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From small step to giant leap in research ability.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

Undergraduate students have access to enormous amounts of information yet often fail to understand how to locate and use information effectively and ethically. This article describes a unique collaboration that embeds the five information competencies in a specific course and delivers instruction in information literacy from both the content faculty and the librarian. Embedding the information competencies into the curriculum transforms a complex process into a series of small achievable steps and delivers instruction at the student's point of need, resulting in improved information literacy.

Introduction and Justification

Today more information than ever before is literally at our fingertips. Undergraduate students often rely solely on the widely available and easily accessible information on the Web for their research needs. A student researching obesity can go to a search engine such as Google and within 0.17 seconds link to 9,240,000 websites that discuss or mention the word obesity. While easy access to infinite sources of information is seemingly the stuff of dreams, the reality of the information age may be something more of a nightmare. Patricia Senn Breivik (2005), Chair of the National Forum on Information Literacy observes: "As far back as 1982, futurist John Naisbitt presciently wrote, 'We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge" (p. 22). Undergraduate students often fail to understand the basics of information retrieval and use. "Many students think that Google indexes the entire Web ... Most know nothing about the 'invisible Web' that includes research tools ... that index scholarly journals" (Grassian, 2004, p. 24). Both faculty and librarians report that undergraduate students "often use the Web indiscriminately. They copy and paste from all kinds of Web sites" (Grassian, 2004, p. 25). "The digital age makes it easy for students to plagiarize" (Sterngold, 2004, p. 16). Undergraduates often do not know the differences between popular and scholarly publishing, and are unfamiliar with the peer review process. In addition, in the face of the worldwide Web explosion, librarians are finding it increasingly difficult to promote the value of authoritative library resources.

The information age is rapidly transforming into an information crisis because students lack the understanding and tools with which to sift through the staggering amounts of information available on the Web. To begin to address this significant problem the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) have developed Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education of(ACRL, 2004). These standards identify and describe what an information literate individual needs to know and be able to do to function effectively in the information age. "Information literacy is a set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate and...

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