Reply To: Week 3: Argue a Point – "Reference" should include information literacy skills?

Home Forums Student forums Robynne Week 3: Argue a Point – "Reference" should include information literacy skills? Reply To: Week 3: Argue a Point – "Reference" should include information literacy skills?

#1003
Ruth McConchie
Participant

Thanks for your post Robynne. I agree that reference work should include some information literacy skills. I would extend your argument that information literacy skills are best taught face-to-face, but most reference work is easier online. I work in an academic library and the example that comes to mind is the question I get asked once a week: What is a call number? There are students that wander up and down the stacks because they have no idea how to find books in the catalogue. I wish at some point before they reached university they had badgered a reference librarian to teach them how to fish. This question is actually quite awkward to answer online, you can send them a link to Wikipedia about the Dewey decimal system and hope that they work it out from there. In person, it is much easier. You can show them how to find it. Helping students access a journal article they can’t find is easier online, because you can send them the steps (websites) you used to get there and they can follow in real time. It isn’t as easy in person because they have to repeat your steps later. I agree with Chris that library classes would help, but if people don’t know that they have the capabilities to fish, and they aren’t hungry because the fish keeps being given to them, how can you teach them to fish?