Information Literacy Commons^™

An Interactive Tutorial: Evaluating Online Sources Through Lateral Reading, Andrea Baer, Daniel G. Kipnis

Libraries Scholarship

Critical evaluation of online sources has become a necessary skill in everyday life. With the prevalence of fake news, pseudoscience, and deep fake videos, how can a person determine if a source is legitimate? While in some cases it’s fairly obvious when a source is suspect, at other times determining a source’s credibility isn’t so straightforward.

Recent research indicates that both university professors and college students have difficulty recognizing misleading online sources that at first glance look reputable. The close reading skills that are key to much of academic work differ from the online evaluation strategies needed when quickly determining …

Exploring Wikipedia As A Tool For Community Building And Teaching And Learning, Timothy R. Dewysockie, Andrea Baer

Libraries Scholarship

Wikipedia has become a widely accepted information source. Wikipedia is also by its very nature centered on community and on building and growing knowledge collectively. However, many are still understandably skeptical of how credible Wikipedia content is, and a gap remains between how frequently we use Wikipedia and how well we understand it. Wikipedia creates an opening for exploring how information is created and circulated, how the information creation process is often negotiated collectively, and how to critically evaluate online information. This session will explore how Wikipedia can be a rich tool for both teaching information literacy and building community …

Small Actions, Grassroots Efforts, And Community Building: Inspiring Fresh Perspectives On Teaching Information Literacy In Uncertain Times, Andrea Baer, Daniel G. Kipnis

Libraries Scholarship

In this workshop two academic librarians will share about their grassroots approach to fostering civic and digital literacies through their work in teaching “lateral reading” and online source evaluation. We will reflect on how a small action, creating an online research guide, was a seed for growing roots - connections and relationships - and for expanding our own teaching and our educational outreach. While we’ll touch on work with lateral reading, our primary focus will be reflecting with fellow librarians on small actions as regenerative responses to burnout and as starting points for more collective engagement in civic literacy education. …

Click Restraint For Critical Online Source Evaluation, Andrea Baer, Daniel G. Kipnis

Libraries Scholarship

We turn to the Internet everyday for information about little things like when a local store opens, as well as about much bigger issues like how to manage critical health conditions or who to vote for. The search results we see first aren’t necessarily the most relevant; they may appear at the top of a list because that site has been visited often or because a company or organization has figured out how to “game the system” through “search engine optimization” (SEO). So how, in an effort to better understand an issue and to find trustworthy information, do we and …

Information Literacy In The Age Of Covid-19: Two Research Guides Implemented At Rowan University Libraries, Benjamin H. Saracco, Andrea Baer, Daniel G. Kipnis

Libraries Scholarship

This lightning talk will provide an overview of two projects faculty librarians undertook in response to the emerging information literacy needs of various stakeholders at Rowan University. The two projects include: a Covid-19 and misinformation online guide and a Covid-19 online research-focused guide for healthcare practitioners.

While these projects were created for different University populations with distinct informational needs (teachers, students, the general public, medical practitioners/researchers), a common theme across these projects was librarians quickly filling information gaps in response to the global Covid-19 pandemic.

Presented at Virtual Academic Library Environment of New Jersey (VALE) virtual conference January 7, 2022.