United States
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Every day researchers face an onslaught of irrelevant, inaccurate, and sometimes insidious information. While new technologies provide powerful tools for accessing knowledge, not all information is created equal. Valuable information may be tucked away on a shelf, buried on the hundredth page of search results, or hidden behind digital barriers. With so many obstacles to effective research, it is vital that higher education students master the art of inquiry.
Information Now is an innovative approach to information literacy that will reinvent the way college students think about research. Instead of the typical textbook format, it uses illustrations, humor, and reflective exercises to teach students how to become savvy researchers. Students will learn how to evaluate information, to incorporate it into their existing knowledge base, to wield it effectively, and to understand the ethical issues surrounding its use.
Written by two library professionals, it incorporates concepts and skills drawn from the Association of College and Research Libraries' Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education and their Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Thoroughly researched and highly engaging, Information Now offers the tools that students need to become powerful consumers and creators of information.
Whether used by a high school student tackling a big paper, an undergrad facing the newness of a university library, or a writer wanting to go beyond Google, Information Now is a powerful tool for any researcher's arsenal.
"Information Now is the research guide undergrads, faculty, and librarians did not know they were waiting for. Combining the fun of comics with wit and useful knowledge, Information Now provides new researchers a visually engaging guide to succeed in the world of academic research. I highly recommend librarians and faculty use it to help undergraduates actively engage with the research process in a meaningful, yet super fun way. By using the comic format to ease undergrads into the challenging world of academic research, the authors have created one of the most relevant, accessible, and entertaining guides to research available. Upson, Hall, and Cannon might not save the world with this book, but they are definitely saving the sanity of overwhelmed undergraduates facing their first college papers. Highly recommended for academic library collections and classroom instruction."
– Lizz Zitron, instruction librarian, Pacific Lutheran University
"In today's world of information overload, it is often difficult for students, the average citizen, and even faculty to wade through the mass of clutter out there in the world. So much of the information we encounter in our day-to-day lives is not only irrelevant, it's often wrong. Increasingly, information literacy is a skill that everyone needs to function in our complex world and without it most of us are lost trying to navigate through the maze. Upson, Hall, and Cannon's Information Now provides a practical guide for all of us to find our way around. They show us HOW and WHY it's important to think about information literacy and the steps to take to make sure we do it correctly. It's all here in this sequential art textbook: searching techniques, critical thinking, how information is organized, problems of plagiarism, copyright, and correct citation, databases, peer reviewed sources, metadata, Boolean operators, and much more. Information Now is a godsend and I can't wait to use it in the classroom."
– Robert G. Weiner, popular culture librarian, Texas Tech University
"Upson and Hall's experience as instruction librarians ensures that Information Now's presentation of information literacy aligns with professional standards and practices, while cartoonist Cannon's wry, animated style serves to reassure readers. Let their intrepid librarian help guide your students through morasses such as information overload, controlled vocabulary, scholarly publishing, the deep Web, and plagiarism. You won't regret it."
– Carol L. Tilley, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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.
