Separating Wheat from Chaff: Helping First-Year Students Become Information Savvy

Introduction

When students know how to independently find and use information, they are prepared for a lifetime of learning. . . . [T]he ability to find information is no less important than the information itself.

--Ernest and Paul Boyer, Peterson's Smart Parents Guide to College, p. 134

Many traditional first-year students arrive on college and university campuses with a great deal of experience in searching the Internet. In fact, they can find prodigious amounts of information with relative ease--as evidenced by the lists of Web sites used to document many of their research papers. Most of these students, however, lack the critical-thinking skills and database-searching proficiency necessary for them to fine-tune their information searches. They need to know how to focus their topics, where (in addition to the Internet) to search, and how to evaluate and use the information they retrieve--skills commonly encompassed in the phrase "information literacy" (Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools [CHE], 1996, p. 15). As Ernest and Paul Boyer (1996) have observed, college students need help "becom[ing] savvy consumers of information" (p. 126). The Boyers believe that, in partnership with faculty, librarians have the expertise to instruct students in information retrieval and evaluation (pp. 130-131).

Institutions of higher learning strive to graduate students who are intellectually prepared to be lifelong learners. Disciplinary knowledge can change at a rapid pace, rendering some subject content obsolete within a relatively short period of time. Graduates who are information literate are equipped to remain current through continued researching in their fields of interest, they are prepared to be valued employees in their chosen professions, and they are more effective members of society because they can readily locate and assess information both for personal use and for public service.

Three concepts occur frequently throughout this article: information literacy, critical thinking, and database-searching proficiency. The context of our use of these concepts must be defined. The American Association of College and Research Libraries (2000) provides a list of competencies that apply to an information literate person. Such a person is able to

• determine the extent of information needed;
• access the needed information effectively and efficiently;
• evaluate information and its sources critically;
• incorporate selected information into one's knowledge base;
• use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose;
• understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally. (p. 3)

Critical thinking goes hand in glove with information literacy. Gibson (1995) observes:

A researcher must begin by posing a good research question and must use critical thinking skills to know what is a good question. . . . He or she must plan a flexible strategy or set of strategies that uses a variety of tools to locate information; the searcher must bring some disciplined thought to bear on developing the strategies and must make informed choices about tools and sources to use. (p. 32)

Gibson ties critical thinking directly to database-searching proficiency, noting that search results "must be screened with an eye for relevance, authoritativeness, and appropriateness. . . . Further evaluation of the information must follow in greater depth, using criteria and good judgment." In the best-case scenario, Gibson suggests, "the searcher will conclude with self-questioning about better ways of conducting the research next time, with development of appropriate standards for making better choices throughout the entire process" (p. 32). The higher-order thinking skills that Gibson describes in his best-case scenario are not easily achieved at the freshman level. Nevertheless, we believe that the first step toward reaching such a state of self-reflection can occur in a first-year class.

Models of Instruction for Information Literacy

There are a number of models for the delivery of information literacy instruction to first-year students. (For...