[WEB4LIB] Information Literacy (was Jargon...which was Usability)

[Roy Tennant]

It's funny this should come up just now, since I just spoke on this 
topic this week at the Workshop on Instruction in Library Use at 
Fredericton, New Brunswick. That is, that we should get better about 
integrating information literacy "instruction" (for lack of a better 
term) throughout all of our contacts with students, in ways that use 
finesse -- what I called "stealth information literacy". This would 
certainly include changes to a library's web site. My slides are at 
http://www.escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/presentations/2002wilu/unb2.htm 
. You will have to get past the initial metaphor linked to whitewater 
rafting to get to the meat, but hey, you had to be there!
Roy

On Friday, May 17, 2002, at 01:17 PM, Blake Carver wrote:

> 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.
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------
> Blake Carver
> Web Librarian
> The Ohio State University Libraries
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