Our objective today is to provide you with some information on ACRL's New Framework for Information Literacy and to show you some ways the World Bank eLibrary (http://elibrary.worldbank.org) and other intergovernmental websites can be used to teach the concepts presented in the framework.
Using ACRL's New Framework for Information Literacy to Explore Teaching Strategies for Intergovernmental Information
1. Using ACRL's New Framework for Information
Literacy to Explore Teaching Strategies for
Intergovernmental Information
Presenters:Presenters:
Devika Levy
Sales and Outreach Manager
World Bank Publications
Brett Cloyd
Reference and Government Information Librarian
University of Iowa Libraries
June 10, 2015
2. About The World Bank Group
Presenters:• Vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries.
• Two goals for the world to achieve by 2030:
End extreme poverty
Promote shared prosperity
• Support to developing countries through policy advice, research and analysis,
and technical assistance.
• Five institutions managed by their member countries.
4. elibrary.worldbank.org
About eLibrary
4
• World Bank’s official subscription-based
publishing platform
• Easy discovery and access
• Offers a variety of personalization and
added-value features for using WB content
• Designed to meet the unique needs of
libraries, researchers, and the academic
community
• Used by the world’s top academic
institutions, international and governmental
agencies, think tanks and NGOs
5. elibrary.worldbank.org
What’s in the eLibrary?
20-30 Years of Content
• Books: Complete Backlist
• Working Papers and Other Research: new
collection of Economic Outlooks just added
• 2 Journals: World Bank Economic Review and
World Bank Research Observer: Complete backlist
with no embargoes
• Covers more than 200 countries and economies
at all income levels – emphasis on low- and
middle-income countries
5
7. elibrary.worldbank.org
Multiple Ways to Access Content
• Multiple Browse
Options
• Quick and Advanced
Search
• New Titles
• What’s Popular
• Personal accounts
for quick retrieval of
content you need
7
17. elibrary.worldbank.org
TOOLS FOR LIBRARIANS &
ADMINISTRATORS
17
• Indexing in Google and library discovery services
• MARC records and alerts for new records
• Downloadable metadata (updated monthly)
• Perpetual use of all downloaded content
• COUNTER 4-compliant usage reports
• Open URL/link resolver option
• Athens and Shibboleth authentication
• Institutional branding
• Free online and on-site training
• Dedicated customer service
18. elibrary.worldbank.org
SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
18
• Institutional subscriptions only
• Subscription cycle:
o 12-month subscription or prorated through December 31
• Prices based on total number of FTE / authorized users and institution
type
• Geographic & consortia discounts available
• Free trials available for libraries
• Subscribe through:
o The World Bank (onlineresources@worldbank.org)
o Your preferred subscription agent
o Library consortia
19. USING ACRL'S NEW FRAMEWORK FOR
INFORMATION LITERACY TO EXPLORE
TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR
INTERGOVERNMENTAL INFORMATION
Brett Cloyd
Reference and Government Information Librarian
University of Iowa Libraries
brett-cloyd@uiowa.edu
20. DEFINITION
“Information literacy is the set of integrated abilities encompassing the
reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is
produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge
and participating ethically in communities of learning.”
http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework
Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education
21. FRAMEWORK BACKGROUND
• New in 2015
• Part of ACRL’s “Constellation of Information Literacy Documents”
• “The frames are intended to demonstrate the contrast in thinking between
novice learner and expert in a specific area.” (ACRL, Appendix 1)
• Flexibility is emphasized in the document.
22. “Learners do not start a
course in the same place,
nor do they learn at the
same pace.”
( “What’s the Matter with
Threshold Concepts?”,
Townsend et al)
23. TEACHING EXAMPLES
Consider places where librarians might introduce intergovernmental
information. Here is my base, at a large university:
• Library Strategies for International Research – a 1 credit elective course I
teach to juniors and seniors.
• One shot classes to International Studies, Political Science, and Geography
students (undergraduate or graduate students).
• Visits to 1st year Rhetoric classes.
• In the context of research consultations with individual students
24. INTERGOVERNMENTAL
ORGANIZATIONS
• “What, after all, is the big deal about international organizations?”
(Church, 2009)
• Information including Standards, Law, Development, Human Rights, Aid, &
Children
• “International” and “intergovernmental organizations” are sometimes used
interchangeably.
25. WORLD BANK GROUP & THE
ELIBRARY
• The World Bank’s eLibrary is a useful tool to incorporate into Information
Literacy learning situations (i.e. classes, consultations) because it has a
certain focus and purpose that can be explained and discovered in a class
session.
• It is also a gateway to other World Bank information products/free resources
(such as the Databank, Blogs, Altmetrics, and the Open Knowledge
Repository)
26. THE FRAMES
1. Authority Is Constructed and Contextual
2. Information Creation as a Process
3. Information Has Value
4. Research as Inquiry
5. Scholarship as Conversation
6. Searching as Strategic Exploration
ACRL does not prescribe a preferred order or emphasis. I am numbering to
give shape to the presentation. This webinar will discuss each frame and
propose a few instruction ideas.
28. AUTHORITY: OF AN INSTITUTION
The
World Bank ‘s
role within the
United Nations
#1. authority
http://www.un.org/en/aboutun/structure/org_chart.shtml
29. AUTHORITY: CHALLENGING IT
Defined
By Others?
Google
recommended
the “protest”
search term to
find visual images.
Challenging
Authority.
#1. authority
30. AUTHORITY OF THE ELIBRARY
• Part of the World Bank
• Help students recognize the scope
of the database
• Need also to understand the
authors and the information
products
#1. authority
31. AUTHORITY: EXPLAINING TO
NOVICE LEARNER?
From 2005 ebook
From A 2002 Working Paper
eLibrary Record, 2005 date
From current University of Ottawa faculty page (5/2015)
#3. value
32. AUTHORITY OF AUTHORS:
SEARCH RESULTS:?
• Reviewing a search result record
• Authority of World Bank Authors?
• Books might have more author
information, but working papers
might
have newer information on a
topic.
• The OKR has a good summary
page of document types.
#1. authority
33. AUTHORITY: THE CRITICS?
• Most students* information needs compel them to find information from a
variety of perspectives as they gain greater understanding of a topic. This
article (Stein, 2009) was discovered in PAIS International, and is critical of
the World Bank’s work.
* Graduate students in particular need an extensive literature review for their dissertations.
#1. authority
35. CREATION: SHARED/ING
MESSAGE
• A variety of tools help users and the World Bank share information
• eLibrary contains the work of the World Bank (no third-party content; written
by World Bank staff, economists, and experts in their field)
• Recognize that students may be overwhelmed by the authority and
expertise of the works as they try to meet their information needs.
• Linking to blog sources (more informal) or the public topic pages can give
students more room to maneuver.
• The eLibrary results screen presents some opportunities for novice learners.
#2. creation
37. CREATION: ALTERNATIVE METRICS
“Emerging process of information creation and dissemination”
• Altmetric tool to measure discussion of work. Some records in the eLibrary
include this measure.
“Accept the ambiguity surrounding
potential value of information creation”
A Twitter user that tweeted WB title.
#2. creation
39. VALUE OF SOURCES
• Demonstrating free vs. fee content (esp. for senior students)
• Intergovernmental information as a means to educate, influence, negotiate
and understand the world.
• Country information
• Google
• United Nations
• World Bank eLibrary
#3. value
40. VALUE: UNDERSTANDING WORLD
I have students in my Library Strategies
class search for information about their
countries of interest. Often result emphasis
is travel or other consumer-oriented
Activities (Destinations, Lonely Planet).
We also talk about ways that Google
Personalizes search results.
#3. value
42. VALUE: EDUCATING
• eLibrary Country page
• World Bank sources
• The Topic filter can help
students find and learn
about issues facing a
country.
#3. value
44. INQUIRY: STARTING POINTS
• Students may begin their work from a variety of starting points, and use
more sophisticated tools as they progress in their learning
• A librarian can help students differently in a library developed, credit-
bearing class vs. a one-shot class vs. a consultation.
• Students may ask different questions based on the information tool they use.
• A library catalog or discovery tool (that includes World Bank eLibrary records)
• Google or Google Scholar
• PAIS International or a Political Science index (like Worldwide Political Science
Abstracts)
• eLibrary
#4. inquiry
45. INQUIRY: LIBRARY CATALOGS
• Connects students
to content directly
• Puts information in
context of wider range
of material
• May be difficult for
new users to identify
value of content in
midst of larger results
lists.
#4. inquiry
46. INQUIRY: SCHOLARLY DATABASES
• Many sources about the World Bank
• Some World Bank, documents, reports and books
in these databases, too. (with links or via a link resolver)
• More like this? World Bank content through ebrary in ProQuest
databases? Why not eLibrary or the Open Knowledge
Repository?
• Helping students navigate search results helps raise
questions.
#4. inquiry
49. CONVERSATION: SAMPLES
• Discuss Scholarly Communication Issues (esp. Assistant vs. Associate Professor
rank)
• Bibliography exercise. Give students a selection of sources on a topic and
have them answer questions like, “Which source is from a scholarly article, a
news report, a government publication.”
• Help students review a bibliography in a work.
• Build research management skills like learning citation tools (i.e. EndNote)
• Reduce student anxiety about contributing to the conversation
(collaborative activities, short presentations, etc).
#5. conversation
50. CONVERSATION: PUBLISHING
I have talked with
students & faculty
on sections such as:
• “About this journal”
• “Rights & Permissions”
• “Editorial Board”
• “Instructions for
authors”
#5. conversation
http://wber.oxfordjournals.org/
51. CONVERSATION:
CITATION MANAGEMENT
• Google Scholar Example
• Cited by
• Import into.
• eLibrary
• “Download Citation,”
• “Citation Alerts:” the
conversation.
#5. conversation
53. EXPLORATION
• Concept maps exercise & writing on paper
• Small group discussion
• Flipped class idea. Students complete a Google Form ahead of class time
(can work in a variety of teaching contexts).
• Assign students a database to explore, have them present it to class using
their research topics and keywords (subject-based, or tools like the eLibrary
• Browsing eLibrary topic
and country pages useful for
exploration. Knowing about
student’s interest early on
helps construct sessions.
#6. exploration
54. WRAP-UP
• The World Bank eLibrary can be a useful starting point in teaching
information literacy concepts discussed in the Framework.
• The Framework is a conversation starter for librarians, faculty, higher
education and publishers
• Hope some ideas here might lead to future emphasis on information literacy
in intergovernmental sources and government information in general.
• I’ll be at ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco if anyone wants to meet
and talk about these issues.
57. Presenters:Brett Cloyd, University of Iowa
brett-cloyd@uiowa.edu
Phone: 319-335-5743
Devika Levy, World Bank Publications
dlevy@worldbankgroup.org
Phone: 202-473-2497
World Bank Publications Customer Service
onlineresources@worldbank.org
Phone 202-473-8597
Questions? Contact Us
Notes de l'éditeur
Our objective today is to provide you with some information on ACRL's New Framework for Information Literacy
and to show you some ways the World Bank eLibrary and other intergovernmental websites can be used to teach the concepts presented in the framework.
We’ll start with little background about the World Bank and the World Bank eLibrary for those who are not familiar with them.
Established in 1944, the World Bank is a vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world.
Not a bank in the ordinary sense but a unique partnership to reduce poverty and support development.
The World Bank Group has set two goals for the world to achieve by 2030:
- End extreme poverty
- Promote shared prosperity
We offer support to developing countries through policy advice, research and analysis, and technical assistance.
The World Bank Group consists of five institutions managed by their member countries.
So what is the World Bank eLibrary?
The World Bank eLibrary is the World Bank’s official subscription-based, publishing platform
Provides easy discovery and access of World Bank publications and research
It differs from our main World Bank website and OA repository in that it offers a variety of personalization and value-added features for using WB content.
It was originally launched in 2003 and was specifically developed to meet the unique needs of libraries, researchers, and the academic community
Used by the world’s top academic institutions, international and governmental agencies, think tanks and NGOs
The eLibrary contains all publications, journals, and research since the 1990s
You’ll find our complete Backlist of books including chapters for the latest titles
Thousands of Working Papers and Other Research. We’ve just added a new collection of Economic Outlooks
2 Journals,p ublished by OUP on behalf of the Bank: World Bank Economic Review and World Bank Research Observer. eLibrary has the complete backlist with no embargoes.
Our content covers more than 200 countries and economies at all income levels – with a special emphasis on low- and middle-income countries
In total, more than 13,000 items (as of 6/10/15).
Our research and publications cover a broad range of social science topics related to poverty reduction and economic development.
These include public health, education, climate change, energy, and gender
as well as extensive coverage on emerging markets, international economics, trade, growth, and finance.
There are Many Ways to Access Content straight from the Home page:
You can Browse by Country, Region, Topic or Content type (Books, journals, working papers)
Go into the Quick or Advanced Search
Browse New Titles
See What’s Popular among other users
Or even go to your Personal accounts for quick retrieval of content you have saved
eLibrary is powered by Metadata – which is hyperlinked and appears in red
Users can conduct a new search by clicking, such as author’s name or keyword
eLibrary searches on Full text as well as this metadata
Altmetric scores recently added, which track activity on social media, blogs, and in the news (Brett will talk more about this later)
Here is an Example of a Topic Browse.
The left top arrow is pointing to some background information we provide about the country, region, or topic
The second left arrow shows the quick links to other World Bank pages that are related, such as World Bank data, projects, and blogs
On the right, you’ll see the arrow showing multiple options for filtering and faceting.
The Browse and search results (bottom left arrow) contain a lot of information so you can quickly determine what’s right for you, such as the content type, expandable abstract and more.
This is an Example of a Country Browse.
The arrow points to key data from World Development Indicators at a glance.
The same is available for Regions.
Clicking on a key indicator will bring up a time series chart similar to this one.
We will be integrating much more data in the coming months so researchers can not only find publications on their research topics,
Users will find relevant and related data all within elibrary.
This is the Browse Books page, which is organized by series.
Clicking on a series name will bring up a brief description as well as all titles in the series.
We have similar pages for Journals and Working Papers and other Research.
We’ve just added some new Economic Outlooks.
eLibrary offers personal accounts (circled at the top of the page) for saving favorite content and saving search results.
You can set up content alerts by series, topics, or even when a new item is added that meets your saved search criteria
When running your saved searches, all new items since your last search (that meet your saved search criteria) will appear along with your original results
In the next couple months, we’ll be adding full text, so no downloading is needed.
Content is already available as PDF and ePUB for recent titles.
Among its many benefits, full text/HMTL will allow figures to be enlarged or browsed
The forward and backward arrows for scrolling figures are circled here
All World-Bank copyrighted content is made available under a CCBY license, so it can be used, re-used, and shared widely
without further permission as long as the Bank is given attribution.
Our Terms and Conditions link on the eLibrary website (circled) provides more detail on how to cite World Bank content.
Because eLibrary is designed for libraries, we offer many services, such as indexing in Google and library discovery services like WorldCat, ExLibris Primo, Summon and many others.
The World Bank eLibrary is only available at the Institution-level (we do not offer individual subscriptions)
Subscription period is 12-months and is typically based on a calendar year cycle,
Or it can be prorated through December 31
Prices based on total number of FTE / authorized users and institution type
Geographic & consortia discounts available
Free trials available for libraries
Subscribe through:
us directly onlineresources@worldbank.org
Your preferred subscription agent
or select Library consortia
The recent adoption by ACRL of the Framework for Information Literacy provides a great opportunity to think about our teaching work and begin conversations with our librarian colleagues and campus partners.
Here’s the definition of Information Literacy from the Framework. As you can see it covers a lot of ground.
Earlier this year the ACRL board approved the Framework. They placed it within a Constellation of documents which extends the 2000 Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education
I especially like the “contrast” that is defined between novice learners and experts. I think keeping this concept in mind can help us with our teaching efforts
Also, flexibility extends to teaching styles, trying out new teaching ideas, and working with peers and partners across higher education and professional associations.
We can imagine each frame in the framework is a threshold to help students pass through to better understand information….to be information literate.
This article (http://acrlog.org/2015/01/30/whats-the-matter-with-threshold-concepts/) takes a look at Threshold Concepts (the Framework is based on them) and some of the criticism surrounding them. However, it is generally supportive of the Framework. I recommend the article to you. It is included in the works cited list at the end.
This graphic identifies challenges to teachers/librarians: the fact that learners do not start at the same place, they learn at different paces, and teaching to these different learning points can be challenging. I imagine all of you can imagine yourselves and your students at different points.
I will be drawing on these settings during the webinar. Think about places that you teach.
Library strategies is a 1 credit course I teach to upper level students in International Studies
I also am librarian liaison to International Studies, Political Science and Geography. I teach occasional one-shot classes in these subject areas.
As part of a research and instruction department, I am also assigned to select 1st year Rhetoric classes to help with basic information literacy skills.
I also meet with students in research consultations.
I liked this quote by Jim Church from an article he wrote in a Spring 2009 issue of Documents to the People. “What after all is the big deal about international organizations?” He cited 6 main categories including standards, law, development, human rights, aid and children. The content we find in the World Bank eLibrary will include many of these categories, plus some new ones.
I wanted to say that international and intergovernmental are sometimes used interchangeably. I will try to use intergovernmental, but I may use international on occasion.
The World Bank is a large intergovernmental organization that is part of the United Nations system. I will be talking about the World Bank eLibrary as a tool or platform we can use to teach information literacy concepts in a variety of settings. Besides being asked to talk about it, I think the eLibrary’s focus and purpose help make it useful in this setting.
It’s helpful that the eLibrary also can be used as a gateway to other World Bank information materials. Leveraging these connections can help students advance.
These are the 6 frames that make up the framework. ACRL just lists them on their web site – there is no rank order or emphasis, but they are listed in alphabetical order. It is worth noting that there is some overlap between the 6 frames and parts of the presentation will recognize the overlap. You might consider the overlap as repetition which can be useful when teaching. Also note, each frame contains knowledge practices and dispositions which is further explained on the Framework web site.
Frame #1: Authority is constructed and contextual
I want to highlight a few words in each frame. Each frame gets a paragraph of explanation in the Framework, but I’m streamlining for the webinar. Keywords of the frame include.: authority, constructed, creators’ expertise, credibility, evaluated, information need, context, authority (different types, levels). Please feel free to pull up the Framework on ACRL’s web site if you want to read more
Here is the UN System chart that I sometimes share with students. It identifies 5 parts of the World Bank Group – highlighted in red. It’s relationship to the Economic and Social Council may be useful (light blue line and arrow). There may be other units you want to cover/highlight/mention. In the context of the World Bank, there might be related interest in UNEP, UN Development Program, IMF, and the Regional Commissions. This can be a chance to introduce them in a meaningful way – rather than naming them.
This is a screen shot from a Google Images search. I initially searched “World Bank” but I was presented with an option to include “protest” in my search. I think the Authority frame gives us an opportunity to demonstrate that some scholars (and citizens) challenge the authority of sources (something described in one of the frame’s Knowledge practices). This type of source may also let students “assess content with a skeptical stance” ( a disposition described in this frame) by becoming aware that not everyone is supportive of the World Bank.
This is the home screen of the World Bank eLibrary. Note the World Bank Group branding at top connects with the free World Bank web site. This gives the site the authority of the World Bank.
The Collections section of the site can help define what is contained in the eLibrary and its scope. The World Bank Group A-Z title on the home page can help orient new users to the organization. Students will also need to become familiar with the authors, information products and point of view present in the eLibrary. Helping students understand that the content is all from the World Bank is a important teaching point.
This is an example of an exercise you might have a student do to explain authority and expertise of authors. I started with an ebook in the eLibrary written by Chong and Lopez de Silanes. The ebook actually had a fairly short author description. An earlier working paper connected him with Georgetown. But when I tracked down his faculty page via Google Scholar I got a lot more information about his work, plus a link to his University of Ottawa page (current as of May 2015)
That still leaves open the question of what kind of learner will need Chong’s type of authority in their work? That is likely a conversation you might have with a faculty member, and/or a student. My first year students would struggle with a source like the eLibrary book, but advanced undergraduates and graduate students need to develop familiarity with this type of literature.
I wanted to spend a few moments looking at a search results record, because I think students express some uncertainty when presented this information.
Document types are first piece listed in search results but lack emphasis – I think they need a little more distinction, or need to be placed lower in order. Some discovery tools include an icon with an option for getting more information about type (like a book icon). You might find the OKR - Open Knowledge Repository summary page (separate from the eLibrary) helpful in understanding the various types of document types across all World Bank publications. Creating links to this summary page in eLibrary might be helpful (suggestion to World Bank staff). There is also some information about document types in the eLibrary FAQs.
The authors in the eLibrary are generally considered experts in their field, but the expertise may be valued differently based on the learner and the information need. Consider your audience.
In this title the author’s field in the result links to other titles by the author which demonstrates a degree of authority (this person has written a lot of titles for the World Bank), but it doesn’t explicitly say too much about the person’s interests or broader influence. As we learned earlier author information may be within the published works – it’s worth considering specific examples in a teaching context. If we open up the eBook we can usually see an author’s credentials in the introduction.
In most cases, I don’t think the eLibrary should be used as a standalone research product when considering authority. Consulting secondary source information that is peer reviewed is an important step in the research work of most students. Finding information that is skeptical of the World Bank (like this article I discovered in PAIS) or other intergovernmental organization is an important part of authority frame.
When students should use peer-reviewed scholarly sources will depend on their information need. Limiting to only to the World Bank eLibrary may also depend on the information need and consultations with faculty members about student research assignments.
Teaching students a little something about scholarly databases and how to use them is an important part of helping students become information literate that is related to today’s topic. It helps students better understand authority.
Frame #2. Keywords: Information Creation, Process, Message, Shared, Delivery method, Iterative, Resulting product (the students’)
The eLibrary includes a variety of tools to help users and the World Bank itself share information.
It’s important to note that the eLibrary contains the work of the World Bank – no content from other sources. The content is from World bank staff, economists and experts. Some titles are also authored by the World Bank itself and may not include individual authors.
There can be a mismatch between a students information needs and the authority and expertise of the content. My rhetoric students may really struggle with the eLibrary.
Finding ways to link to more informal sources can help in this area. Blog sources linked from the eLibrary topic and country pages can help.
The eLibrary results screens can help here.
This is an example of an eLibrary Topics page. I sometimes like to demonstrate this type of page to students first.
Note the “Background” paragraph that orients users about a topic. The links to the free World Bank Topic Page and World Bank blog on the subject are good places to go to find general background information, and with blogs, slightly less formal publication types. Students may also get ideas of how authors from the World Bank might collaborate.
The Filters help students imagine how they might find more specific information. Understanding the document types and examining the topics might give students new perspective about their value.
Setting up an account enables users to “Add to Favorites, Email, and Citation alert.” It’s a little bit hidden (I’ve added my emphasis with a red box), but these can be useful tools. To emphasize saving favorites can be a useful part of information creation process, because this can be the foundation for a student’s reading list or list of consulted sources.
The citation alert can be a tool to help in this area – to keep up on new information that is created. eLibrary gives a concrete way to do this – I might suggest to students that similar tools are available in other database products, though students might be reluctant to create another account. We will talk about download citations in another frame.
The Share Page (top right) is comparable to other social media strategies employed by different database platforms. In my experience undergraduate students might not use this that often (note their distinction between social and school work), but graduate students might use it as a way to keep track of sources. For those who are interested I taught a class called Being Responsible Online this semester. Top social media sites included; Snapchat, Yik Yak, and Instagram. (not available on the eLibrary)
I’m introducing the idea of alternative metrics here to explore some of the concepts behind the creation frame.
Information is being disseminated in new ways including blogs, tweets, and Facebook posts. Altmetric is a tool that collects this kind of information. It’s similar to being cited in a paper, but it’s much more informal. Its available form some citations in the eLibrary. Some items might have active altmetric activity, then a few months or year later it will turn into a citation once a paper is published. It’s worth noting this has become a popular discussion item at conferences and workshops.
A related note is the other disposition on this slide. Betty Beekeeper tweets about this World Bank title. I think there is ambiguity that can be “What does this mean that she likes this item?” Does she have expertise or authority? What does her Twitter feed tell us? Certainly she is very passionate about climate change and environmental issues? Does she fit into our students information need? Does it help produce skepticism or doubt about the information? Is it neutral – interesting? The creation frame addresses some of these issues, and can give you an opportunity to talk about these issues with your students.
Frame #3 is Information has Value
Keywords include information, value, commodity, education, influence, value in negotiating/understanding the world, Legal/socioeconomic value
Juniors and seniors become aware that they can access certain information resources because they are students at a university. The eLibrary will not be available when students graduate. However, the World Bank makes many publications available for free on the web through their Open Knowledge Respository and other platforms. Students are more aware of this free vs. premium service by way of phone apps and similar models.
Intergovernmental organization can be a means to educate, influence, negotiate and understand the world, but requires a degree of information literacy and a crossing of the thresholds for students to become more confident and aware of specific sources. Many of my students have said they just didn’t know that tools like the eLibrary were available.
In this next section I will slightly broaden my focus to talk about information about other countries and how people seek and use this information.
This is a snippet from Google’s search results. For many of us, Google is the front door to the world. I frequently have students use the free US Google site to try to find country information. You will see Google likely has a different value of information than the World Bank in terms of what gets displayed. This specific example has a fair amount of informational content, and many students confront tourism and consumer oriented information when they want to look for information about a country’s development progress or transportation issues – among others
I try to note to students that when they search from the US, on a university campus, with their personalized account, the search results page is personalized. I sometimes use this opportunity to talk about Eli Pariser’s Filter Bubble. For the most part, I don’t think this is as big an issue when using the eLibrary.
Finding government information about other countries in Google is often a difficult experience for students. Some students choose to use a Google search page for another country, others try many different keywords. Identifying information that is not written by Americans, or citizens from other highly developed countries can be problematic. This page from the Permanent Representation of Turkey to the United Nations might be confusing for many of my students.
This is the World Bank elibrary country page for Turkey. It includes links to several free World Bank sources: country page, data, blog, and projects. In addition the titles in the eLibrary about Turkey are also listed. Gathering all this information in one place for students can be vary valuable.
You can get here by navigating the “Regions” tab, and identifying a country of interest.. I wanted to highlight the topic filter here to help students think about certain development areas they might be working on. The top 3 are listed, and you can select more to see a longer list. Seeing which ones have the most hits may help students identify important issues facing a country. Browsing this page in an early stage of research may help students develop better research topics.
Keywords: Increasingly complex or new questions, additional questions
Students may begin their works from different starting points as we discovered at the beginning of the talk. Students may also begin to use more sophisticated tools as they progress.
A librarian will be able to help students differently depending on the research situation (classes, consultations).
And students might develop different questions based on the information tool they have. I have a few suggestions for starting points here: library catalog (with MARC records), scholarly database, the World Bank elibrary, and of course there’s Google.
This screen shot is the result of using a filter limit on World Bank as creator with my institution’s implementation of the Primo discovery tool.. It looks very neat, but when you add the noise of other types of sources, the experience can be more complicated. This method of access help students connect directly to World Bank content without knowing about eLibrary, but if students are generally interested in topics covered by the World Bank, the eLibrary is probably the better tool.
Scholarly databases like PAIS Intl and WPSA offer important information about organizations like the World Bank and the United Nations. While it may include content from the World Bank, there may be information about non-World Bank published books, articles, government information and other document types.
I found these links to ebrary e-books published by the World Bank. Can a link go to the eLibrary instead. ProQuest owns ebrary which might indicate the preference. While everything from the World Bank is in eLibrary, World Bank doesn’t send everything to ebrary (note the close similarity between names: eLibrary and ebrary)
I’ve also included a search result screen shot of a journal article in WWPSA. Having students question what this source is can help indicate how familiar students are with citations. Remember the World Bank eLibrary results record? Note the academic cap icon as an indicator of document type? Would you be able to say who the authors are? Snippets highlighting search terms in context of abstract are interesting. Also, how to find full-text (link resolvers)? With the eLibrary, full-text is built in to the database, but is available in all scholarly databases. These are important questions to highlight with students in classes and consultations.
The full record in eLibrary can help students ask more question. For example, it puts issues in to regional context, suggests other countries related to a topic, and identifies numerous keywords that can help further understand a topic. Helping students to value this type of descriptive information is an important part of the Inquiry frame.
Frame # 5. Scholarship as conversation. New insights and discoveries, sustained discourse
That scholarship is a conversation can be a useful frame to share with a variety of students. For instance, students might not be familiar with the distinction between assistant and associate professor, the role of tenure, and how scholarship impacts their professor’s work. For many students, a professor is just a teacher and they might not know of their professors other time constraints.
I like to try using a number of bibliography related examples in my teaching. You can offer a bibliography full of citations that includes items from a variety of document types or from a favorite database. You might ask students to answer some questions about types of sources, ask them to identify the author of a citation, or identify which one is from a newspaper, etc.
Students are tuned in to bibliographies –sometimes initially through mining citations in Wikipedia. The work in the eLibrary is well cited, so pulling up a book or article can give some ready made examples of scholarly bibliographies.
Talking about citation tools can fit into larger goals like writing a research paper. Working with a faculty member through the course of an assignment can help these projects get off the ground.
I try to find ways to reduce student anxiety about contributing to the conversation by working on collaborative activities and short presentations. If students have an awareness of one another by talking with each other about their topics, it’s much easier to have them give a short presentation (more in frame 6).
This is the World Bank Economic Review web page. OUP publishes on behalf of the World Bank. There is more information here than in the eLibrary site. It provides more information that is geared toward potential authors. After talking about scholarly publishing issues, consulting these types of pages help students better understand the Scholarship as conversation frame. The eLibrary will also give full text access to the journal content.
Questions like information about a journal, editorial board, rights and permissions and instructions for authors can help students appreciate the journal’s scope and purpose, as well as the process that creates the scholarly work: it’s a professional conversation.
Recently I’ve been going to Google Scholar Profiles to learn more about researchers – profiles highlight scholars contributions to the conversation in their fields
I’ve included a Scholar citation you might use as an example. It is the title by Chong we talked about earlier. Google Scholar’s Cited by features shows 66 citations. That highlights that 66 scholars are referring to his work and you can see the work by following the link. While here, selecting a citation manager will let students download citations. Helping students set up EndNote accounts and showing them where they can use it to download citations is a fairly straightforward way of introducing students to good research habits.
Back in the eLibrary, highlight to students database tools that help create bibliographies -- “download citations” - can be an important part of a visit with students. Explaining it in various contexts (Library catalog, Google Scholar, and eLibrary) may help re-enforce the concept.
Before we leave here, Citation alerts – also demonstrates the ongoing conversation., etc. We talked about in this in the creation frame, so this is a point of overlap. If students find material that matches their information need in one database, setting alerts for new content makes a lot of sense.
The last frame, Searching as Strategic Exploration.
Keywords: searching, exploration, non-linear and iterative, evaluation, information sources. Mental flexibility, alternate avenues, new understanding
I have several ideas for working on the Exploration frame.
I’ve found concept maps to be a useful tool that encourages student creativity and collaborative behavior. Asking students to share their concept map with a classmate can help students follow-through with the activity and make it more meaningful.
Introducing Concept maps I might show a YouTube video or work through on an example with the class. You can give students a printed example, or talk about student’s previous experiences with concept maps. I’ve only had 1 student experience a really hard time with this activity.
Small group discussions can be planned ahead of time by asking an instructor to share a Google form with students (note the screen shot of some of the questions I ask). This might be considered flipping the classroom and I picked up this technique at an ALA Unconference. By learning what a student’s research needs are ahead of time, I can form small groups of students with similar research ideas. I can also specify databases relevant to a students’ information need by having some time to consider their work (instead of needing to respond at the moment of instruction). There might be a group that could benefit most from the eLibrary, or perhaps the eLibrary country or topics pages will match the need (if all students are studying current issues in different countries)
In some classes I provide an opportunity for students to share their expertise with a database. I’ve done this after students visit me via a one-on-one consultation in a class I teach. This can be a way for students to gain confidence, and might take me away from demonstrating too many databases in one class session..
Thanks for attending today’s webinar. I hope I’ve been able to demonstrate that the World Bank eLibrary can be a useful starting point in teaching information literacy concepts discussed in the Framework.
I think the framework can be a good conversation starter for librarians, faculty, higher education and publishers.
I hope some ideas here might lead to future emphasis on information literacy in government information .
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