Fighting Fake News with the Framework for Information Literacy

A recent Stanford study found a “dismaying” number of students, from middle school to college, were unable to distinguish between ads and edited articles, activist organizations’ tweets and investigative reporting, and mainstream news sources versus fringe tabloids on the left and the right. If the study had extended beyond college graduates, no doubt the results would be similar. These days, understanding the information landscape and evaluating sources requires more due diligence than it did mere decades ago. The markers of reliability have become obscured or worse, counterfeited.

This is part of the reason we have moved away from “teaching the tools” at McIntyre Library. Up until the 21st century, information literacy instruction focused on skills based standards. But, unsurprisingly, many of the more basic skills were easy for students to pick up on. They could handle interfaces.  They had a harder time formulating searches, understanding what their searches were yielding, recognizing what was crapola, and figuring out how their findings fit together.

The Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, which the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) adopted in 2015, focuses less on skills and more on ideas, dispositions and abilities that college students can develop over time. The six frames represent interconnected concepts. For example, students learning about the role of citation within a discipline might touch upon “Information has Value,” but also “Scholarship as a Conversation.” The goal of the Framework is that students will not only understand the information world of the academy, but also become self-directed consumers and creators of information in the communities they participate in.

The Framework often encourages students to look at the whole rhetorical context of their research. When a student types a natural language query into a library database, much as they would with Google, like “What are the best cures for addiction?” we could offer them guidance and our opinions on the advantages and disadvantages some of the search terms. But more useful for their future searches is a conversation about how their topic is discussed by health professionals, therapists, reporters. We also often draw upon the rhetorical analysis skills our students learn in their Writing courses to provide a robust method for evaluating sources. It’s a method that takes into account the complexity of the information world we work with. And when it comes to fake news and fake science, we can talk about the frame “Authority is constructed and contextual,” helping students understand how authority can be mimicked and false contexts can be created.

The Full Framework comes with descriptions, dispositions and knowledge practices. If you are interested in working on one or more of the frames in an assignment, please contact one of the Research & Instruction Librarians. It’s not just for librarians anymore!


The Frames

AUTHORITY IS CONSTRUCTED AND CONTEXTUAL
Information resources reflect their creators’ expertise and credibility, and are evaluated based on the information need and the context in which the information will be used. Authority is constructed in that various communities may recognize different types of authority. It is contextual in that the information need may help to determine the level of authority required.

INFORMATION CREATION AS A PROCESS
Information in any format is produced to convey a message and is shared via a selected delivery method. The iterative processes of researching, creating, revising, and disseminating information vary, and the resulting product reflects these differences.

INFORMATION HAS VALUE
Information possesses several dimensions of value, including as a commodity, as a means of education, as a means to influence, and as a means of negotiating and understanding the world. Legal and socioeconomic interests influence information production and dissemination.

RESEARCH AS INQUIRY
Research is iterative and depends upon asking increasingly complex or new questions whose answers in turn develop additional questions or lines of inquiry in any field.

SCHOLARSHIP AS CONVERSATION
Communities of scholars, researchers, or professionals engage in sustained discourse with new insights and discoveries occurring over time as a result of varied perspectives and interpretations.

SEARCHING AS STRATEGIC EXPLORATION
Searching for information is often nonlinear and iterative, requiring the evaluation of a range of information sources and the mental flexibility to pursue alternate avenues as new understanding develops.

Did you get a haircut? Something looks different...

Actually, we tore down some walls and removed some vacant offices on the first floor. McIntyre Library is transitioning from a traditional quick-answer reference desk model to a Research Center layout that facilitates more in-depth collaborative and consultative interactions between librarians and students. 

As part of that transition, walls were removed, making librarian offices more accessible and opening up prime space overlooking the campus mall for student study space. 

Stay tuned as the space and the library service continue evolving this fall.

Images for Academic Publishing in Artstor

Paul Klee, The Man Under the Pear Tree
Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Initiated by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2007, Images for Academic Publishing (IAP) provides free print-quality images for use in scholarly publications.

Scholars at institutions that subscribe to Artstor can access these images through the Digital Library.

Simply add IAP to your search criteria; the eligible results will feature the IAP icon beneath the thumbnail image. 

Spotlight on Delivery

You can get library materials delivered to your office. So if you're in the weeds and don't have time to visit McIntyre, you can request items via library search.

1.  Make sure you are signed into Library Search.
2.  Find the item you would like to have delivered.
3.  Click "Get It" for the item you are requesting.
4.  Under "Pickup Location" select "Work Address"
   
   

Please try to limit your requests to 5 at a time.  Materials are delivered in the mornings, M-F.  You can expect to receive items within 48 hours of requesting them.  This delivery program excludes Interlibrary Loan and bulk materials.

And when you are done with them, you can use this form to schedule pickup.  

Voter registration at McIntyre

Encourage your students to register to vote. In keeping with the university’s mission to foster active citizenship, McIntyre Library will again be registering voters this year. Several library faculty/staff members are certified Special Registration Deputies (SRDs), and can register voters who reside in the city of Eau Claire. Students (and others) can stop by the McIntyre Library Research Center (Library 1001) to register during the following dates:

·         Feb. 17-Mar. 9

·         April 6-July 13

·         August 10-Oct. 12

ScienceDirect Freedom Collection

The UW System was able to renegotiate our contract with Elsevier, making the complete ScienceDirect Freedom Collection available on our campus for the first time.  The Freedom Collection, with over 1,850 active journal titles from 1995 to the current year, offers extensive coverage in science, engineering and medicine. It also contains many core journals in business, social sciences and humanities.  Articles and journals in the Freedom Collection will be accessible through Library Search and the Journal Titles list.

Library Search Tutorial

We now offer a standalone tutorial for Library Search. Using the Guide on the Side platform, this tutorial allows users to use Library Search in the main window while they proceed through the guide on the left hand side.  The guide covers identifying keywords, formulating a search, and narrowing and revising a search, as well as requesting items and emailing results.

There are two versions of the Library Search tutorial.

• A version with a quiz that can be printed or emailed is available using this URL: http://lib02.uwec.edu/Guide/tutorial/library-search The version is accessible from the Search box on the library home page.
• A version without the quiz is available in the Library Search box on the home page.

Mini-conferences: April 11-15; 18-22

Our mini-conferences during the Fall Semester were such a success, we've decided to expand our offerings to two weeks. Just like last semester, students will be able to pick a time-slot, sign-up and receive a reminder of their appointment. But students certainly don't have to wait until the mini-conference period to get individualized help from a librarian:

• Students can drop by the Research Center to work with a librarian or Peer Research Consultant
• Or they can make an appointment with a librarian at any time.  

And faculty encouragement is the most effective way to get to students to seek research help, so refer them to us, early and often.

Films on Demand in your D2L course

Many faculty assign content from Films on Demand for viewing outside of class. Thanks to LTS, there is now a handy guide on how to give students access to specific titles within your Course Content section in D2L.

Research Center replaces "Reference Desk"

The library reference desk is evolving into a Research Center – a name and collaborative space that better reflects and accommodates the changing nature of the research services we offer. 

Located on the 1^st floor of the library, in close proximity to librarian offices, the Research Center is primarily staffed by student Peer Research Consultants (PRCs) who work closely with librarians to provide high quality service and refer students as necessary.

We are adding tables and spaces more conducive to collaborative work, though some plans are currently on hold due to the budget situation. Eventually we plan to open up the Research & Instruction office space on the first floor, making access to librarians easier and sharing the beautiful view overlooking the campus mall with library patrons.

Please tell your students about Research Center. Your referrals are the most effective way to get students to use the library.

Research Center hours (during the semester): Sunday 5-9pm, Mon-Thurs 9am – 9pm, Fri 9am-4:30pm.

·         Phone: 715-836-3858

·         library.reference@uwec.edu

·         Online chat (www.uwec.edu/library)