Information Literacy Final Assignment (1)

8/7/2019 Information Literacy Final Assignment (1)

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/information-literacy-final-assignment-1 1/6

AfeezYusuff

INFORMATION LITERACY IN THE VIEW OF

ACQUIRINGINFORMATION

CENTRAL OSTROBOTHNIA UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCE

Information Technology (BIT)

April 2009



2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 3

BODY OF DISCUSSION3

CONCLUSION 5

REFERENCE



3

Introduction

The recognition of importance of acquiring information cannot be underestimated in our

fast growing technological world where new development are being made on daily basis

on existing technology and for one to maintain the trend of his or her information literate

level compare with the level of fast growing technology one has to adopt a good practice

of acquiring information.

By developing a sense of acquiring information is a value added process that gives one

strong stand and authority in his field of specialization. In this regard, this write up will be

focused on the reflection of information competency in the aspect of acquiring information

under the umbrella of searching techniques, searching and refining the search, critical

assessment of retrieved information and assessment criteria for different materials along

with reflecting my personal information behavior.

Body of Discussion

Firstly, it is of great deal to adopt appropriate searching techniques in acquiring

information. Researchers have identified that this factor is influenced by the experience

gathered or background of the users to employ the systematic approach in searching for the

relevant information. Despite a variety of steps taken to improve students¶ information

literacy skills, the most common barrier to accessing information resources reported by

students was lack of knowledge about using resources. (Verhey, 1999.)

This factor goes a long way to depict what the outcome of the search will be and in effect,

it requires a great deal of attention. Though, one might have capability of using various

search techniques like using search fields, combining words, truncating search words,

using instructions yet it requires one ability to choose the most appropriate sources from

the numerous results that will be available. This capability is achieved by having self

confidence and personal skill that will enhance the search techniques to limit the result of

the search to relevant sources from the numerous available resources. So, in the same vein,this factor is a great tool that has assisted in my IT degree program which requires

information competence to be able to explore modern development in technological world

with ability to utilize good command of searching techniques that support my learning

during research work.



4

Moreover, the search techniques is enhance with excellent internet literacy. With variety of

resources of materials in digital format that are available online reshape the idea of ink-on-

paper and also allows access to recent collections from all part of the globe. The

knowledge of using internet in acquiring information will be an avenue that provide no

limit to the scope in collecting resources and providesquality outcome of modern work.

Critical is the ability to find the desired information among the vast amount of information

available on the internet, the ability to integrate information coming from multiple sources,

and the ability to effectively use this information to solve problems.(Leu&Kinzer2000.)In

one study examining this issue, (Park &Black 2007) found that the level of domain

knowledge that the participants possessed had significant impact on their being able to

successfully find information from the internet to answer fact-based questions.

So, prior knowledge on the targeted problems will facilitate the performance of the

participants in using the internet to extract relevant information to solve the task in

question. I try to have overall idea on the topic at hand before embarking on internet for

search because this goes a long way to depict what the outcome of the search will be and

adopt the logic combination (OR, AND, NOT) to limit the scope of vast information

available on internet. This aspect appears bothersome to some colleagues at school when

interviewed about how the internet help in searching for materials when tasks are being

given. Their responses vary from one another in the area of vast results to their queries on

internet which they claimed that it contains some irrelevant materials which requiresadditional efforts to shuffle the best suit their target and this shows that it requires prior

knowledge of the topic in question which has a lot to do in order to have a good outcome

of search.

Similarly, assessing search result and refining it demands utmost attention. Allocating time

and attention to this aspect based on the need of the search will definitely define how

relevant the search result will be. It requires the use of significant phrases, keywords and

assigning the most relevant concepts from a controlled vocabulary. All these are put into

consideration by the search engines to navigate results. In essence, a relevant result can be

traced to how correctly define and refine are the search words according to information

need.

In an attempt to provide a quality refine search, it requires the use of advancedsearch and

extended search to provide a more focus and specific search based on the information



5

need. This employs the use of logic combination of the search and taking into account the

following: specific field of study, range of year of year of publish, and ISBN etc. All these

are put into account during the search procedure and most importantly provide a quality

work it requires ability to rectify action taken during the acquiring the information based

on the need of the search.

However, search results may be achieved with the aforementioned steps but it requires a

great deal to critically assess the result based on the need of the search. The assessment

may be view at different perspectives to enhance qualitative search. This assessment

measures how relevant and the usable are the search results are based on the need of the

intended purpose, this is due to the fact the some searches are presented which are not

relevant to the need of the search and will require critical assessment to ascertain how

usable is the search results with the one provided. So attention must be given to critical

assessment to provide quality work.

In the same vein, it is mandatory to give critical assessment criteria for different materials

in the search results in order to select the one that best suit the need of the search. This can

be achieved by having right attitude and ability to identify and find the required

information which as resultsupports the quality of the search. The ability to search for

result when in need depict the level of information competency of the person. So, utmost

attention is necessary for critical assessment of different in order to be able to show the

level of the individual of information literacy in acquiring information on a critical search

that may be in academic research work.

Conclusion

This write up has explained the rigorous steps that must be taken into consideration while

in attempt to acquire information based on the need of the search. It can be inferred that it

requires prior knowledge on the topic of the search to aid the strength of what the research

result may be, and basic knowledge of using internet tools is also facilitate the period ofthe

search. Also, it is worth noting that critical assessment should be given to the search and

employing adequate refining skills so as to give authority on the search, which give a

quality outcome of the work. So, acquiring information is a must for everyone who is

striving to achieve the information competency, with the capability of using the various

strategies as explained above depict authenticity of one¶s work.



6

REFERENCES

Barnard, A. Nash, k. and Obrien, M. 2005.Information literacy: Lifelong skill through

nursing education. Journal of Nursing Education 44, 505-10.

Verhey, M. 1999.Information literacy in an undergraduate nursing curriculum. Journal of

Nursing Education 38, 252-261.

Leu, D.J. and Knizer, C.K. 2000. The convergence of literacy instruction with the network

technologies for information and communication 35, 108-127

Willoughby, T., Anderson, A. , Wood, E. ,Mueller, J. and Ross, C. 2009.Fast searching for

information on the internet to use in learning context. Computer & Education 52, 640-648

Park, Y. and Black, J.B. 2007.Indentifying the impact of domain knowledge and cognitive

style on web-based information search behavior. Journal of Educational Computing

Research 38, 15-37.

Documents

Information Literacy Final Assignment (1)