Information Skills

or...

How to be information literate &

Be more efficient and productive with your time

Johannes de Boer

After this workshop, you should be able to:

• Search more efficiently
• Get better search results
• Know where to look & what to look for
• understand what you found

In other words:
you will have heightened information literacy skills ! :-)

• Too much OR too little information
   
• Difficult to start 'somewhere'

Information literacy

1. RECOGNISE
   Determine what information you need
    
2. LOCATE
   Acces the needed information (the right sources)
    
3. EVALUATE
   Critically evaluation the information you found
    
4. USE
   Use (the filtered) information for your specific purpose (your work)
    
5. ETHICS
   Cite your sources
   Use the information ethically and understand why

STEP 1. RECOGNISE

• choose your topic

• formulate a thesis question

• know the type of sources needed
  (popular information vs. scholarly studies, books vs. journal articles, etc.)

STEP 1. RECOGNISE

• topic & research question :
  => The Pool &Kick-off presentation
   

• knowing the type of sources needed :
  (popular information vs. scholarly studies, books vs. journal articles, etc.)
  => Exercise 1

STEP 2. LOCATE

• select appropriate research methods

• create effective search strategies

• use online catalogs, databases and related services

• Organise the information found
   

STEP 2. LOCATE

• topic & research question :
  => The Pool &Kick-off presentation
  
  

• knowing the type of sources needed
  (popular information vs. scholarly studies, books vs. journal articles, etc.)
  => Exercise 1
  

STEP 2. LOCATE

HOW TO START?
​

• Define the keywords you can use

• Start broad, progressively narrow down

• Use search building techniques - synonyms, limiters, refining

• Know how to read your results

• Note ‘clues’ in your results -jargon, prolific authors, exclusion terms etc.

• Repeat your search – be persistent, patient, think laterally

STEP 2. LOCATE

DEFINE LIMITATIONS

• Time frame

• Type of literature

• Gender?

• Age?

• Population?

• Technology?

• Language?

STEP 3. EVALUATE

• consider a source's reliability, credibility and suitability for your particular use

• synthesize the information gathered into new concepts

• re-evaluate one's search strategy if necessary

STEP 3. EVALUATE

• topic & research question :
  => The Pool &Kick-off presentation
  
  

• knowing the type of sources needed
  (popular information vs. scholarly studies, books vs. journal articles, etc.)
  => Exercise 1
  

STEP 3. EVALUATE

HOW TO ASSES WHAT TO USE?

• Scan through titles
  Are the keywords in the title of interest?
   

• Read abstract or introduction
  Saves time!
   

• Useful? Read the whole article!
  Mark interesting paragraphs

STEP 3. EVALUATE

Trustworthiness

Is it credible?

Is it transferable?

Is it dependable?

Is it confirmable?

STEP 3. EVALUATE

Trustworthiness - credibility

Different sources used?

Control study?

Multiple prototypes?

STEP 3. EVALUATE

Trustworthiness - transferability

Can you generalise the study findings to other situations and contexts?

STEP 3. EVALUATE

Trustworthiness - dependability

​

Dependability is concerned with whether we would obtain the same results if we could observe the same thing twice.

STEP 3. EVALUATE

Trustworthiness - confirmability

 The degree to which the results could be confirmed or corroborated by others

STEP 4. USE

• Write your paper / report

• Design your 360 scan

STEP 4. USE

HOW TO PRESENT?
 

• Many ways

  • Qualitative

  • Quantitative

• Text / tables / graphes /
  infographics / video / ...
   

• Connect sources to each other

• How to demonstrate?

Dr. Hans Rosling

STEP 5. ETHICS

• Appropriately document sources through in-text citation

• Include a bibliography of sources in an established style (@Saxion we use APA) at the end of your document

• Adhere to fair use and copyright laws when applicable

STEP 5. ETHICS

APA References

Use a Reference manager

(MS Word / Mendeley Desktop / Zotero)

Reference in your text

Use a reference list in the end

Start right away!

Waiting until the end will take much more time!

Plagiarism

ACCORDING TO THE MERRIAM-WEBSTER ONLINE DICTIONARY, TO "PLAGIARIZE" MEANS

• to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own
• to use (another's production) without crediting the source
• to commit literary theft
• to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterward.

Plagiarism

ALL OF THE FOLLOWING ARE CONSIDERED PLAGIARISM:

• turning in someone else's work as your own
• copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
• failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
• giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation
• changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit
• copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not (see our section on "fair use" rules)

Source: http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/what-is-plagiarism/

Plagiarism

Most cases of plagiarism can be avoided, however, by citing sources.

Simply acknowledging that certain material has been borrowed and providing your audience with the information necessary to find that source is usually enough to prevent plagiarism.

Source: http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/what-is-plagiarism/

Plagiarism

Helpful links

http://www.plagiarism.org/citing-sources/overview/

https://www.saxionbibliotheek.nl/details/aip

SOURCES

1. Wendy Williams. (n.d.). Information Search Skills. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/wendy0315/information-search-skills
2. Erica Cataldi-Roberts. (n.d.). The 5 Steps of Information Literacy by Erica Cataldi-Roberts on Prezi. Retrieved from https://prezi.com/8rssziuxoaz_/the-5-steps-of-information-literacy/
3. breezyalli. (n.d.). Information Literacy - YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDiTF85L2LQ
4. What is Plagiarism? — Plagiarism.org - Best Practices for Ensuring Originality in Written Work. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/what-is-plagiarism/