[WEB4LIB] RE: Information Literacy (was Jargon...which was

[Mary P. (Mollie) Freier]

Good point, Sarah. Our students keep calling databases "search engines."

--On Monday, May 20, 2002 8:53 AM -0700 Sarah Graham 
<Sarah_Graham at emerson.edu> wrote:

> I think we're getting away from Blake's original question about the larger
> philosophical issue of whether we use our web sites to teach, rather than
> the related issue of whether we should use jargon on our web sites.
>
> One issue in particular I'm thinking about is the fact that my library's
> recent usability test uncovered something that librarians have been
> observing for some time - that users are not distinguishing between web
> sites, individual web pages, and databases. Examples of such confusion
> are: student thinks they are searching the web when they are searching a
> database, student thinks they are still on a library web page when they
> are searching a database, student says "I used something on the internet
> to look up a book the other day and I can't remember what it was," etc.,
> etc.
>
> My question is: should we be doing a better job of teaching our users the
> difference between web sites and databases? Should we just be doing this
> in our library instruction classes (e.g. should we reframe our
> definitions of information literacy to state that the person should be
> able to distinguish between web sites, databases, and other types of web
> programs/software), or should are there some creative things we could be
> doing on our web sites to assist users to do this?
>
>
> Sarah Graham
> Coordinator of Web Development/Reference Librarian
> Emerson College Library
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Karen Harker
> To: Multiple recipients of list
> Sent: 5/17/2002 5:12 PM
> Subject: [WEB4LIB] RE: Information Literacy (was Jargon...which was
>
> Where else are they using these terms?  Will they use them in their
> chosen field?  Will they ever use these terms outside of a library?
>
> If not, why teach them?  If they use different terms in their fields,
> why must they translate into library terms?
>
> We are not training users to become librarians...we are teaching them
> how to find the information they need.
>
>
>
> Karen R. Harker, MLS
> UT Southwestern Medical Library
> 5323 Harry Hines Blvd.
> Dallas, TX  75390-9049
> 214-648-1698
> http://www.swmed.edu/library/
>>>> Blake Carver <carver.50 at osu.edu> 05/17/02 15:37 PM >>>
> Well, I guess I'm NOT really advocating for the use (or especially the
> over
> use) of jargon, but it could easily be argued we are doing our users a
> favor (or favour depending on where you are) by teaching them commonly
> used
> terms. True the users could care less about such things, but we are in
> the
> business of imparting knowledge, and if we can make someone wiser
> through
> our site and they didn't even notice (That is there was little or no
> effort
> on their part to learn something that could potentially be useful to
> them
> in the future), then we've done a good job.
> The other side is the site should be 100% jargon free, and stick with
> the
> lowest common denominator.
> I'm not sure either approach is completely correct, perhaps the answer
> lies
> somewhere in the middle.
>
> At 04:11 PM 5/17/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>> I am going to play the devil's advocate here.  Why should we use jargon
>> written for librarians by librarians?  The users could really care less
>> about such things.  I am not talking about dumbing down.  that is a
>> different issue entirely.
>>
>> Bill Drew
>
>
> ------------------------------------------
> Blake Carver
> Web Librarian
> The Ohio State University Libraries
>      See Also:
>      www.LISNews.com
>
>
>
>



------------
Mary P. (Mollie) Freier
Reference & Instruction Librarian
Laurence McKinley Gould Library
Carleton College
One North College Street
Northfield, Minnesota 55057