Information Literacy

Improve your information literacy. Learn about strategies for finding information—from a library, archive, database, or the Internet—and the ethics of using what you find.

Introduction

• Welcome
• What is information literacy?

1. Types of Resources

• The information cycle
• Books/ebooks
• Archives
• Periodical publications
• Databases
• Visual resources
• Alternative resources
• The Internet, blogs, and social media
• Wikipedia

2. Search Strategies

• Identifying your information needs
• How to clarify your topic
• Search terms and methods: Keyword vs. controlled vocabulary
• Search terms and methods: Boolean searching
• Using a research database

3. Resource Evaluation

• Beyond Google
• The web vs. databases
• Scholarly vs. popular publications
• Criteria for evaluating information
• Primary vs. secondary sources

4. Ethical Use of Information

• Copyright and fair use
• Plagiarism: What it is and how to avoid it
• Image appropriation

5. Citation

• What is citation and why cite?
• How to cite
• Citation for visual images and media
• Annotated bibliographies

6. Information Literacy for Art and Design

• Why art/design students need to learn research and use libraries

Conclusion

• Next steps