INLS261 Tools for Information Literacy

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Syllabus

According to the American Library Association, Information Literacy

is the set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information.

However, because the term is often confused with computer literacy, there are many different definitions of information literacy. A comprehensive definition of the term would include: In a narrow sense,

the practical skills involved in effective use of information technology and information resources, either print or electronic.

In a broader sense, it

is a new liberal art which extends beyond technical skills and is conceived as the critical reflection on the nature of information itself, its technical infrastructure and its social, cultural and even philosophical context and impact.

A full information literacy curriculum would include:

• Tool literacy - The ability to use print and electronic resources including software
• Resource literacy - The ability to understand the form, format, location and access methods of information resources
• Social-structural literacy - Knowledge of how information is socially situated and produced. It includes understanding the scholarly publishing process
• Research literacy - The ability to understand and use information technology tools to carry our research including discipline-related software
• Publishing literacy - The ability to produce a text or multimedia report of the results of research

Quoting the ALA again,

Information literacy ... (gives) us the skills to know when we need information and where to locate it effectively and efficiently.

The sheer abundance of information, however, will not in itself create a more informed citizenry. A complementary cluster of abilities is necessary if information is to be used effectively.

In SILS, INLS200 will focus on concepts and techniques for finding and evaluating information, while INLS261will focus on concepts and the tools needed to communicate your information to users. We will start from the baseline of the North Carolina high school computer skills requirement and build from there. To that end, in INLS261 we will explore some basic concepts related to personal computer hardware and software and will spend quite a bit of time gaining practical experience with several Internet tools and resources. We will also introduce concepts and practice skills germane to effective use of the power built into word processing, spreadsheet, relational database management, and presentation graphics software. Although we will use the Microsoft Office XP suite of applications for many tasks, the basic concepts should provide you with skills that will enable you to be comfortable with other similar packages.

Some of the our goals for the semester include:

• Ability to use the Internet effectively
  • become familiar with the Internet and its basic tools
  • be able to use some basic Unix commands and to understand the file transfer protocol
  • become conversant with Open Source applications, its promise and its limitations
• Ability to create useful Web content
  • understand the basic tools underlying the web
  • create web pages by using basic HTML and using HTML editors
• Ability to effectively format written documents
  • understand the underlying power of markup languages in document creation software programs
  • be able to format documents for publication
• Ability to use spreadsheets and relational database software applications
  • learn about the vector power of functions in spreadsheet applications
  • learn the basics of a common relational database management system
• Ability to design and produce effective visual presentations
  • learn about visual language and design
  • use the power of the program to enhance your message

All work done in INLS050 will be done on computers, either on your personal laptop or on the desktop units in the SILS lab. There will be no paper products generated in this class and there is no printing requirement.

Thanks to Dr. Rong Tang, Bob Sumner, Dr. Lokman Meho, Ilana Kingsley, Dr. Charlie Viles, Kristin Chaffin, Dr. Bert Dempsey and to all the previous instructors of the course. This course is built on all their contributions.