Reading #5

Reading #5
“Information Navigation 101”
Andrea Foster

College students are tech savvy when it comes to social networks, iPods, phones, cameras, and computers. But when it comes to writing an academic research paper, college students rely on Google and Wikipedia instead of the numerous scholarly journals that are available. This article predicts that maybe the X Generation isn’t so technically savvy after all. With more than 100 million websites and 18,000 journals, students can be overwhelmed with the amounts of information available and are often confused on where to find reliable and accurate information. “Information literacy” is a new trend that is sweeping across campuses lead by libraries with the hopes of teaching s students how to locate and evaluate electronic information. Some campuses are requiring students to prove that they are competent in information literacy by completing tests, holding a library degree or completing tutorials.

Through my experience in the LIB 103 class, I never knew there was so much to information literacy and the Internet. I always thought I was fairly knowledgeable about how to use the Internet, but I was mistaken. Doing research outside of Google does take more work, but the work will pay off with higher quality work and therefore higher grades which is what all college students should strive for. I think having the LIB 103 class offered as a required course is a great idea and colleges should consider this. While I do think that tests are a good idea, I think having a required course is the first step to improving information literacy.