Information Literacy--Don't Search the WWW Without It!

Physics and astronomy <span style="color: #ff0000">information</span> resources are proliferating at a rapid pace today. The ability to differentiate between the myriad of resources available and to learn to evaluate them is a necessary skill if students are to succeed in college and beyond. This is not a new problem, in fact, yet it has become more urgent with the proliferation of the World Wide Web and the ability of anyone to put up a webpage. Too often students pay little attention to the authority behind a website, and use whatever they find without questioning the source. It is important, then, to include <span style="color: #ff0000">information</span> <span style="color: #ff0000">literacy</span> skills in the curriculum. Physics and astronomy librarians are uniquely qualified to assist in developing these skills. Even better is cooperation and collaboration between the librarian and the teaching faculty. In practice, this works best when any sort of <span style="color: #ff0000">information</span> seeking assignment, including a research paper, is required for a class. <span style="color: #ff0000">Information</span> <span style="color: #ff0000">literacy</span> is defined and discussed, and an outline of an instruction session that could be used in conjunction with a research paper assignment is given.