “guerilla style” in places like coffee shops and hair salons, where people are likely to be looking for something to read. In the following exercise, you will create a science zine of your own.

Exercise: Science Zine

Science zines are small pamphlets (made out of a single 8.5” x 11” sheet of paper) that provide basic information about a particular science topic. They can address a broad range of audiences, from kindergarteners to a college-educated, adult population. A science zine’s goal is to bring science information to the general public in an unconventional way, making it a “cool” and easy (and unlikely) way of spreading science literacy. Science zines are often left at bus stops, hair salons, and cafes in hopes that they will be picked up and read. You can start thinking of unlikely places to put your zine!

It is important to find software that can provide an appropriate and easy-to-use template, which will allow placing all of the zine pages on a single 8.5″ x 11” sheet. Microsoft Publisher is a good example of such software. Most schools provide appropriate tools to help students with their projects—check with information technology services on your campus or ask at the library to see what is available at your school.

Step 1

Think about your prospective audience: who would you like to read your zine? Your dorm neighbors? Your parents? Your little brother or sister? Perhaps you volunteer at a summer camp?

Select a topic and conduct preliminary research (identify, scope and plan):

Identify will help you figure out what you don’t know about your topic and how to proceed.

Scope will help you figure out how much you need to find out about your topic in order to have enough information for your zine.

Plan will equip you with some helpful tools that you might use in your research.

Your research should include basic definitions, any controversy there may be about the topic, and why it is important for the public to become familiar with this topic. It is also important to have your personal opinion about the topic or issue, because you will be collecting information and formatting it for publication. It has to look persuasive.

Step 2

Create a page-by-page outline of your zine, with visual and written scripts. You can make drawings by hand to illustrate your topic. You can also use computer software to produce images; insert clip art, drawings, and photographs—anything that will help communicate your key points. Depending on who your audience is, you can even make it look like a comic book. See some good examples at http://smallsciencezines.blogspot.com/.

Important! Make sure you provide appropriate credits for all images that you’re using. You will find plenty of useful advice in Manage chapter of this textbook.

Step 3

Time to put it all together and print it out. Then get the scissors and a stapler and…Congratulations! You created your own zine!

Lifelong Learning

Our knowledge base changes constantly. We learn new things that others have gone to a lot of trouble to discover. We also forget things, some of these things are probably not that important anyway (and some are). Sometimes we learn that previous discoveries were wrong and that there is new, updated knowledge for us to learn and use. Seventy years ago, most educated adults did not know about DNA, but this doesn’t mean that they weren’t science literate; science literacy is maintaining familiarity with the knowledge base of one’s era. But this base is always evolving. We must always be prepared to learn about new scientific discoveries. It may be challenging, as Jon Miller, who conducted the science literacy study, points out, but it is possible and necessary. It will involve a critically important skill—lifelong learning. You can see it prominently featured in the information literacy pillars Identify (being information literate involves developing a learning habit so new information is being actively sought all the time) and Gather (the need to keep up to date with new information).

Having a basic understanding of science and the ability to influence our lawmakers in all matters related to science is crucial to participating in our democracy. Ten years ago, legislators and policy makers were addressing stem cell research; today, it is hydraulic fracturing. We don’t know what scientific issue will demand our attention ten years from now. But if we hope to be able to make informed decisions, we must cultivate and maintain our science literacy. You can do this by reading popular scientific publications like Scientific American, Discover, and the New York Times science section. Check the web—all of these publications extend their reach online with blogs and discussion boards where everybody is welcome to comment and ask questions. Keeping an eye on the latest scientific news will help you understand the latest trends in science and technology, and how they are likely to impact the future. You can make a difference by being proactive and making your voice heard.

Good luck and happy science literacy trails!

Bibliography

Miller, Jon D. “The Conceptualization and Measurement of Civic Scientific Literacy for the Twenty-First Century.” In Science and Educated American: A Core Component of Liberal Education, edited by Jerrold Meinwald and John G. Hildebrand, 241-254. Cambridge, MA: American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2010.

Miller, Jon D. “Scientific Literacy.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, San Francisco, CA, 1989.

Trefil, James. Why Science? New York: Teachers College Press, 2008.

Endnotes

1 Miller, 2010, 241-254.

2 Miller, 1989.

3 Trefil, 2008, 70.

Conclusion

Conclusion

Review of the Seven Pillars

At the beginning of this text, you learned about the Seven Pillars of Information Literacy and how each of these pillars represents a set of understandings and abilities that will help you become a better researcher and a more savvy citizen of the information world we live in. We have also covered Visual Literacy and Science Literacy to further enhance your knowledge.

When you first started reading this book, you may have already been skilled in some of these areas while other concepts may have been totally new to you. Developing these skills is not necessarily a linear process that starts in one place and ends in another. The process also won’t end after you’ve finished reading this book. You will continue to grow as a researcher as you take on more challenging research projects. These skills will serve you not only in your academic life, but also in your professional and everyday life.

Here is a quick review of the main points from each of the chapters.

Identify

Identifying your need for information is a crucial first step in your research process. Navigating the current information environment requires critical thinking, and the ability to investigate what is available and whether it is presented in a clear and straightforward manner. Properly identifying your information needs makes the search process more productive and improves the quality of your results. Defining your research question is a key step in the process and may require several topic revisions depending on your investigation. The Identify chapter contains useful exercises for you to practice.

Scope

Determining the scope of your research entails not only knowing what you need to know about your topic, but also knowing what information is available and which forms of that information will be most relevant to you. Information exists in a variety of formats, including books, articles, and government documents, and it can be found using tools that are both basic and specialized.

Plan

Planning your research step by step is vital to a success of your project, whether you’re trying to find information for your personal use or working on a class assignment. You can ensure success by closely following several steps. Self-reflection at the beginning stage of the planning process helps you reassess your own attitudes toward the research process and identify the areas unknown to you. The selection of appropriate research tools, whether library catalogs, databases, or authoritative web sources, will help to save time. Another time-saving trick is consulting an expert, such as a librarian. The final step in this process is determining the best search concepts and keywords for your research. Once you determine your search concepts and keywords you will soon begin to see results.

Gather

Gather helps you with the actual process of collecting information after you’ve mastered your skills within the Identify, Plan, and Scope pillars. The Gather phase concentrates on the importance of understanding that there are different types of information and distinguishing between them. It also emphasizes the importance of critical evaluation. The Gather chapter includes tips on searching library catalogs and databases as well as advice on understanding the Library of Congress classification system. The chapter also reviews another important skill for a college student: being able to write a proper citation in the publication style required by a professor, whether it is MLA, APA, or another style.

Evaluate

In the process of gathering your sources, it’s important to evaluate them on criteria such as how relevant they are to your topic, the quality of the information in the source, the author’s credentials for writing on the topic, and other characteristics that may be relevant to your research. Different types of sources play different roles in the research process and may need to be evaluated in different ways. Knowing when to stop searching for and evaluating sources in order to meet deadlines and avoid becoming overwhelmed is also an important part of this pillar.

Manage

Managing information is concerned with being able to organize information both ethically and professionally. Much of the information that is out there is someone’s intellectual property, which means when you use the information, you have a responsibility to acknowledge that person’s contribution, usually through citation. Citation helps to avoid plagiarism. Plagiarism is the intentional or unintentional use of someone else’s ideas without giving proper credit; examples of plagiarism are not limited to the academic world. Style manuals for each of the most common citation styles (APA, MLA, and Chicago) are likely to be available at your library. You can also use a citation generator as a reference or ask for help from a librarian.

Present

Presenting the results of your research is important as it sums up the long journey during your information quest. An early step for presenting the information you have found is to decide who your audience is, whether it’s your friends, family members, classmates, instructors, or an even wider audience. Your research can be presented in a wide variety of ways, including written, verbal, or visual formats. Examples include written materials such as research papers or blog posts, verbal modes such as presentations or songs, and visual methods such as photographs or flowcharts. It is important to keep your intended audience in mind.

Visual Literacy

This chapter addresses the application of information literacy to visual materials. It begins with an historical overview and definition of visual literacy and then looks at each of the Seven Pillars in relation to this. Particular attention is given to the difficulty of finding and accessing images, evaluating these images for accuracy and resolution, and the citation of visual materials. The Present pillar is discussed at length, with multiple examples of tools and approaches given for creating and sharing your work. This chapter concludes with a series of relevant quotations and additional resources relating to visual literacy.

Science Literacy

Science literacy is related to one’s ability to understand basic concepts and laws of science and to use this knowledge in everyday life. There are several types of science literacy: civic, cultural, practical, consumer, and aesthetic. The chapter presents an overview of each of these types and provides an overview of other science-related concepts and movements that are all related to information. The chapter also addresses creating and disseminating scientific information, the open access movement, citizen science, and lifelong learning as an important component of science information literacy. Keeping up with the latest scientific discoveries after graduating from college will help you remain scientifically literate. Case studies and exercises emphasize a practical approach to science literacy.

Further Reading

As you continue to develop your research skills and knowledge, you may wish to do further reading on information literacy. These resources may not use the Seven Pillars of Information Literacy as a lens, but they will all help you become a more knowledgeable researcher. The following items can be purchased through online retailers or borrowed from your library.

Badke, William.B. Research Strategies: Finding Your Way Through the Information Fog. Bloomington, IN.: IUniverse, Inc., 2011.

Chernow, Barbara.A. Beyond the Internet: Successful Research Strategies. Lanham, MD.: Bernan Press, 2007.

Fulton, Crystal. Information Pathways: A Problem-Solving Approach to Information Literacy. Lanham, MD.: Scarecrow Press, 2010.

Stebbins, L.F. Student guide to research in the digital age. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006.

Supplementary Material

Appendix

Chapter 3: Plan

Exercise: Reviewing Search Strategies [Answer Key]

1. Now that the team has a draft thesis statement, the next step would be to:

1. Enter the thesis statement into a database, rather than the catalog [If the team enters a long string of words, such as a thesis statement or a whole topic or research question, into a database, catalog, or search engine, it will try to find items that contain that exact phrase. This type of search won’t be very successful.]

2. Select keywords and enter them into Google [Using keywords is a good approach, but Google won’t provide results that are academic in nature, so it is not the best place for the team to turn. In addition, some thought needs to go into selecting the keywords.]

3. Dissect the thesis statement to determine key terms, related terms, and Boolean operators or other searching techniques [Yes, you are right—this is what the team should do. They can then develop a good search to start off with.]

2. If you are interested in the use of social media such as Twitter by college students for research purposes, which of the following is the best general search strategy:

1. (social media and Twitter) and research and college students [There is a problem with one of the Boolean operators.]

2. Social media and college students and research purposes [This doesn’t capture the potential search terms. In addition, using “research purposes” might miss a lot of good sources because it might not always be phrased that way.]

3. (social media or Twitter or Facebook) and research and college student* [This is the best strategy of those presented here. Facebook, as you know, is a very popular social network tool, and should be included in the list. If you are searching in a web search engine, use the phrase “college student*” (with quote marks). This isn’t needed for most databases.]

3. The best place to start the search online is:

1. An online guide on the library’s website [Yes, if there is one available, this would be a great place to start. The librarian who created the guide will provide tips for how to proceed. This will help you with your planning.]

2. Google [Google might provide a few good sources, but it will require a lot of sifting to find them. There are far better places for the team to start.]

3. The library’s catalog [The catalog might provide some good sources. Keep in mind that because library catalogs contain a limited number of entries, the team might need to consider a broader search than it would use in a database.]

4. When searching a subject-specific database, it is especially important to…

1. Use any search refinements they provide that make sense [Yes, this is important, but the team shouldn’t stop with this strategy.]

2. Check for the best subject headings to use [Yes, this is important, but the team shouldn’t stop with this strategy.]

3. Both a. and b. [Correct! The team members will get the best results if they use both of these search strategies.]

5. Sarah realized that the order for doing the best research most often includes these steps

1. Select topic, select keywords, do search, read and understand results, create product [The first steps are fine, but most often, it is not a straight shot from topic selection to product creation, as implied by this set of activities. Try again.]

2. Select topic, select keywords, do search, read and understand results, revise search and return to the process as needed, create product [This is a great strategy to follow. It is important to realize that topics and search strategies are revised throughout the process and this has an effect on searching for and finding information. The best researchers don’t skip this part of the process.]

3. Check for online assistance on the library’s website, do the search, revise the search as needed, create product [A number of steps are missing in this strategy. Look for a better one.]

Return to the text

Chapter 4: Gather

Elements of a Citation

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Chapter 4: Gather

Exercise: Primary Sources [Answer Key]

1. Where would you find a speech by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in which he said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”?

1. Web site of Presidential Speeches [It is true, it should be here, but where else would it be found?]

2. Newspaper article dated Oct. 29, 1941 [It is true, it should be here, but where else would it be found?]

3. A print publication titled “Vital Speeches of the Day,” which has been published since 1934 [It is true, it should be here, but where else would it be found?]

4. All of the above [Yes, you are right. All three would contain the speech.]

2. Which of the following sources is the most likely to contain an interview with Steven Spielberg about his film “Lincoln,” produced in 2012?

1. Article from a news magazine dated November 23, 2012 [Yes, this is quite likely]

2. A blog written by a fan of Steven Spielberg [This might be possible, but there is a more likely source]

3. IMDb –A large online database of movie and television information [Databases may contain full-text information sources, but usually lead you to other resources. See if you can select a better choice.]

4. All of the above [No, two of these answers are not likely. See if you can select a better choice.]

3. Which source would have the original copy of a diary written a woman who lived in Tennessee during the Civil War?

1. The Library of Congress American Memory Project web site [It is possible that they would have mounted a digital version on their site, but it would be a replica of the original.]

2. The Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. [Yes, you are right!]

3. Local public library’s collection [This is unlikely. They might have a later reprinting, if the diary was published, but not the original.]

4. All of the above [You will want to pick the best answer of the other three choices]

4. Which of the following is a primary source?

1. A review of the film “Lincoln” by Steven Spielberg [Because a review is a commentary on a primary source, the review isn’t primary (but the film itself would be!) Try again to determine which is primary.]

2. A nonfiction book about the Civil War titled The Fall of the House of Dixie : The Civil War and the Social Revolution that Transformed the South [The author would have used primary sources when writing this book, but the book itself is secondary. Try again to determine which is primary.]

3. The Facebook privacy policy [Yes, you are right. Facebook wrote their own privacy policy (it is worth taking a look at), so it would be primary]

4. A reporter’s article about an event that happened yesterday, written from information gathered from bystanders [The reporter’s article itself is secondary. He used primary sources (the bystanders) as background material for the article. Try again to determine which is primary.]

Return to the text

Chapter 4: Gather

Exercise: Identifying Citations [Answer Key]

1. Joshi, M. (2013). Inclusive institutions and stability of transition toward democracy in post-civil war states. Democratization. 20(4), 743-770.

1. Journal Article [Correct!]

2. Book [You will notice there is a volume number and page numbers. Therefore, it isn’t a book.]

3. Book Chapter [Did you see the name of a publisher? Books always have that as a part of the citation.]

2. Janney, Caroline E. Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: 2013. Print

1. Journal Article [Did you see a volume number? Or page numbers? Try again.]

2. Book [Exactly right]

3. Book Chapter [If it were a book chapter, there would be a chapter title, and page numbers. Knowing this, what would you select now?]

3. Blattman, Christopher and Edward Miguel. “Civil War.” Journal of Economic Literature 48.1 (2010): 3-57. Print

1. Journal Article [Correct!]

2. Book [You will notice there is a volume number and page numbers. Therefore, it isn’t a book.]

3. Book Chapter [Did you see the name of a publisher? Books always have that as a part of the citation.]

4. Barney, William L. “Rush to Disaster: Secession and the Slaves’ Revenge.” Secession Winter: When the Union Fell Apart. Robert J. Cook, William L. Barney and Elizabeth R. Varon. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013. 77-96. Print

1. Journal Article [While there are page numbers, there is also a publisher, which is not an element of journal article citations. Choose again.]

2. Book [Secession Winter is a book, but what is being cited here is “Rush to Disaster.” Select again. ]

3. Book Chapter [You are right.]

5. Cooper, W. J. (2012) We have the war upon us: The onset of the Civil War, November 1860-April 1861. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

1. Journal Article [Did you see a volume number? Or page numbers? Try again.]

2. Book [Exactly right]

3. Book Chapter [If it were a book chapter, there would be a chapter title, and page numbers. Knowing this, what would you select now?]

6. Cockrell, T. (2013). Patriots or Traitors: Unionists in Civil War Mississippi. In M.B. Ballard (Ed.), Of times and race: Essays inspired by John F. Marzalek (pp 23-35). Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi.

1. Journal Article [While there are page numbers as many articles have, there is also a publisher, which is not an element of journal article citations. Choose again.]

2. Book [Of Times and Race is a book, but what is being cited here is “Patriots or Traitors.” Select again.]

3. Book Chapter [You are right.]

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