Information literacy instruction is a core responsibility of many academic librarians, but there is a structural tension. In my experience working for the AskON service, I encounter what I call the “skills vs rules” dilemma when working with student: a student over wants a ruling on an issue rather than seeking to explore the issue or learn about it. For example, a common question I encounter would be, “Is X resource peer reviewed?” The student is usually looking for a simply yes or no answer so they can move on to the next step in their work. My general approach is to issue the ruling, explain the process I used to come to the decision and then offer to lead the student through the process.
Wikipedia poses another example of this issue in my thinking; many students like to use this resource but many instructors hate this. Why? The old, superficial way to think about this conflict is between the technologically savvy Generation Y student and the technologically unsophisticated instructor that barely tolerates technology. In my view, the real issue that professors and academic librarians have with Wikipedia is not technological, it is cultural. For some, the open nature of the editing process is a problem (though I would point out that the design of the system makes vandalism extremely easy to repair). For others, it is the lack of expert contributions. I can appreciate both those concerns, but the real problem is that the student isn’t being through enoug they’re just skimming the surface of available research and knowledge.
One of the outcomes of a proper university education should be to acquaint students with the vast universe of knowledge that exists out there and the skills to work through it. Simply telling them not to use a specific resource might help them with a specific assignment, but it does not build lasting skills. Even if I could, I wouldn’t want to provide students with a simple list of “do this” and “don’t do this”: they are capable of better. As a teacher of a friend once remarked, they should push for greater depth.
Related posts:
- Lessons Learned: How College Students Find Information in the Digital Age (Report)
- The state of today’s Ontario university students (Toronto Star article)
- How to keep your skills sharp
- Interviewed for “Special Issues: Bulletin of the Canadian Association of Special Libraries and Information Services.”
