ADE634

Literacy in the 21st century is worlds away from past processes of defining and interpreting information. The new age of digital technology is redefining the ways we find, evaluate and process concepts. Information literacy—how we identify, locate, and evaluate information—is a crucial skill in all disciplines and levels of education.

it is incumbent on humanities instructors to teach undergraduates how to read websites and digital discovery tools with the same critical vigilance with which they are taught to read textual arguments

research has shown that most members of the “born digital” generation do not know how those tools work

the point is to spur students to “think critically and differently” about digital gateways and to “encourage new forms of close reading, knowledge production and interpretation” in the context of the modern information landscape

Based on how Google ranks search results, typing in a question will be more likely to bring back pages with a question for a title.

So I have students write down their questions and teach them how to mark them up to create queries, the first step being to identify the significant words.

Nouns frequently make good search terms, so students can start by drawing the people, places, and things in their questions.

What is Information Literacy?

You might think that I would respond by saying, "A great library is a great big library." But actually, I think a great library is one that stimulates curiosity.