Retractions and Scholarly Malfeasance
Peer Review creates a barrier to entry by bad actors that ensures that more effort is required to get inaccurate information published in a context that lends it extra credibility.
That barrier is not foolproof. Whether its replication problems or intentional manipulation of data, being informed requires being aware of whether the information we pass to students and peers is accurate. Checking for retractions before assigning a work as required reading helps to ensure relevance. The library Quick Search tool can assist with this.
Retraction Watch can assist with identifying papers that have been highly contested or withdrawn.
Semantic Scholar is a search tool that makes it easy to find how often an article has been cited, whether those citations are favorable or not, and makes the references of a paper easily accessible to explore whether those references have strong merit. Broadly it makes tracking the life cycle of a paper and positioning it within a broader literature more convenient.
What can the library do for you?
Did you know that you have a library liaison? Any librarian can help you but certain librarians have been tasked with taking a closer look at programs and working with instructors to try to identify needs the library can assist with.
We are interested in building relationships with our colleagues for the purposes of developing tailored inquiry skills lessons that can be delivered by librarians or instructors, improving the quality of our print and digital collection, procuring other study aides as appropriate such as our Maker Space and health professions models.
Find your liaison and further reading about what we have to offer.
- Information Fluency Student Learning OutcomesDid you know that like any other discipline, information fluency has standards and learning objectives? The Association of College and Research Libraries adopted its latest guidance, the Framework for Information Literacy in 2015. SCF Librarians in turn have mapped this to the Dearing Assessment.
Literature Review
Did you know that we have a variety of materials you can utilize if you're interested in going deeper into the mechanics of learning and applying information fluency principles to your practice?
Some of these take the form of books. However you can also use our databases to seek out journal literature for your subject area and also information literacy / fluency. Up to date information is only an Advanced Search for your discipline away! Need a refresher? We have tutorials!
Books Available and Discussion: for more examples of this literature, use our advanced search option to conduct a Subject search for Information Literacy. Unfamiliar with our search tool? Here's a helpful refresher.
Getting the Buggers to Find Out: Information Skills and Learning How to Learn by ISBN: 1282875353Publication Date: 2008-09-15There is a necessary balance between knowledge and knowing how to find out - between having the key facts in your head, having the understanding of how to use them, and having the skill to draw on extra resources too. Information literacy is as important as traditional reading literacy and it incorporates a wide range of skills which are essential in the modern world. Many of the skills already feature in the curriculum, though because they are not usually brought together, too often there is no coherent approach to how they are learned. They are relevant to every teacher and every pupil; they feature in every curriculum subject; they are cross-curricular in every sense - yet because they belong to everyone they are owned by no-one." Duncan Grey This fascinating and innovative book contains a variety of strategies to help teachers develop students' information and literacy skills. Accessible and entertaining, Duncan Grey's superb guide brims with practical strategies and lesson ideas to help every student to answer every question
Metaliteracy by Call Number: ZA3075 .M327 2014ISBN: 9781555709891Publication Date: 2014-04-08Today's learners communicate, create, and share information using a range of information technologies such as social media, blogs, microblogs, wikis, mobile devices and apps, virtual worlds, and MOOCs. In Metaliteracy, respected information literacy experts Mackey and Jacobson present a comprehensive structure for information literacy theory that builds on decades of practice while recognizing the knowledge required for an expansive and interactive information environment. The concept of metaliteracy expands the scope of traditional information skills (determine, access, locate, understand, produce, and use information) to include the collaborative production and sharing of information in participatory digital environments (collaborate, produce, and share) prevalent in today's world. Combining theory and case studies, the authors Show why media literacy, visual literacy, digital literacy, and a host of other specific literacies are critical for informed citizens in the twenty-first century Offer a framework for engaging in today's information environments as active, selfreflective, and critical contributors to these collaborative spaces Connect metaliteracy to such topics as metadata, the Semantic Web, metacognition, open education, distance learning, and digital storytelling This cutting-edge approach to information literacy will help your students grasp an understanding of the critical thinking and reflection required to engage in technology spaces as savvy producers, collaborators, and sharers.
Teaching Information Literacy Reframed by Call Number: ZA3075 .B87 2016ISBN: 9780838913970Publication Date: 2016-06-02Offering a solid starting point for understanding and teaching the six threshold concepts in the Framework, Burkhardt's guidance will help instructors create their own local information literacy programs.
Information Fluency Research
Recent entries into the discourse. These are handpicked examples that demonstrate just how pervasive information literacy / fluency is in its consequences for our lives and discussions of specific interventions to try to understand how people react to particular strategies for delivering information and experiences.
Discovered using a Subject Search with the key words: Information Literacy and sorted by Date New.
- Epistemological orientations of ideal pedagogical practices in higher education: Perspectives of lecturersFrom the abstract:
"This study investigated the epistemic conventions of pedagogical practices in higher education (HE) from the viewpoints of lecturers...... lecturers considered students' ability to engage in self-regulated practices such as perusing course outline, concomitant with reading and making their own notes prior to lectures to be momentous pedagogical practices....Management in HE should prioritise the teaching of Information Literacy and Language Literacy courses such as Communicative Skills (variously expressed elsewhere as Use of English, Writing across the Curriculum, General Composition, and Academic Writing)." - Sleep hygiene behaviors mediate the association between health/e-health literacy and mental wellbeing.From the description: " Health literacy and e-health literacy are important factors helping people shape awareness of health behaviours in different aspects, including sleep hygiene behaviours. Good sleep hygiene behaviours promote sleep quality and are beneficial to overall mental wellbeing. We aimed to examine if sleep hygiene behaviours may mediate the association between health literacy/e-health literacy and mental wellbeing."
- #RealBleachers: Black Women's Knowledge of Skin Whitening RisksFrom the abstract: "Skin whitening, or also referred to as bleaching or lightening, is a skin regiment that works to reduce pigmentation in the skin, to commonly treat skin issues like discoloration, acne scars, hyperpigmentation, age spots, or whiten naturally dark skin. The purpose of this study was to understand Black women’s knowledge and how they communicate about health impacts of skin whitening, providing insight into users’ health literacy of skin whitening products and use, based on levels of knowledge of ingredients in products. An autoethnographic approach, triangulated with in-depth interviews, and field and participant observations, reveal what Black women know about, and how Black women use skin whitening products; how Black women conceptualize the risks relative to the knowledge of products content and potential impacts, and strategies of communication that could enhance health literacy."
- BookTok 101: TikTok, Digital Literacies, and Out-of-School Reading PracticesFrom the abstract: "There has been a noticeable shift in how young readers approach reading where digital literacy communities serve as much purpose as traditional literacy communities like an ELA classroom. This article offers an introduction to TikTok and BookTok as well as several methods of integrating TikTok into classrooms. As the sub-community for book lovers and readers, BookTok is connected to a lineage of literacy practices. Despite the newness of TikTok, these democratized spaces provide teen readers with agency, community, and digital literacies for their voices, ideas, and creativity to take shape. By including or acknowledging BookTok literacy practices in ELA classrooms, teachers have the potential to hinge on digital literacies that are ultimately shaping students and their cultural understandings."
Information and Instruction Practices
These sites have as their mission an explicit focus on exploring information literacy practices, applying those practices to learning, or represent opportunities for demonstrating the practical use of reasoning and inquiry skills.
- American News Deserts Map (from Columbia Journalism Review)While not explicitly focused on classroom instruction, this map highlights where local text news is unavailable or very limited, and may provide an opportunity to show students real world applications of research skills. For reasons that will become apparent when using this tool, focusing on local concerns is in some ways more challenging than sourcing information on national and global issues. Trying to untangle local concerns may be more satisfying for students who are overwhelmed by big picture topics or don't feel a connection to national issues.
- Association of College and Research Libraries Information Literacy SandboxBrowse for lesson plans and presentations that address various "metaliteracy" concepts: information fluency, media literacy, "fake news" etc. from an information studies perspective. Submitted for and by librarians and instructors.
- The Citation Project"The Citation Project is a series of research studies on source use. Their purpose is to provide data and analyses that can help with educators' questions about plagiarism, information literacy, and the teaching of source-based writing. By collecting data and replicating or adapting the methods of other studies to analyze it, ongoing Citation project research builds on and extends the work of other scholars, generating deeper and more nuanced understanding of source-based writing."
One finding of The Citation Project worthy of further consideration is patch writing as a product of weak paraphrasing and information gathering skills rather than an active choice to plagiarize. - Critical Thinking in Academic ResearchCritical Thinking in Academic Research is a Creative Commons licensed textbook that explicitly teaches Critical Thinking by breaking it down into a set of specific, practical skills that strongly overlap with information fluency and other meta literacies. There are many examples of exercises that can be used as is to model challenging reflexive thinking and engaging with evidence.
- Project Information Literacy (PIL)From the website: "Project Information Literacy (PIL) is a nonprofit research institute that conducts national, ongoing scholarly studies on how early adults find and use information as they progress through, and beyond, their higher education years. We work in small teams (5-6 research practitioners) on large-scale studies using a collaborative research approach, mixed methods, and multi-institutional samples, drawn from U.S. four-year and community college and university campuses."
SCF Instructors and students may be interested in PIL's reports on how college students and new graduates seek and use information and their perceived needs and deficits.