Not Just Where to Click: Teaching Students How to Think about Information. Edited by Troy A. Swanson and Heather Jagman. Chicago: ACRL, 2015. 429 p. Paper $75 (ISBN: 978-0-8389-8716-2).
Fifteen years ago, information literacy standards brought information literacy into higher education conversations and advanced the library field. ACRL’s current revision of Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education provides further direction for contextualizing and integrating information literacy into the curriculum and offers a deeper understanding of the knowledge practices and dispositions that an information-literate student should develop. With this in mind, Not Just Where to Click provides recommendations to help librarians develop appropriate resources, practices, and assessment instruments for information literacy.
How information contributes to knowledge is of critical concern for librarians, with our established affinities for both information and knowledge creation. The editors explore how librarians and faculty work together to teach students about the nature of expertise, authority, and credibility. What is very beneficial in this easy-to-read sourcebook is the overall structure of its two sections, which cover classical conceptions of knowledge from a variety of perspectives and the nature of expertise and its resulting authority. This presents a useful organizational framework for managing the approaches, challenges, and solutions uniquely inherent in the complexities of today’s information age.
In the first section, contributing authors explore epistemological concepts held by librarians and faculty, as well as epistemologies and beliefs held by students. The chapter on critical information literacy is particularly useful and thought-provoking, as the authors believe that traditional information literacy presents an overly simplistic model of the research process. Because the library profession is moving toward a deeper understanding of information literacy, it is especially important for librarians working within the curriculum to be challenged to reflect on their own practices. In this chapter, they are encouraged to relinquish expertise and efficiency, to build upon students’ prior knowledge, and to teach about information in terms of purposes and types rather than formats. In addition, the authors share practical tips on how to create a highly responsive curriculum class environment where students are able to practice critical reflection and demonstrate critical thinking.
The second section provides practical approaches for motivating students to explore their beliefs, biases, and ways of interpreting the world. Throughout this section, the contributors provide many innovative ideas on authority structures, which can be beneficial for students as they learn how to navigate the information environment with deeper discernment. One particularly inspirational chapter is the one on “scholarly storytelling,” the practice of having students use stories as roadmaps to authentic and creative library research. Rather than shallowly engaging in research while struggling to integrate appropriate sources, students participating in this transformative approach are able to engage, explore, and evaluate resources in a more creative, intellectual manner.
The contributors to the nineteen chapters offer a balance of theoretical and applied approaches to teaching information literacy, provide valuable guidance and strategies for effective implementation, and supply innovative ideas that can be directly useful in application.—Pamela Louderback, Assistant Professor/Library Director, Northeastern State University, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma