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"The Vape Shop" is a legal research exercise designed to facilitate students' use of open access (Legislative Information Management System (LIMS) and Montgomery County and American Legal Publishing's Code Library) and subscription databases (Westlaw and Lexis+) and their analysis of a legal research problem. For this exercise, the applicable frame from the Framework for Information Literacy is "searching as strategic exploration" (however, "research as inquiry" and "information creation as a process" are also applicable frames). While this exercise calls attention to county ordinances that are available in open access databases, state and federal law are also listed as sources of interest. In addition to searching in more sources than what are listed under "Sources:" (and finding these sources on their own), students should note how federal, state, and county law apply to the questions asked and that in some cases federal law preempts state and county law.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Information Creation as Process, Research as Inquiry, Searching as Strategic Exploration
Contributor: Latia Ward
Resource Type(s): Assignment Prompt
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The most powerful wizards have gathered to battle one another. Only one will win. Wizards must use reliable sources to research incantations for the battle, or their spells will fizzle. Truly wise wizards must learn to tell the difference. Research Wizards is an information literacy card game designed to teach students ages 12+ about source evaluation. Research Wizards corresponds to the Frame Authority Is Constructed and Contextual, from the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Players will discuss and challenge the relative value of various sources, each representing a different suit in the game. The game includes four major actions/phases: Parley, when players discuss and decide for themselves the relative value of each suit; Battle, which includes competition, player actions, and Challenges; Vengeance, for eliminated players to impact and speed up the remainder of the game; and Victory.The Research Wizards website contains free game files, player directions, and printing tips for librarians and teachers who wish to use the game in their classrooms. The website includes an editable, Microsoft Publisher version of the game. Noncommercial use of the game is free for educational purposes with attribution to the author. Librarians and teachers are encouraged to adapt the game as needed for their subject areas, student needs, and as the sources in the game evolve over time. Adaptations must be shared under the same terms.Players: 3-5 per deckPlay Time: 20-30 minutes, plus discussionResearch Wizards by Lauren deLaubell is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Authority is Constructed and Contextual
Contributor: Lauren deLaubell
Resource Type(s): Activity, Other
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This classroom activity was developed and used in an entry-level Biotechnology course to help students evaluate the credibility of content generated by six different generative AI tools: Gemini, ChatGPT, Poe, Claude, Consensus, and Google's AI Overview. Working in groups, students review the text of a chat the librarian generated. They evaluate the credibility of the text, paying special attention to purpose, objectivity and bias, accuracy of content, and newness (if sources are provided by the tool). This activity could be modified to be done with any topic or prompt.The librarian used the same prompt to generate responses from the tools in advance so that students would not be required to make accounts to use any of the tools. Activity instructions:Each group will be given / assigned one generative AI tools. On 25 Sept. 2024, each tool was fed the prompt: “Provide a summary of how biotechnology can be used with plants to make plants virus resistant. Please provide evidence and sources when applicable. The audience is college students in an entry-level biotechnology course.” (Two tools had modified prompts.)Each group will evaluate the credibility of the text generated by their assigned tool. Pay special attention to:Purpose - Why does this information exist in the way it does?Verifiability (Accuracy) - Can you verify this information? Is the generated summary factual? Is there any way for you to know where the information originally came from?If it provides references or suggested resources, check them against Google Scholar. Do they exist? Or were they hallucinated?Newness - If it provides references or suggested resources, is the currency of those sources appropriate?Please be prepared to share your thoughts on these four factors for your assigned tool.Attribution:This activity is built upon a modified form of the "P.R.O.V.E.N. Source Evaluation Process" by Ellen Carey. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Authority is Constructed and Contextual, Searching as Strategic Exploration
Contributor: Amy Scheelke
Resource Type(s): Activity, Research Guide
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The document has included 13 knowledge briefs of data quality literacy series in one PDF file.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Authority is Constructed and Contextual, Information Creation as Process, Research as Inquiry
Contributor: Grace Liu
Resource Type(s): Instruction Program Material, Professional Development Material, Worksheet
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The knowledge brief on evaluating survey data quality follows the total survey error framework to help users understand the potential quality issues of survey data.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Authority is Constructed and Contextual, Information Creation as Process, Research as Inquiry, Framework as a Whole
Contributor: Grace Liu
Resource Type(s): Instruction Program Material, Professional Development Material, Worksheet
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The knowledge brief on understanding survey data and public polls help users to understand the key concepts in survey research and its methodology with examples for popular surveys and public polls.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Authority is Constructed and Contextual, Information Creation as Process, Research as Inquiry, Framework as a Whole
Contributor: Grace Liu
Resource Type(s): Instruction Program Material, Professional Development Material, Worksheet
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The knowledge brief on evaluating international government data quality help users understand common data quality issues of international government data.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Authority is Constructed and Contextual, Information Creation as Process, Research as Inquiry, Framework as a Whole
Contributor: Grace Liu
Resource Type(s): Instruction Program Material, Professional Development Material, Worksheet
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This knowledge brief on commercial data quality helps users to prepare conversation with researchers on data quality issues.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Authority is Constructed and Contextual, Information Creation as Process, Research as Inquiry, Framework as a Whole
Contributor: Grace Liu
Resource Type(s): Instruction Program Material, Professional Development Material, Worksheet
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This knowledge brief on commercial data quality helps users to prepare the conversation of data quality issues with commercial data vendors.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Authority is Constructed and Contextual, Information Creation as Process, Research as Inquiry, Framework as a Whole
Contributor: Grace Liu
Resource Type(s): Instruction Program Material, Professional Development Material, Worksheet
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The knowledge brief on evaluating commercial data quality guide users to go through a list of common data quality issues that need researchers' attention.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Authority is Constructed and Contextual, Information Creation as Process, Research as Inquiry
Contributor: Grace Liu
Resource Type(s): Instruction Program Material, Professional Development Material, Worksheet
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The knowledge brief on understanding commercial data helps users understand commercial data, the benefits of using commercial data, and its limitations.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Authority is Constructed and Contextual, Information Creation as Process, Research as Inquiry
Contributor: Grace Liu
Resource Type(s): Instruction Program Material, Professional Development Material, Worksheet
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The knowledge brief on evaluating administrative data guides users to go through the quality dimensions of relevance, accessibility, interpretability, coherence, accuracy, and institutional environment to assess the fitness for use of the administrative data.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Authority is Constructed and Contextual, Information Creation as Process, Research as Inquiry
Contributor: Grace Liu
Resource Type(s): Instruction Program Material, Professional Development Material, Worksheet
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The knowledge brief on understanding administrative data helps users understand administrative data, the benefits of using administrative data, and its limitations.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Authority is Constructed and Contextual, Information Creation as Process, Research as Inquiry, Framework as a Whole
Contributor: Grace Liu
Resource Type(s): Instruction Program Material, Professional Development Material, Worksheet
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The knowledge brief on using and evaluating U.S. federal statistics introduces the basic quality standards and guidelines that ensures the quality of federal statistics and how to assess the fit between the statistical datasets and their research needs.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Authority is Constructed and Contextual, Information Creation as Process, Research as Inquiry, Framework as a Whole
Contributor: Grace Liu
Resource Type(s): Instruction Program Material, Professional Development Material, Worksheet
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The knowledge brief on evaluating dataset for research needs guide researchers to assess the fit between the dataset and the research question.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Authority is Constructed and Contextual, Information Creation as Process, Research as Inquiry, Framework as a Whole
Contributor: Grace Liu
Resource Type(s): Instruction Program Material, Professional Development Material, Worksheet
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The knowledge brief on evaluating data documentation includes the characteristics of good documentation and the approaches to evaluate the quality of data documentations.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Authority is Constructed and Contextual, Information Creation as Process, Research as Inquiry, Framework as a Whole
Contributor: Grace Liu
Resource Type(s): Instruction Program Material, Professional Development Material, Worksheet
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This knowledge brief on data reference interview include a list of questions to ask when a researcher has a request related to data.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Authority is Constructed and Contextual, Information Creation as Process, Research as Inquiry, Framework as a Whole
Contributor: Grace Liu
Resource Type(s): Instruction Program Material, Professional Development Material, Worksheet
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This course is designed to delve into the concept of subject headings. While subject headings are typically discussed in the field of library science and mainly pertain to catalogers, the creators of this resource strongly believe that having a foundational grasp of the origins and usage of subject headings will be beneficial for students and researchers. This comprehension will empower them to employ the appropriate terminology to retrieve information from databases and library collections specifically curated for accessing materials related to Black Studies.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Authority is Constructed and Contextual, Research as Inquiry, Searching as Strategic Exploration
Contributor: Erica Bruchko
Resource Type(s): Lesson Plan, Slide Deck, Worksheet
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The book is an edited collection based on a seven-session national forum webinar series on data quality literacy. It covers topics including evaluating data quality: challenges & competencies, quality assurance in data creation, understanding & evaluating governmental data (U.S. & International), commercial data quality issues, data quality: reproducibility and preservation, data quality: evolving employer expectations, and librarians’ role in cultivating data-literate citizens. This book is one of the deliverables of the Institute of Museum and Library Services funded project: Building Capacity of Academic Librarians in Understanding Quantitative Data, Data Quality Problems, and Evaluating Data Quality: A National Forum [RE-252357-OLS-22]. The project details and other deliverables including the national forum recordings and knowledge briefs are available on the project website: https://www.dataqualityliteracy.org.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Information Creation as Process, Research as Inquiry, Framework as a Whole
Contributor: Grace Liu
Resource Type(s): Publication
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This online guide provides an overview of four common source evaluation myths that might prevent students from being able to effectively evaluate online sources.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Authority is Constructed and Contextual
Contributor: Jane Hammons
Resource Type(s): Learning Object
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The goal of this assignment is to help students develop a better understanding of the need to provide citations. Moving beyond a focus on citations as giving appropriate credit to an author, this activity is intended to help students appreciate the value of citations for the reader (or scholars in general). Students will review a source without citations and attempt to answer a series of questions, then will discuss/reflect on what the activity contributes to their understanding of how scholars use and value citations.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Information Has Value, Scholarship as Conversation
Contributor: Jane Hammons
Resource Type(s): Activity
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Integrating geographic information systems (GIS) and social media analytics can be an effective approach to monitor disease outbreaks (such as flu, COVID-19, and hepatitis A) with near real-time updates and actionable intervention methods. Social media platforms can be used to investigate the public’s view and risk perceptions as they co-evolve with an outbreak, offering public health professionals an opportunity to tailor more effective responses or interventions to outbreaks. Using geo-tagged or geo-targeted social media data, GIS researchers can analyze human mobility and compare different local opinions from various cities and regions. This chapter provides basic knowledge about social media analytics with geospatial analysis approaches and GIS tools. Three examples (flu, COVID-19, and hepatitis A) are highlighted with data visualization and spatiotemporal analysis. The example of the COVID-19 outbreak in San Diego also addresses the key health communication issues (vaccination, masking, and social distancing) using geo-targeted social media datasets. Student skill levels will be the “beginner” in GIS or public health.KEY THEMES/KEYWORDSSocial media analytics; disease outbreaks; public health; COVID-19; health communicationSPATIAL LITERACY SKILLS IN THIS CHAPTERGeo-tagged social media data; geo-targeted social media data; Pearson correlation; locational privacy
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Information Creation as Process, Information Has Value, Research as Inquiry
Contributor: Laureen Cantwell-Jurkovic
Resource Type(s): Activity, Assignment Prompt, Slide Deck
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This lesson, aimed at mid- to upper-level undergraduates, discusses how research findings can be over-inflated, distorted, or misrepresented as the research is shared outside of its original context. Students will build on their fact-checking skills to trace claims back to their source. The lesson uses a flipped classroom approach to introduce students to multiple perspectives on this issue and its impact on the information ecosystem. In the classroom, students will demonstrate this issue in a potentially familiar scenario, a large-group game of telephone. To reinforce their skills, students will review news pieces that are derived from research, identify the claims, locate the original research cited in the article, and compare the findings to the claims shared in the news. Students will understand more about the publishing lifecycle and research integrity; how distorted research can have sociopolitical impacts; and how to be a responsible consumer and disseminator of information through critical thinking and analysis. Although the lesson refers to science, the issue of misrepresented research is interdisciplinary, and students will undoubtedly encounter claims in their everyday lives that will fall out of their area of expertise and need to know how to check them.This lesson includes flipped content (assigned readings/viewing and a reflection assignment for a discussion board), a lesson plan with timings, and two handouts for the in-class activities.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Research as Inquiry, Scholarship as Conversation
Contributor: Brittany O'Neill
Resource Type(s): Activity, Lesson Plan, Worksheet
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"The Cell Phone Search" is a legal research exercise designed to facilitate students' use of citators in subscription databases such as Westlaw, Lexis+, and Bloomberg Law by providing a series of questions for them to answer. For this exercise, the applicable frame from the Framework for Information Literacy is "searching as strategic exploration." At the end of the exercise, students are invited to think about how the results of their search and their search strategies would have been different had they used open access resources.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Searching as Strategic Exploration
Contributor: Latia Ward
Resource Type(s): Assignment Prompt, Worksheet
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This is a fun activity in which students can gain experience finding books on the shelves by playing "matchmaker" to a book. What book that is depends on what books you decide to pull. I usually go with books that are relevant to either the course or assignment. Students will need some brief instruction on wayfinding in the stacks. Great to do around Valentine's Day. :)
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Research as Inquiry
Contributor: Sarah Hood
Resource Type(s): Activity