How to choose your news - Damon Brown (Jaime) How the media landscape has changed Media visionary Clay Shirky gave a TED Talk on how the media landscape has changed. “The moment we’re living through, the moment our historical generation is living through, is the largest increase in expressive capability in human history.” In other words, the amount of information we are capable of capturing is unprecedented. As a result, we need new techniques to filter through the information and need to work much harder than previous generation to better understand our world. Watch Clay Shirky’s fascinating media discussion on TED-Ed. Understanding social media The TED Book “Our Virtual Shadow: Why We Are Obsessed with Documenting Our Lives Online” discusses the challenges of social media turning every day folks into journalists. You can read an excerpt of Our Virtual Shadow on the TED blog. Journalism can be much more than reporting.
How to do a literature review: Citation tracing, etc. (Christina) There is a number of academics (and coaches and consultants) who have both a strong presence online and do a marvellous job of writing excellent blog posts as guidance for undergraduate, graduate students and early career professors. Two of my favourite who write specifically about literature reviews are How To Do a Literature Review (written by Aurelie) and Literature Review HeadQuarters (written by Ben – see this helpful post of his on when to say “I already have enough literature, thankyouverymuch“). I would refer you to their websites so that you can learn a lot more about how to do literature reviews. Recently, I was asked to write about how I do literature reviews. In my case, there are a number of things I could share about how to write a literature review, but I want to focus on 3 major themes that I think are important to the way in which I write my own literature reviews: citation tracing, concept saturation and mind-mapping of results.
Teach Information Literacy & Critical Thinking! (Susan) Are you spending a lot of time helping your students do information research? Do they know the differences between scholarly and popular materials? Are they... using the web indiscriminately for research papers? These are symptoms of "information illiteracy." Save time and get better research papers by helping your students improve their information literacy skills. NOTE: See "Exercises & Handouts" in this site for an outline of a UCLA Graduate Teaching Assistant workshop on teaching information researching and critical thinking skills to undergraduates, as well as a copy of the PowerPoint slide show. Questions, corrections, or suggestions for additions to this site? ATTRIBUTION This site was originally created in 2009 by Esther Grassian as a LibGuide when she was Information Literacy Librarian in the UCLA College Library.
Esther Grassian (Susan) Esther Grassian received an MLS in 1969 from the UCLA Graduate School of Library and Information Science (in later years joined with the UCLA Graduate School of Education and renamed the UCLA Information Studies Department). She retired from the UCLA College Library in June 2011 after 41 years serving in a variety of reference, instruction and management positions, including Reference/Instruction Librarian, Electronic Services Coordinator, Instruction Coordinator, Interim Head of College Library, and Information Literacy Librarian. She was awarded Librarian of the Year in 1995 by the Librarians Association of the University of California, Los Angeles Division, and in 1998, was granted Distinguished Librarian status by the UCLA Library. As of February 2015, she is a part-time Adjunct Librarian at Pierce College, one of the nince Los Angeles Community Colleges. She and Joan R. Ms. June 2012, Ms.
Searching Online (Jenna) Searching online can be both beneficial and frustrating. You may find vast amounts of information, or you may not find the kinds of information you're looking for. Searching online will provide you with a wealth of information, but not all of it will be useful or of the highest quality. The internet is a superb resource, but it doesn't contain all the information that you can find at a library or through library online resources. The Internet is a complex and ever-evolving place. Finally, search engines don't always search the entire page; many search engines will only index the first 100 to 500k of each page. Additionally, not all of the information located on the Internet can be found via search engines. With this in mind, knowing a few search strategies and hints can make the search more profitable.
Writing Commons CORA (Nikita) Writing Commons is an open education resource that helps students improve their writing, critical thinking, and information literacy. Founded in 2008 by Joseph M. Moxley, Writing Commons is a viable alternative to expensive writing textbooks. Faculty may assign Writing Commons for their composition, business, STEM/Technical Writing, and creative writing courses. Writing Commons houses seven main sections: Information Literacy | Research Methods & Methodologies | Writing Processes | Collaboration | Genres | New Media | Style Evaluating News Sources | Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers Evaluating news sources is one of the more contentious issues out there. People have their favorite news sources and don’t like to be told that their news source is untrustworthy. For fact-checking, it’s helpful to draw a distinction between two activities: News Gathering, where news organizations do investigative work, calling sources, researching public documents, checking and publishing facts, e.g. the getting the facts of Bernie Sanders involvement in the passage of several bills.News Analysis, which takes those facts and strings them into a larger narrative, such as “Senator Sanders an effective legislator behind the scenes” or “Senator Sanders largely ineffective Senator behind the scenes.” Most newspaper articles are not lists of facts, which means that outfits like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times do both news gathering and news analysis in stories. Narratives are a different matter.
Goodbye, Boring Database Instruction. Hello, Search App Smackdown! (Ryan) Illustrations By Lars Leetaru Librarians are keenly aware of the value of teaching students to use databases. But has your “tried-and-true” instructional approach to these resources become “tired-and-boring?” If so, flip your instruction into a Search App Smackdown! This fun, challenging, and competitive gaming approach meets the American Association of School Librarians’ 21st-Century Learning Standards, skillfully integrating technology and standards by putting kids in the driver’s seat. First of all…databases? We know what they are, and why they’re important. I know that my students must learn how to use databases to access to quality information, be ready for college-level work, and develop solid research habits. I’ve discovered that the selling point for using databases is efficiency. Prep for the Smackdown! Based on previous student and teacher feedback, I selected the databases (see p. 38) that the ninth graders needed now (and through their sophomore year) for academic success.
Facilitating for The Messy Mind (Ryan) Short Description: Through a partnership between english composition and library faculty, a composition course focused on the exploration of discourse communities and led to student engagement with the ACRL frames, authority is constructed and contextual and scholarship as conversation. The faculty aimed to incorporate components of contemplative pedagogy into the course through the use of highly-facilitated classroom discussions to tackle the messy mind. Learning Outcomes: Recognize that authoritative content may be packaged formally or informally and may include sources of all media types (Knowledge Domain) Identify both opportunities and barriers to entering scholarly conversations (Knowledge Domain) Give examples of the tools available to access and share authoritative content (Comprehension Domain) Consider ways to contribute to scholarly conversations at an appropriate level (Evaluation Domain) Course Context (e.g. how it was implemented or integrated):
Search Better: All About Online Search (Lisa R.) In this free lesson, you'll learn all about online search and what it means to use searching online to your advantage. Introduction to searching online In today's world, more and more things are done online. Even if you don't consider yourself a computer person, you now need computer skills in order to conduct research, shop online, keep in touch with family, and more. The ability to search for information online is one of the most important information literacy skills you can possess. By improving your search skills, you can find what you're looking for more quickly without having to sift through tons of irrelevant results. A closer look With the right strategy, you can tackle even the most difficult searches. Introduction to search engines Search engines are specialized websites that can help you find what you're looking for. With these three search engines in mind, you may be wondering, What's the difference? Not necessarily. Your browser's search bar may be set to Google by default.
Research Exploration Exercise | CORA Casey W.(90) Short Description: This assignment is designed to help students develop a thoughtful research topic. Students go through a series of steps, questions, and background reading to help them better understand and refine a research topic. Course Context (e.g. how it was implemented or integrated): This exercise is due week 3, usually before library instruction. Using a Topic Development exercise, students will explore and conduct preliminary research on three separate research topics. This is the first assignment in a sequence of writing and oral assignments (followed by a Research Proposal, Annotated Bibliography, Persuasive Research Paper, etc.). Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: Some students may think this is busy work.
Locating Plays - Theatre & Performance Studies Research Guide - LibGuides@UMD Libraries (Casey C.) Search for Plays by Title (Use BASIC SEARCH) Strategy #1 - Title Beginning With... Play Title: Mother Courage and Her Children Step 1: Using the Catalog and the Basic Search; type the title of the play in the title beginning with... search box. Can't find your play? Many plays are published in collections and anthologies, and will not be retrieved when conducting a title search. To find out if your play is published in a collection or anthogology, use Strategy #2. Strategy #2 - Word/s Anywhere... Play Title: Joe Turner's Come and Gone Step 1: Using the Catalog and the Basic Search; type the title of the play in the word/s anywhere search box* *Expert Tip: Put quotations (") around your play title to search for the words as a phrase. Step 2: Click on a title from the search results. Example: Twelve Plays for Theatre [edited by] Robert Cohen. Step 3: Look at the full record. Step 4: Check availability, note the location and call number Still can't find your play?