Information Now

A Graphic Guide to Student Research

Matt Upson,

C. Michael Hall,

and Kevin Cannon

T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F C H I C A G O P R E S SC H I C A G O A N D L O N D O N

Matt Upson is assistant professor and director of library

undergraduate services at Oklahoma State University.

C. Michael Hall is a writer, cartoonist, and public speaker who advocates for comics and

graphic novels in libraries and educational settings and creates visual aids for libraries.

Kevin Cannon is the illustrator of numerous educational and fictional graphic texts, including

Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing and The Cartoon Introduction to Philosophy.

The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637

The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London

© 2015 by The University of Chicago

All rights reserved. Published 2015.

Printed in the United States of America

24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 1 2 3 4 5

ISBN-13: 978-0-226-09569-1 (paper)

ISBN-13: 978-0-226-26775-3 (e-book)

DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226267753.001.0001

All copyright rights in the Dewey Decimal Classification are owned by OCLC Online

Computer Library Center, Inc.; The Summaries are used with OCLC’s permission;

DDC, Dewey, and Dewey Decimal Classification are registered trademarks/

service marks of OCLC Online Computer LIbrary Center, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Upson, Matt, author.

Information now: a Graphic guide to student research / Matt Upson, C. Michael Hall, and Kevin

Cannon.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-226-09569-1 (pbk.: alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-226-26775-3 (e-book) 1. Information

literacy — Comic books, strips, etc. 2. Library research — Comic books, strips, etc. I. Hall, C.

Michael, author. II. Cannon, Kevin, author. III. Title.

ZA3075.U67 2015

025.5'24 — dc22015000685

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

CONTENTS

PREFACE VII

I N T R O D U C T I O N : INFORMATION OVERLOAD 1

1 T H E P R O C E S S : STEPS TO FINDING AND USING THE RIGHT

INFORMATION. ANYTIME. ANYWHERE. 11

2 H O W I N F O R M A T I O N I S O R G A N I Z E D A N D F O U N D : THE BASICS 25

3 S E A R C H I N G A N D L I B R A R Y C A T A L O G S : UNDERSTANDING THE HUNT FOR INFORMATION 39

4 J O U R N A L S A N D D A T A B A S E S 55

5 S E A R C H I N G T H E O P E N W E B 71

6 E VA L U A T I N G Y O U R S O U R C E S 81

7 U S I N G I N F O R M A T I O N E T H I C A L L Y 90

8 C O N C L U S I O N 106

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 109

GLOSSARY 111

PREFACE

This book has pictures, we swear! You just have to get past this enormous one-page chunk of text before you are rewarded with the ample fruits of your labor. OK, OK, take one quick sneak peek. Turn the page but come right back.

Great. Satisfied? Since we’ve got you here, there are two important items we want to address.

#1: This book is about information. How to find the right kind, how to use it effectively, how to evaluate it efficiently, etc. As a current or perhaps soon-to-be undergraduate, the informa-tion you use—and your understanding of it—is critical to your success as a student and as a future professional. We want this book to reinvent the way you think about information. We want you to be more critical of the information you find and use. We want you to have a better understanding of where the information you use comes from. We want you to be more aware of how to locate the best information for your needs. And we want you to realize that finding the best information can be hard work, especially now that there is more information being created by more people than ever before in human history. We want you to do a lot of things, but we’re here to help. And when I say “we,” I mean librarians. Obviously we’re a little biased here, but librarians are one of the most important resources in your quest for information. We know our way around books. That’s been our job for quite a while now. But more importantly, we’re information experts. Books aren’t our only tools; we’re not limited to one medium. We know how to find stuff, and, more importantly, we can help you figure out how to find the right stuff on your own. So, if this book teaches you one thing (hopefully, it will teach you more, but . . .), it’s that your friendly neighborhood librarian can and should be one of your first stops when you start researching. OK, enough self-promotion.

#2: We decided to make this book a comic because we believe that comics can more efficiently teach concepts and skills than traditional prose, thanks to their use of engaging combinations of text and images and appropriate utilization of metaphor and relevant context. Because comics stimulate the parts of your brain that handle visual elements as well as the parts that handle language, they can potentially give your brain more opportunities to connect with the content than you’d have with a strictly text-based book. Plus, comics are fun to write and draw and a lot more fun to read than your average textbook.

All right, we’ve said enough here. Read the book, learn something new, and enjoy!

vii

Oh, hi! You look a little lost. How can I

help?

Ah, a research project, huh? And you don’t know where to start? Sure, we can

help with that!

Uh-huh, right, right. OK. So, you’ve searched

online and were swamped with resources? Don’t

know what to use?

Sounds like we need to start with

the basics. Let’s talk about…

1

INTRODUCT ION

INFORMATION OVERLOAD

So, you’re probably asking yourself, “Why am I in a library? Why can’t I just Google anything and everything I need

for this project?”

Yeah, good question!

Well, I’m glad you asked, because I have a whole lot

of answers. Believe it or not, Google can be a great resource. So can Wikipedia. in fact, any piece of information has the potential to be useful, regardless of

where you find it…

…but I’m getting ahead

of myself.

See, tools like Google and Wikipedia are not even close to being the only resources you can use for

research. And they don’t even scratch the surface of how much information is out there. And there’s a LOT of

information. Too much.

Enough to sweep you off your feet if you’re not

prepared.

Come on…I’ll

show you.

2 I N T R O D U C T I O N

Let’s imagine this little trickle of water

represents all the information created by ancient humans.

A lot of oral tradition, maybe some

cave paintings, an inscribed tablet here or there…

But as the human population increased and our

forms of communication evolved and spread, the amount of information produced grew exponentially. More and more people added their own

“flow” of information to the increasingly deep and

swift current.

Not much, huh?

I N f O R m aT I O N O v e R l O a D 3

As literacy rates rose and basic education became more

common, even more information was produced. The ability to create and publish information spread to more

and more of the population as education and technology

advanced.

More and more books and articles were published every year. Mass production allowed for more

access, since there were many copies of items, not just one or a few like

there’d been earlier.

And then came the internet and the World Wide

Web!

All of a sudden, potentially anyone and everyone could post whatever they wanted,

whenever they wanted. You can complain about the person in front of you at the checkout line to hundreds, even thousands

of people in just a few seconds! it can be overwhelming!

Let’s get out of here!

4 I N T R O D U C T I O N

Whew! Well, now that that’s over, you can tell how potentially overwhelming

information can be, especially now.

Things changed really quickly once the internet and personal computing became commonplace.

Now billions of people can create and disseminate information in

the blink of eye.

But you already know that. You probably sat down at a computer

this morning or used a phone or tablet to post something online, making your own thoughts available for the world

to see. And guess what?

Millions, even billions of other internet

users also decided to do the same thing.

This can be great! More people are accessing information than ever before,* making us more informed, intelligent, and responsible global citizens…every person with their own unique voice and an outlet to the world!

*For up-to-date statistics on worldwide internet usage, see the international Telecom-munication Union’s iCT Facts and Figures page at http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/facts/default.aspx.

On the other hand, since anyone can dump their information into the flow, we have to confront an increasing number of view-points on an increasing number of topics.

Again, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it poses a challenge: How do we manage that flow of information and find reliable and useful information for the variety of tasks we have to accomplish every day?

So, that confusion you feel about what’s the right

resource to use?

That’s part of information

overload.

Say, for example, you’re working on an academic research project. The type of information you’ll need for that assignment is going to be completely different than the information you’d need to decide which mobile device to buy.

Different kinds of tasks require different kinds of information and different ways to find that info.

I N f O R m aT I O N O v e R l O a D 5

And information overload isn’t just about the huge number of

people creating information each day. it’s about technology, speed,

and access, too.

Nowadays, it is incredibly easy for an indi-vidual to create and duplicate information.

Way back in ancient times, students were forced to use a contraption known as a typewriter, or even—gasp!—write things out by hand. (they had to know how to spell, too.) Creating just one copy took a lot of work.

create and duplicate information

create and duplicate information

create and duplicate information

create and duplicate information

W ay before that, scribes labored countless hours to create documents by hand, spending months, even years, meticulously writing and illustrating a very small num-ber of works. Each copy was unique and valuable.

The invention of movable type in China in the eleventh century and in Europe a few centuries later allowed for greater speed and flexibility when producing printed information. And when Johannes Gutenberg developed the printing press in Europe in the fifteenth century, the process of making multiple and accurate copies of documents became much easier and faster.

I’m setting all kinds of

records here!

in fact, “easier and faster” could be the motto for information

creation and duplication over the millennia. it took a long to time to pick up steam,

but now that it has, there seems to be no slowing down.

6 I N T R O D U C T I O N

There are also more ways to access information

than there used to be.

We used to have to go to the

information in many cases.

Now, more than ever, the information

comes to us.

The wide array of technology we have at

our disposal ensures that we’re never more than

a few seconds away from discovering something.

it can be too much: Too many ways for information

to reach us and not enough ways to filter out what we don’t want.

Managing all of the information that we come across can be a challenge because we encounter so

much of it in so many different ways.

And the paths to access are still multiplying. What will

be the next new way to use information? Augmented reality? Wireless internet

access points in our brains?

Sounds like science fiction, sure, but the tools we use every

day would sound like alien technology to the people of fifty, even

twenty years ago.

I N f O R m aT I O N O v e R l O a D 7

The speed and ease with which we can

transmit information is another factor in

information overload. I can just throw together a quick text or e-mail

and…

it’s as easy as

could be.

“Hey, Bill, you’ve got a

towel on your head…”

Yeah, thanks for that…

Now think about how difficult it was to transfer information back in the day…

This letter must be delivered with the utmost

haste! Let nothing hinder the swiftness of your steed, nor the fortitude of your spirit!

Yes, milord!

This might be an exaggeration, but you get the point. information hasn’t always been easy to share…

…and because of that fact, only the most vital information was shared.

“Dude! Pizza 2nite?”

Most of the time.

Of course, there have been alternate means of communicating with relative speed

without the use of advanced technology. For example, the use of smoke signals and carrier

pigeons allows for the quick transmission of information, but that information can be restricted by the limitations of the

communication method.

Now, how do I order more

marshmallows and hot dogs from Amazon with

this?

8 I N T R O D U C T I O N

Since information is no longer difficult to transmit, we don’t worry as much about what we’re sending out into the world. Quality, relevance, and

reliability aren’t as valued as they used to be, depending on your point of view.

Think about all the junk e-mails you get, all the ad blasts that scream out to you from every other

website you visit.

Think about all the Google searches you do

and all the irrelevant information that you sometimes get along

with the good stuff.

information is no longer a scarce

commodity. it’s beyond abundant, increasing

at a rate that is unfathomable.

How do you keep up? How do you know what’s relevant

and accurate? How do you even know what you don’t know? What information has been verified by experts as reliable and unbiased? What was concocted by people who have no interest in providing a truthful look at the world? What’s there just to make money

or entertain? How do you decide?

Well, being information literate is

a way to combat the confusion. Basically, it’s all about under-

standing how to find, use, create, and share information in a variety

of dynamic scenarios, including academic research. Let’s

dig in.

I N f O R m aT I O N O v e R l O a D 9

CRIT ICAL THINKING EXERC ISES

1. For the exercises in this book, create an online blog, website, Twitter feed (or any other type of online social media) that you can use to track your understanding of information literacy and the research process. Feel free to answer the questions by using text, images, video, sound, or any other approach, BUT be sure to use outside information ethically. (I know we haven’t covered that yet, but for now, just be sure to let us know if you use information created by someone else and show us where you got it. When in doubt, LINK.) This can be formal or informal, but you should really focus on answering the questions honestly and thinking about your own understanding and experience finding and using information.

2. Have you ever experienced information overload when searching for information? Were you unable to make a decision because there was too much information or the informa-tion was inconsistent or conflicted? If so, think about and describe how you got into that mess in the first place. What kind of information were you looking for? How much time did you spend trying to find what you needed? Were you eventually successful, or did you give up and throw your computer in the trash? Can you think of any strategies you could have used to avoid the problem?

3. Is information overload a common problem for you, or are you confident in your ability to find and manage information?

4. If you are confident in your skills, explain why. Practice? Instinct? Luck? What makes your search skills so great? If you’re not confident, how could you fix that?

10