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To raise awareness of Information Literacy goals that support 21st Century learning, the National Forum on Information Literacy (NFIL) is working to gain gubernatorial support for public policy proclamations. Governors in ten states have issued Information Literacy Awareness Proclamations (MA, MO, MT, NY, IL, TX, OR, RI, AK and IN) that support educational and workplace communities. An additional twenty-four states and one U.S. territory have committed to draft and seek gubernatorial information literacy proclamations (AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, KS, KY, LA, MD, NE, NH, NJ, NM, OH, OK, PA, SC, UT, VA, WY and the Virgin Islands).
NFIL began this initiative with a recommendation to President Barack Obama, who proclaimed the first National Information Literacy Awareness month in October, 2009. Dr. Caroline Stern of Ferris State University, a former Michigan Association of Governing Boards’ Teacher of the Year recipient and a UNESCO information literacy expert and trainer notes that “In becoming masters of information, learners and workers must incorporate information literacy practice within their individual skill sets.” In both educational and workplace settings information literacy competencies related to effectively selecting, evaluating and making use of information sources are needed to provide informed solutions. As such, information literacy concepts are in demand nationally by employers to sustain business and competitive advantage.
During Information Literacy Awareness Month — 2012, we encourage you to contact us about the ways you can incorporate information literacy concepts and skills into your courses. For additional information about services, you can consult the Information Literacy (Infolit) web site at http://infolit.ucf.edu or contact us at infolit@ucf.edu
The UCF libraries provide several ways to integrate information literacy concepts and skills into your courses, including:
Sources:
Purdue Libraries (2012, May). Picking up momentum – information literacy state proclamation initiative. Retrieved from http://blogs.lib.purdue.edu/news/2012/05/01/picking-up-momentum-information-literacy-state-proclamation-initiative
Weiner, S. A. (2012, September). 2012 Information literacy campaign. Retrieved from http://infolit.org/2012-il-campaign
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Our recently released module, Moving Into Discipline Specific Research, covers subject resources and strategies for using citations to locate topic-related sources. The module is a key resource for students advancing into their major area of study and is designed to provide guidelines on how to efficiently identify and locate academic sources for a specific discipline.
To preview the module, login to the Obojobo repository (https://obojobo.ucf.edu/repository) with your NID and NID password. Click on the Public Library, select the title, and then click on Preview. The module begins with a video introduction that you can also view on YouTube at (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2e_vxvyJ7o&feature=plcp).
Moving Into Discipline Specific Research discusses how to differentiate between subject-specific databases, multidisciplinary databases and OneSearch, the library’s new research tool that offers a single-search option to locate books, articles, etc.
As always we solicit your comments and feedback. Please contact us at (infolit@ucf.edu) with questions or if you would like to discuss ideas about using the modules in your courses.
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Moving Into Discipline Specific Research
30 minutes
This module will help students:
- Identify research conversations
- Recognize tools to locate sources in your discipline
- Trace a research conversation from a source
Yes, at the beginning of a new semester you will need to create new instances for your classes. If you set up instances outside of Canvas, you will need to download scores from the repository so scores from the current semester will not be co-mingled with scores from the previous semester.
To prepare modules each semester, you may consider using the following steps:
- Download existing module scores (if not using Canvas) that you might need and save on your computer. (If you have not already done so, we suggest downloading scores from your instances and maintaining them with your student records.)
- Make new instances — start on this page to make new instances http://infolit.ucf.edu/faculty/getting-started
- Update any student handouts, emails or other information that include URLs that link to old instances from previous classes
- Delete old instances — this helps to de-clutter your “My Instances” area in the repository
- Provide the link to log in information when you provide the new instance URLs to students. Detailed information for students about logging in to the modules can be found on this page http://infolit.ucf.edu/students/help
- Provide tech support links to students when you provide new instance URLs. Tech support for students (and faculty) is available through the Ask A Librarian service at http://infolit.ucf.edu/students/help (If you choose to help students yourself, you might also find the faculty FAQs useful in addressing student questions http://infolit.ucf.edu/faculty/faq
Keep in mind that at the end of a semester there are a few “housekeeping” steps to save existing scores and create new instances for upcoming classes.
If you set up instances in the repository, you will need to download scores from the repository.
- Download scores from the current semester to save to your computer. If you have not already done so, we suggest downloading scores from current instances and maintaining them with your students’ records.
To prepare modules each semester, you may consider using the following steps:
- Make new instances in the repository — instructions to create new instances at http://infolit.ucf.edu/faculty/getting-started
- Update any student handouts, emails or other information that include URLs that link to old instances from previous classes.
- Delete old instances — this helps de-clutter your “My Instances” area in the repository.
- Provide the link to log in information when you provide the new instance URLs to students. Detailed information for students about logging in to the modules can be found on this page http://infolit.ucf.edu/students/help
- Provide tech support links to students when you provide new instance URLs. Tech support for students (and faculty) is available through the Ask A Librarian service at http://infolit.ucf.edu/students/help (If you choose to help students yourself, you might also find the faculty FAQs useful in addressing student questions http://infolit.ucf.edu/faculty/faq
The Information Fluency Conference will be held at UCF on March 14-16, 2012. This national conference is sponsored by the Office of Information Fluency at UCF. Anyone affiliated with UCF (faculty, staff, students, and affiliated groups) is welcome to attend at no charge.
Dr. S. Craig Watkins will deliver the keynote address. Dr. Watkins teaches at the University of Texas, Austin, in the departments of Radio-Television Film, Sociology, and the Center for African and African American Studies and is the author of ” The Young and the Digital: What the Migration to Social Network Sites, Games, and Anytime, Anywhere Media Means for Our Future.” Program information and registration is available on the conference website www.ce.ucf.edu/if
News - February 9th, 2012
To help students gain a better understanding of the online information environment — and develop solid skills to operate in it — the library provides face-to-face instruction sessions and online information literacy modules.
Some instructors and librarians assign modules before a scheduled library session. By blending library instruction and the online modules, librarians can identify areas where students may need additional help and then provide extra focus on those areas during the library session.
A complete list of information literacy modules can be accessed on the Modules page. For more information or questions, please leave a comment or contact us at Infolit@infolit@ucf.edu
Avoiding Plagiarism Using MLA Style (9th ed.)
20 minutes
Students will be able to identify:
- How UCF defines plagiarism.
- When you need to cite sources.
- The difference between a quote and a paraphrase.
- When to quote and when to paraphrase.
- How to signal to readers that you are incorporating the work of other researchers using MLA style.