New Review: The University of Chicago’s Information Now: A Graphic Guide to Student Research

Learning List recently reviewed Information Now: A Graphic Guide to Student Research from The University of Chicago Press. This supplemental resource is available in print and eBook formats and provides an introduction to information literacy and research. Learning List recently reviewed print resources for their support of instruction in Advanced Placement (AP) Research and AP Seminar courses.

Reviewers found Information Now to be an engaging introduction to academic research. The text is presented in the form of a graphic novel and uses black and white comic-book-style illustrations and incorporates a humorous approach instruction. The text does not address the full scope of a research methodology course; instead, it focuses more narrowly on how to find, evaluate, and use information ethically and effectively. Instruction seeks to move students away from general Google searches and reliance on sources such as Wikipedia.

Chapters address techniques for searching Web resources, library catalogs and databases, and academic journals. Students learn strategies for finding credible sources, identifying bias, and ensuring that sources are cited appropriately in their work.  The text emphasizes the value of library resources and librarian expertise when conducting research and covers current issues, such as the use of metadata and search engines.

Each chapter ends with critical thinking activities that ask students to reflect on their prior experiences conducting research as well as the new skills they are learning. Students are encouraged to use social media (e.g., blogs, Twitter, websites) to track and reflect on their learning.

[Source: The University of Chicago]
[Source: The University of Chicago]
About The University of Chicago Press*

Since its origins in 1890 as one of the three main divisions of the University of Chicago, the Press has embraced as its mission the obligation to disseminate scholarship of the highest standard and to publish serious works that promote education, foster public understanding, and enrich cultural life. Through our books and journals, we seek not only to advance scholarly conversation within and across traditional disciplines but, in keeping with the University of Chicago’s experimental tradition, to help define new areas of knowledge and intellectual endeavor.

In addition to publishing the results of research for communities of scholars, the Press presents innovative scholarship in ways that inform and engage general readers. We develop reference works and educational texts that draw upon and support the emphases of our scholarly programs and that extend the intellectual reach of the Press. We publish significant non-scholarly work by writers, artists, and intellectuals from within and beyond the academy; translations of important foreign-language texts, both historical and contemporary; and books that contribute to the public’s understanding of Chicago and its region. In all of this, the Press is guided by the judgment of individual editors who work to build a broad but coherent publishing program engaged with authors and readers around the world.

The Press also recognizes the obligation to match the form of our publications to our readers’ needs by pursuing innovations in print and electronic technologies. In our books and journals programs as well as in our distribution business, the Press pioneers new ways of extending the availability and accessibility of knowledge, and the intellectual exchange that thrives on them.

*The content in this section is provided by or adapted from The University of Chicago Press.

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