Monday, February 19, 2007

Introduction to Information Literacy

In my humble opinion this is a better title for a course that traditionally is called "Bibliography". Of course many of my Russian colleagues will ask - "WHY"? The answer is rather simple. Usually this course contains not only the rules of bibliographical description, but the students are also taught some practical things on using library catalogues (card and e-catalogues), searching Internet and subscribed databases.
Lots of information for my lecture I've taken from the site, devoted to Information Literacy.
We've discussed the definitions of IL, the skills (or competencies) that are required to be information literate.

CILIP says that
Information literacy is knowing when and why you need information, where to find it, and how to evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical manner.

This definition implies several skills. We believe that the skills (or competencies) that are required to be information literate require an understanding of:
a need for information
the resources available
how to find information
the need to evaluate results
how to work with or exploit results
ethics and responsibility of use
how to communicate or share your findings
how to manage your findings.

The next lecture will be devoted to bibliographical description. My task as a lecturer and as a librarian to explain my students this difficult topic in such a way, that they understand everything. If you have some teaching experience on this topic - please, tell.

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