INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION LITERACY

1. INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION LITERACY By G. Kadyamatimba and B. Mabika

2. LEARNING OUTCOMES • Distinguish between data and information • Understand the concept of Information Literacy. • Understand the importance of Information Literacy. • Understand the skills and abilities of an information literate individual. • Identify the different sources of information and their purpose

3. WHAT IS DATA? Data is Information in raw or unorganised form ( such as alphabets, numbers or symbols) that refer to, or represent conditions, ideas or objects https.//www.google.co.zw/………..(Accessed 09/03/15)

4. INFORMATION Information has many definitions: • According to the American Library Association (ALA), information is “... all ideas, facts, and imaginative works of the mind which have been communicated, recorded , published and/ or distributed formally or informally in any format.”

5. INFORMATION Cont... • Scott (2012) defines information as “Data which has been recorded, classified, organized, related, or interpreted within a framework so that meaning emerges.”

6. INFORMATION Cont... From the definitions given above, we can say that information • is connected to knowledge and communication • consist of spoken words, written communication, sheets of music, photographs, paintings and scientific formulae. • must have a context from which we can understand it. • must have a meaning. • comes from many sources. • can be discovered and created (research)

7. INFORMATION LITERACY • Scott (2012) defines information literacy as “the ability to find, evaluate, and use information efficiently, effectively, and ethically to answer an information need.” • Bothma (2008) defines information literacy as a set of abilities to know when information is needed, to be able to find and evaluate information and use the information that was found. It is a set of abilities that are used in everyday in the workplace, at home, at University and school – everywhere

8. INFORMATION LITERACY Cont.. • Writing an assignment or a research paper is an information literacy process. It involves finding and applying information to answer your research questions to either support or disprove your hypothesis. To do this well, you want to evaluate the information you use to ensure its quality and authenticity, while doing this you need to give credit to the people whose ideas you use.

9. INFORMATION LITERATE STUDENT Doyle (1992) defined an information literate person as one who: • Recognizes the need for information; • Recognizes that accurate and complete information is the basis for intelligent decision making; • Identifies potential sources of information; • Develops successful search strategies;

10. INFOR.. LIT.. STUDENT Cont... • Accesses sources of information, including computer-based and other technologies; • Evaluates information; • Organizes information for practical application; • Integrates new information into an existing body of knowledge, and; • Uses information in the process of critical thinking and problem solving.

11. SKILLS FOR AN INFORMATION LITERATE INDIVIDUAL According to The Association of College and Research Libraries document called Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, aninformation literate individual should be able to:

12. SKILLS Cont.. • Determine the extent of information needed. If you need only a quick fact or definition, then you do not have to consult multiple sources and find 10 research articles. You only need to consult an encyclopaedia or dictionary. If you have to write a paper, then using an encyclopaedia will not give you enough information to answer your research question. • Access the needed information effectively and efficiently. You know where to look and how to look for the information you need, and you can find it quickly.

13. SKILLS Cont.. • Evaluate information and its sources critically, and incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base. You can determine if the information you found is appropriate to your research and whether the information, or its source, is good or bad, and you learn from all that information you gathered. • Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose. You write your research paper, develop your new process or market a product, and accomplish your task well.

14. SKILLS Cont... • Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally (Association of College and Research Libraries 2000). You understand the concept of intellectual property and know the consequences of plagiarizing someone else’s ideas. You know how to cite your sources. http://www.scu.edu/docs/SCU/Library/Orradre/services/reference/is/infolit/homepage.html

15. IMPORTANCE OF INFORMATION LITERACY • According to the Association of Research and College Libraries, Information literacy forms the basis of lifelong learning. It is common to all disciplines, to all learning environments, and to all levels of education. It enables learners to master content and extend their investigations, become self-directed, and to assume greater control over their own learning.

16. IMPORTANCE OF INFORMATION LITERACY Cont.. • Leadership for the Future Terry Crane, VP for Education Products at AOL, writes in the September 2000 issue of Converge, “Young people need a baseline of communication, analytical, and technical skills. We are no longer teaching about technology, but about information literacy—which is the process of turning information into meaning, understanding, and new ideas. Students need the thinking, reasoning, and civic abilities that enable them to succeed in—and ultimately lead—a contemporary democratic economy, workforce, and society.”

17. IMPORTANCE OF INFORMATION LITERACY Cont... • Function as A Lifelong Learner "Within today's information society, the most important learning outcome for all students is their being able to function as independent lifelong learners. The essential enabler to reaching that goal is information literacy." http://bivir.uacj.mx/dhi/DoctosNacioInter/INFORMATIONLITERACYANDLIFELONGLEARNING.htm

18. IMPORTANCE OF INFORMATION LITERACY Cont... • Essential for future success Anthony Comper, president of the Bank of Montreal - “whatever else you bring to the 21st century workplace, however great your technical skills and however attractive your attitude and however deep your commitment to excellence, the bottom line is that to be successful, you need to acquire a high level of information literacy. What we need in the knowledge industries are people who know how to absorb and analyze and integrate and create and effectively convey information—and who know how to use information to bring real value to everything they undertake”.

19. IMPORTANCE OF INFORMATION LITERACY Cont... • Avoiding Information Overload The complex world in which we live today contains an abundance of information choices—print, electronic, image, sound, visual, and numeric. The issue is no longer one of not having enough information; it is just the opposite—too much information, in various formats and not all of equal value. In a time of millions Internet sites, billions Web pages, and more than a million items in a typical medium-sized academic library, the ability to act confidently (and not be paralyzed by information overload) is critical to academic success and personal self-directed learning.

20. IMPORTANCE OF INFORMATION LITERACY Cont... • Problem Solvers Individuals who are knowledgeable about finding, evaluating, analyzing, integrating, managing, and conveying information to others efficiently and effectively are held in high esteem. These are the students, workers, and citizens who are most successful at solving problems, providing solutions, and producing new ideas and directions for the future. They are lifelong learners. Today’s students, then, can benefit throughout their lives from learning a process for becoming information literate—that is, acquiring the skills required to intelligently and systematically find, interpret, select, evaluate, organize, and use information for a specific purpose.

21. ORGANISATION OF INFORMATION There are 2 approaches to organizing information and these are format and content

22. FORMAT Format refers to the medium used to present or store the information. • Information comes in many configurations: -Paper -Audio (cds, audio cassette) -Visual (Digital video disk,(DVD), video cassette, images/pictures, sculptors , charts • Audio-visual (DVD, slide tapes)

23. FORMAT Cont... • Microform /microfilm - Large amounts of data for archival purposes • Digital/Electronic – computer hard disk, external drive, memory stick/flash stick , CD-ROM Formats affect the ease of access to information.

24. CONTENT • Content has two aspects • The subject of the information in an item • The characteristic of information in an item

25. THE SUBJECT • Most information is organized by subject or discipline. In a library setting, information on the same subject is grouped together. This practice is called classification and it creates order and easy retrieval of information resources in the Library (Library of Congress Classification scheme at CUT Library)

26. THE CHARACTERISTICS Information could be: • Primary • Secondary • Factual • Analytical • Subjective • Objective

27. PRIMARY SOURCES OF INFORMATION • These are original materials on which other research is based. • They are usually the first formal appearance of research results in the print or electronic literature.

28. PRIMARY SOURCES Cont... • They present information in its original form, neither interpreted nor condensed nor evaluated by other writers. • Not translated by anyone else. • Has not been published elsewhere

29. PRIMARY SOURCES Cont... Examples include: • Autobiographies • Correspondence • Diaries • Interviews • Paintings • Photographs • Research journals

30. SECONDARY SOURCES OF INFORMATION • Secondary sources are edited primary sources. • Repackaged primary sources • They represent someone else's thinking. • They describe, interpret, analyse and evaluate the primary sources. • They comment on and discuss the evidence provided by primary sources.

31. SECONDARY SOURCES Cont... Examples include: • Biographies • Bibliographies • books • literary criticism & interpretation • historical criticism • review articles

32. FACTUAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION These are also known as reference sources of information. • Provide quick answers to queries • Not normally read from cover to cover • Can be general or subject- oriented • Can be current or retrospective • Can be hard copy or electronic • made up of real facts/things that actually exists

33. FACTUAL SOURCES Cont... Examples include: • dictionaries • atlases • handbooks • directories • almanacs • catalogues

34. ANALYTICAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION Information in analytical source is usually provided by experts in a subject. • Interpretations • Analysis • Criticisms

35. ANALYTICAL SOURCES Cont... Examples include: • Reviews • Statistical digests • Dissertation/theses • Political commentaries • Books • Subject Encyclopedias • Reports

36. SUBJECTIVE SOURCES OF INFORMATION Subjective information advances a unilateral perspective on an issue for example an editorial in a newspaper • personal view(particular to a given individual) • Can emanate from a person's emotions • Not easily verified. • can be interpreted differently by other people; as opposed to "Objective" information

37. SUBJECTIVE SOURCES Cont... Examples include: • Individual opinion • Newspaper editorial • Political party manifestoes • Media

38. OBJECTIVE SOURCES OF INFORMATION Objective sources of information advance a balanced or impartial perspective. • Non-judgemental and balanced reporting • Without bias • Not influenced by personal feelings or interpretations • Presents all sides of a topic. • Helpful in decision-making. • Based on facts

39. OBJECTIVE SOURCES Cont... Examples include: • Encyclopaedias • Subject Dictionaries

40. ACADEMIC LIBRARY CUT LIBRARY

41. THE ACADEMIC LIBRARY An academic library is a library that is attached to a higher education institution which serves 2 complementary purposes: • to support the school's curriculum • to support the research of the university faculty and students. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_library

42. ORGANISATION OF INFORMATION IN ACADEMIC LIBRARIES

43. PURPOSES OF INFORMATION ORGANISATION • To assign a specific location for every document on the library shelves. • To ensure that documents on the same subject are placed together in order to enable users to find items on the subject in one place. • To provide a comprehensive view of documents on a subject • To create a system out of disorder

44. HOW INFORMATION IS ORGANISED IN LIBRARIES • Libraries organise their holdings using classification schemes. Classification schemes provide a way of organising materials by subject. A number of library classification systems exist. • The two most commonly used classification schemes in academic libraries are the Dewey Decimal Classification Scheme (DDC) and the Library of Congress Classification Scheme (LC).

45. THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CLASSIFICATION SCHEME (LC) • The system divides all knowledge into twenty-one basic classes, each identified by a single letter of the alphabet. Most of these alphabetical classes are further divided into more specific subclasses, identified by two-letter, or occasionally three-letter, combinations. For example, class N, Art, has subclasses NA, Architecture; NB, Sculpture, ND, Painting; as well as several other subclasses.

46. LC Cont... • H Social Sciences and BusinessHA StatisticsHB-HJ Economics HC-HD Economic history & conditionsHF CommerceHG Finance HJ Public financeHM SociologyHN Social history

47. LC CALL NUMBER STRUCTURE • HF 5549 TOR

48. CUT LIBRARY COLLECTION • Books • Periodicals • E-resources • Institutional Repository • Past exam papers • Dissertations

49. CUT LIBRARY DIVISIONS • Circulation • Reserve • Reference • Periodicals • School of Agriculture Library (branch)

50. CUT LIBRARY SERVICES • Information/Reference • Borrowing/circulation • Book reservation • Interlibrary loan facility • Photocopying • Printing • Ils training