Reading Response #5

Information Navigation 101

New programs teach undergraduates how to use the Internet and the online card catalog in search of the best sources

By ANDREA L. FOSTER

Summary:

In short this article talks about how college students use technology for almost every activity throughout the day whether its listening to music on an ipod or updating information on a social network and yet are still uninformed when it comes to academic research. This article like many of the other articles we’ve read states that students rely heavily on Google and Wikipedia as sources and remains in the dark about scholarly information. The article stresses that there is an abundance of information and that only fuels the students’ confusion. The chancellor at California State mention that the library was the only source of information she had growing up and now there are choices all over the place with questioning integrity and status of authority. It also uses California State as an example of one of the schools whose professors encourage the use of scholarly information by the use of the school librarian as a part of information literacy. Information literacy programs are developing and are now being considered as a measure of an institutions performance and colleges are forming mission statements around the issue. The article goes on to discuss the history of information literacy and states that some campuses even require students to prove their competence in the area and possible even a passing grade. However some are criticizing saying that information literacy is not a new movement. It’s something that has been there all along and that it’s a path leading to “irrelevancy because information seeking is going to become simpler.” There are about three hundred information-literacy sessions for students each semester.

Response:

This article like so many we’ve read before continue to bash students about their ignorance to scholarly information. However I personally believe that like everything else we have to learn - addition, subtraction, the periodic table – research is something that has to wound into a class such as English. While there is a movement going on where people are embracing information literacy – It’s not only a problem in colleges. This is a problem that wouldn’t need a solution if grade schools moved along with technology. We are taught at that age to use the library why not begin at that age how to use the computer. Schools are even having adolescents as young at ten turn in assignment that require some type of research. While ten is a bit young for scholarly information high school and even junior high might be the age to start because then it becomes second nature just like Google and yahoo or any other type of simple search engine on the Internet.