ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 556 I C&RL News ■ July/August 1999 Make sure students know the basics by Jennifer W. Kim ball W ’e as librarians forget that w e sp e n d an entire graduate program learning how li­ braries w o rk an d h o w to scientifically extr w hat w e w ant from them. And then w e get frus­ trated w hen w e see that our students go through cursory library instruction an d still d o n ’t grasp the concepts involved in finding material in the reference collection! W e’re frustrated because of the w ealth that rem ains u n tap p ed by the students, precipitat­ ing ex asp erated rem arks ab o u t not finding enough, or even not finding anything, o n their topic. And, o f course, it’s frustrating to see them fail w h en w e w an t them to learn an d succeed. So it’s back to th e draw ing b o ard as far as les­ so n plans go: Should I revise? Should this part of the lesson b e allowed more time? Should the assignm ent b e m ore com plex o r is this o n e of those academic conquests that can only be made by re p e a te d practice over the course o f a few years? Since m ost o f us w h o teach also have refer­ ence desk hours, w e know the last statement to be true. The library is a four-year course (at the very least). O u r teaching occurs n o t only in classes, b u t also interm ittently th ro u g h o u t a student’s academic career via the reference desk. Inform ation literacy d o es n o t h a p p e n in one- shot bibliographic instruction. It happens over time, w ith diverse problem s to be solved, w ith the accum ulation of know ledge, an d w ith re­ acpte ated practice. Begin w here th ey are In m y third year as an academ ic reference li­ brarian, I still err on th e side o f assum ing too high a level of information comprehension, es­ pecially o f first-year students. This sem ester I spent an additional class p erio d w ith the first- year college writing classes, introducing them to W eb site evaluation. A handful o f carefully ch o sen URLs w ere exam ined by small groups w ithin th e class, an d each g ro u p re p o rte d its conclusions regarding th e validity o f the sites for academ ic research. I h a d anticipated them having som e difficulty in answ ering questions about currency, coverage, authority, and so on. I h ad n o t anticipated w hat surfaced as th e first hurdle. Several groups had trouble figuring out what th e p ag e w as actually about. T hey could not un d erstan d the inform ation presented. W hen they im m ediately sk ip p e d to th e list o f q u e s­ tions I asked them to exam ine in reference to th e site, it was, o f course, im possible for them to reach accurate conclusions, not having a grasp o f the first crucial piece o f know ledge: an u n ­ derstanding o f the basic m essage o f the W eb page. A bout th e author Jennifer 1/1/ Kim ball is reference librarian a t Eastern M ennonite University, e-mail: kimballj@emu.edu THE WAY I SEE IT Remember when you were information illiterate? mailto:kimballj@emu.edu C&RL News ■ July/August 1999 / 557 The lib rary is a four-year course (at the very least). T he sites I p ick ed w ere hardly obtuse; th e vocabulary w as not too difficult, the layout w as uncluttered, th e inform ation w as p resen ted in a logical flow. Yet, to o m any stu d en ts could not “read” it. T he assignm ent w ould have been a complete failure if I had not w orked w ith each struggling group to make sure the students com ­ p reh en d ed the basic m essage p resen ted in the text. What w ere th ey m issin g ? In the w ell-known “Feline Reactions to Bearded M en,”’ a g ro u p did n o t pick u p o n th e hu m o r o f th e findings, o r th e to n g u e-in -ch eek tone, m uch less the suspicious items in the bibliogra­ phy. In a site rep o rtin g a m o v em en t to curb smoking in restaurants”, som e groups could not tell if th e m ovem ent w as for o r against sm ok­ ing; they h a d difficulty determ ining the se p a ­ rate entities o f th e reporter an d th e anti-sm ok­ ing group; an d finding ou t that the site author w as pro-sm oking confused them even further. T here are plenty o f mistakes to b e m ade in teaching. Forgetting w hat it is like to b e a young college student should b e one that w e conquer. R em em ber w h e n y o u r professors, experts in a field, ask ed y o u to critique a n article o r book? Just barely introduced to the major them es of a topic, brand new to the nam es o f favorite schol­ ars qu o ted throughout th e literature, an d strug­ gling to co m p re h e n d th e m essage itself, w e som ehow w ere expected to sum m on the confi­ d en ce to yea o r naysay so m e o n e ’s h a rd w ork (p resen ted a p p aren tly eruditely, a n d ev en in p ro p e r publication format). R em em ber think­ ing, “Well, it got published, it m ust b e w orthy”? O u r students today, looking at W eb pages, are n o different. In th e first year o f college, stu­ dents are at the beginning o f a long road to in­ form ation literacy. W e c a n ’t skip to th e a d ­ v anced skills before they’ve grasp ed th e basic content. To teach successfully, w e begin w here they are. O nly th e n will th e lesson have a chance. Notes 1. h ttp ://w w w .im p r o b .c o m /a ir c h iv e s / cat.htm l 2. h ttp ://w w w .sp eak u p .o rg /p lan .h tm l ■ ( “Racing to w a rd … cont. fr o m p a g e 554) Buying a turnkey system requires an investment o f tim e an d m oney a n d special requests, such as rem oving o r reducing the prom inence o f the system’s logo, m ay w ell receive a response “on th e lines o f N o,” Shane said. An additional option now available is “Free R eserves.” This in-house system d e v elo p e d at SIUC, m ay n o w be dow nloaded free o f charge. Written in Perl, it is custom izable by individual libraries. Im provem ents m u st b e sen t back to SIUC so they can be shared by others using the Free Reserves system. As Shane said, “T ake it, change it, eat it for breakfast.” For m ore inform ation visit the W eb site at http://w w w .lib.um n.edu/san/freereserves/.— Jo h n Tombarge, W ashington &Lee University G e ttin g dow n to ” brass ta ck s” at ACR L S ession m o d e ra to r D an e W ard an d his co l­ leag u e s from W ayne State U niversity (WSU) p re s e n te d a n interesting a n d inform ative re ­ v iew o f th e ir efforts to in co rp o rate th e “Big 6 ” m o d e l o f inform ation literacy instruction into the undergraduate curriculum in their ses­ sion, “T h e Brass T acks o f Inform ation Lit­ eracy.” T h e p a n e l d e sc rib e d a fam iliar problem : H ow d o w e define “inform ation literacy” in a w ay m eaningful to librarians a n d classroom faculty? a n d H o w d o w e p ro m o te th e in co r­ p o ra tio n o f inform ation literacy skills across th e u n d erg rad u ate curriculum? By th e e n d o f th e session, a tte n d e e s h ad b e e n in tro d u c e d to th e in structional m odel c h o se n by WSU, h a d co m p leted a n engaging small- group exercise that asked them to brain­ storm co m m o n activities in reference a n d in ­ struction th a t m ight b e “m a p p e d ” to th e “Big 6” skills, an d h a d sh ared exem plary practices w ith th e entire session. Session attendees left the presentation w ith a n overview o f th e “Big 6” m odel o f instruc­ tion, som e go o d ideas ab o u t h o w their every­ day activities m ight relate to th e instructional m odel, an d several helpful handouts— includ­ ing a sam ple research assignm ent from a n u n ­ d erg ra d u a te sem in ar th at d em o n strated h o w “Big 6” skills an d information literacy concerns w e re b e in g successfully im p le m e n te d in the academ ic curriculum at WSU.— Scott Walter, University o f M issouri-Kansas City ■ http://www.improb.com/airchives/ http://www.speakup.org/plan.html http://www.lib.umn.edu/san/freereserves/.%e2%80%94 558 / C&RL News ■ July/August 1999