CGHS Library

Believe It or Not

Credibility 1:

Science for Life
Iowa Source

Credibility 2:

Yeti King Crab

Credibility 3:

A Wrong Diagnosis
Mayo Clinic Diagnosis

Credibility 4:

Huffington Post
Fox News

Credibility 5:

Mythbusters
Moon Hoax

 

 

 

Credible

"what they say makes sense to me"

Informative

 “this site has a ton of information on this topic” 

 Authoritative

 “this page is from an agency of the government that deals with these issues all the time” 

 Useful

 “not everything on here is correct, but everything I’ve tried has worked out really well….” 

Created by: HackCollege

Are You Really a Digital Native?

Exploding the ‘Myth of the Digital Native’

The most alarming finding in the ERIAL studies was perhaps the most predictable: when it comes to finding and evaluating sources in the Internet age, students are downright lousy.

Only seven out of 30 students whom anthropologists observed at Illinois Wesleyan “conducted what a librarian might consider a reasonably well-executed search,” wrote Duke and Andrew Asher, an anthropologist at Bucknell University, whom the Illinois consortium called in to lead the project.

Throughout the interviews, students mentioned Google 115 times -- more than twice as many times as any other database. The prevalence of Google in student research is well-documented, but the Illinois researchers found something they did not expect: students were not very good at using Google. They were basically clueless about the logic underlying how the search engine organizes and displays its results. Consequently, the students did not know how to build a search that would return good sources. (For instance, limiting a search to news articles, or querying specific databases such as Google Book Search or Google Scholar.)

Duke and Asher said they were surprised by “the extent to which students appeared to lack even some of the most basic information literacy skills that we assumed they would have mastered in high school.” Even students who were high achievers in high school suffered from these deficiencies, Asher told Inside Higher Ed in an interview.

In other words: Today’s college students might have grown up with the language of the information age, but they do not necessarily know the grammar.

“I think it really exploded this myth of the ‘digital native,’ ” Asher said. “Just because you’ve grown up searching things in Google doesn’t mean you know how to use Google as a good research tool.”

Inside Higher Ed, September 24, 2011 "What Students Don't Know", August 22, 2011

Ask For Help If You Need It!

One thing the librarians now know is that their students' research habits are worse than they thought.

At Illinois Wesleyan University, “The majority of students -- of all levels -- exhibited significant difficulties that ranged across nearly every aspect of the search process,” according to researchers there. They tended to overuse Google and misuse scholarly databases. They preferred simple database searches to other methods of discovery, but generally exhibited “a lack of understanding of search logic” that often foiled their attempts to find good sources.

However, the researchers did not place the onus solely on students. Librarians and professors are also partially to blame for the gulf that has opened between students and the library employees who are supposed to help them, the ERIAL researchers say. Librarians tend to overestimate the research skills of some of their students, which can result in interactions that leave students feeling intimidated and alienated, say the ERIAL researchers. Some professors make similar assumptions, and fail to require that their students visit with a librarian before embarking on research projects. And both professors and librarians are liable to project an idealistic view of the research process onto students who often are not willing or able to fulfill it.

“If we quietly hope to convert all students to the liberal ideals of higher education, we may miss opportunities to connect with a pragmatic student body,” wrote Mary Thill, a humanities librarian at Northeastern Illinois. “… By financial necessity, many of today’s students have limited time to devote to their research.” Showing students the pool and then shoving them into the deep end is more likely to foster despair than self-reliance, Thill wrote. “Now more than ever, academic librarians should seek to ‘save time for the reader.’ ”

Before they can do that, of course, they will have to actually get students to ask for help. That means understanding why students are not asking for help and knowing what kind of help they need, say the librarians.

Inside Higher Ed, September 24, 2011; "What Students Don't Know", August 22, 2011

Google Search

The whole POINT of Google search is that you just type in what you are looking for and the perfect link to the perfect page with the perfect answer comes right up. 

Right?

RIGHT?

Anything you do, the more you know, the faster and better you become, and that is as true of Google search as of anything else. If you learn a few tricks, your searches will be more likely to bring up the information you really need.

English III Explorers - Finding What You Need

Evaluating Online Information

How do you know if it's a reliable page? 

Run through the Google Quiz to hone your skills. 

Library Orientation

1. Arrangement

2. Checking out books and magazines and computers 

3. Finding what you need

    a. Web page (You are here!)

    b. Catalog (Look to the left for Catalog.)

    c. Advanced Google Search -Web Search Strategies

        i. Internet survival

            -Once it's out there, you can't take it back.

            -The newspaper is covered with the tearful faces of people who thought their online activity was private.

            -Treat people the way you like to be treated.

            -Straightforward and clearly written, this guide helps you understand how to make your Facebook presence secure.

        ii. How do you know if it's a reliable page? (Example - Walk through it.)

        iii. Cite it! (Look to the left for Citing Sources. Hint: Use easybib.)

    d. ILL

    e. Online Subscription Databases (Look up or to the left for Magazines, Newspapers, or Encyclopedias.)