Concise Guide to Information Literacy, 3rd Edition

by Scott Lanning, Caitlin Gerrity

Both a students' textbook and an instructional reference for educators, this brief but information-rich text teaches students what information literacy is and why it's such an important skill to develop. Authors Scott Lanning and Caitlin Gerrity concentrate on developing skills and behaviors that positively impact the information literacy process. They teach such skills as evaluating and using information and behaviors like exploring, analyzing, and creating. Updated to incorporate the new AASL standards, this third edition of Concise Guide to Information Literacy includes new information on the value of curiosity and choice in the research process, offers a new model of the research process (the Reflective Inquiry Model), and updates the Decision Points Information Seeking Model that describes how student researchers choose to use the information they've found. This book has proven to be invaluable for high school and college students learning about information literacy and librarians and teachers in upper high school and community college settings.

Genres: Nonfiction

Kindle Edition

Published February 15, 2022

Reviews

[Stella · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has some really amazing content! I loved ch 6 (evaluating research and information) it went into a lot of details and showed how different formats affect quality, validity, and authority of the content.

However, I did take a star off because I did not find the content fully satisfying. I am reading this book through the lens at the college level, but I felt like there were some chapters that were severely lacking. This book states that it is an instructional reference for teachers for high school and college level.

For instance, one of the largest chapters in this book is primarily covered in all one-shots (i.e., how to work a database), which i felt like could have used less details because this is something that's going to look different at every school. While some other chapters left me wanting more, such ad ch. 7 (Research management and your role in the research community) again the author goes into a lot of details about citation management Softwares, but doesn't really hit too hard on how students can actively engage or what their role is in the research community. I would have also like to have seen more details in ch 9 (critical reflection) such as visually showing the students what the thought process looks like for critical reflection and how this doesn't just happen at the end of the paper. I would have also loved to have seen a chapter that dived harder into the authority is constructed and contextual frame, while it was covered in the evaluation process I felt like this should have been it's own chapter. Other things I would have liked to have seen, more thought processes flow charts, so the teacher can show students "this is what you're engaging in," and harder examples of what students can do to engage in the content and make them formatted to stand out so it's not a big paragraph of "and this tool, and this tool, and this tool."

Overall, it was a really great read! I would definitely recommend this to any upper high school teachers as well if they are trying to work on building their students' information literacy skills.

[Alan Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-written, thoughtful primer about all facets of information literacy.

[Christine Edwards]

A much-needed update from the second edition. This is more thoughtful and inclusive than previous editions and is a great resource for anyone who needs to learn how to do information research. I would also highly recommend it to librarians or English teachers who are responsible for instructing students in these areas.