Of Running Rivers

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Of Running Rivers Teaching Users Skill
Finesse in Library Instruction

• Roy Tennant
• California Digital Library

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(No Transcript)
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Running Rivers

• Flowing water is a complex system
• By observing surface anomalies, currents, speed,
  and direction a river guide can read the river
• Reading the river tells the guide where to go,
  what to avoid, and what will be required to take
  various routes through a rapid
• By correctly reading a rapid, and working with it
  rather than against it, a guide can navigate a
  rapid with the least amount of physical exertion

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Who Makes a Better River Guide?

• Large burly male brute force
• Allows his muscles to get himself out of fixes he
  could have prevented with finesse
• Dares the river to do its worst
• More often thinks he has mastered the river
• Petite female finesse
• Reads the water with great care
• Skillfully plans a course that uses the river to
  her best advantage
• Is humble before the clear and present power of
  the river

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Why Finesse is Better than Force

• Finesse works with the natural flow, using its
  force for your purposes
• Finesse can prevent problems that brute force
  cannot solve
• Finesse respects that which is being finessed
  brute force opposes it

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Finessing Users into Information Literacy

• You will never be able to get all users into a
  class perhaps not many possibly not even more
  than a small minority
• So what do you do the for the others? Nothing?
• Something is better than nothing

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Finessing Users into Information Literacy

• Advice, cautions, tips, tricks, etc. at the point
  of need
• Provided in an unobtrusive but apparent manner
• Integrated as well as possible with the purpose
  at hand
• Ubiquitous
• Consistent

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Stealth Information Literacy Uses Finesse

• Very low barrier to entry (can you read?)
• Very little impact on the users time (brief, to
  the point)
• Point of use (at the time and place of need)
• Can lead into more thorough treatments (e.g.,
  more involved explanations)

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Finessing IL Examples

• Search box hints

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Finessing IL Examples

• Search results tips (find a book you like and
  click on one of its subject headings to find
  others like it)
• Evaluative resource descriptions
• Library signs that say more than Abstracts
  Indexes
• Web site labels and descriptions that go beyond
  jargon
• Bookmarks or mouse pads with criteria for
  evaluating web sites
• Overdue notices with IL tidbits
• Key messages anywhere and anyhow you interface
  with students!

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Why Stealth IL is Good

• You can reach more people than you can with
  formal classes
• You can place your message at the exact point
  where they need it
• Being incremental, rather than batch, they are
  more likely to remember your message
• By creating ubiquitous and consistent messages
  usable with all library contacts with students,
  you gain the benefit of repetition

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Finessing IL How to do It

• Decide on your messages (collectively!)
• Reduce them to sound bites
• Edit them for
• Relevance
• Language
• Brevity
• Clarity
• Distribute them, integrate them, permeate them,
  with everything the library does!

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Your Goal

• Every student in your university should leave
  knowing the following things
• The best place to get coffee
• The name of the schools sports team
• How to be an intelligent, critical, effective
  information consumer