Information Literacy (was Jargon...which was Usability)

[Blake Carver]

To move this thread a bit, has anyone thought about the concept of 
information literacy and applied that to library web site design?
I am asking about the web site as an information literacy tool, not 
teaching information literacy on the web, but the site teaching purposely 
through how it was designed.

Most patrons are unwilling or unable to sit through any type of 
instruction, unless they are forced to, and making a site usable helps to 
make it easier for that majority, but maybe building a site that teaches 
might be something to consider.

So can we design a site that leads the users, and provides definitions or 
help as it goes? Can the instruction and the site content be transparently 
combined? I think so.

I've seen people allude to it already already in this thread. You can use 
mouse overs, tool tips, short descriptions, and more, to provide 
definitions, examples and descriptions of jargon, and at the same time 
still use that jargon. Somehow we need to make the site smarter to 
anticipate the questions people will have as they move through it.

It's something I'm just beginning to think about here, and I'd love to hear 
what anyone else thinks.



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Blake Carver
Web Librarian
The Ohio State University Libraries
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