When Educational Testing Service (ETS) was first approached by college librarians, professors, and administrators to develop an assessment of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) literacy, there was a resounding concern: incoming students could use technology for entertainment purposes, but many did not have the ICT literacy skills to do…

Millennial students make up a large portion of undergraduate students attending colleges and universities, and they have a variety of online resources available to them to complete academically related information searches, primarily Web based and library-based online information retrieval systems. The content, ease of use, and required search…

This paper is a review of emerging occupational opportunities for librarians and information professionals. It is structured around three concepts: working assumptions; changing environments; and emerging job opportunities. In the first section, the six assumptions upon which this review is based are outlined. The second section begins with a…

Describes online misinformation: incomplete, out-of-date, biased information; pranks; contradictions; improperly translated data; software incompatibilities; unauthorized revisions; factual errors; and scholarly misconduct. Suggests online searchers should be skeptical, establish prior knowledge, distinguish between fact and opinion, evaluate…

Argues that any trend that moves librarians away from libraries and into academic classroom settings is accomplished at the expense of students and ultimately weakens, rather than strengthens, the role librarians can play in higher education. Suggests that librarians' areas of expertise lie in information skills rather than specific disciplines.…

Argues that information skills are critical for life in the information age. With the widespread use of information technology, information literacy now requires knowledge of computer-based information in the form of hardware, systems, applications, and use of the information itself. (DGM)

Presents an interview with Mike Eisenberg, co-founder of Big6, that explains how the Big6 process for information-based problem-solving can be used to address the challenges educators face related to the No Child Left Behind legislation. Highlights include the need for teamwork between principals, library media specialists, teachers, and…

This article briefly reviews the growth of technology and the development of standards related to technology in counseling, Pre-K-12 education, educator preparation programs, and the field of school counseling. The development of pre-admission and program outcome technology skills at Indiana State University is discussed along with the specific…

Discusses the use of Calvin & Hobbes comic strips to point out steps in the Big6 information problem-solving process. Students can see what Calvin is doing wrong and then explain how to improve the process. (LRW)

Describes a study conducted at Rutgers University that examined the problem of the judgment of information quality and cognitive authority by observing users' searching behavior in the Web, and the effects of those judgments on selection behaviors. Discusses implications for Web design and suggests future research. (Author/LRW)

Discussion of Web search strategies focuses on a comparative study of textual and graphical summarization mechanisms applied to search engine results. Suggests that thumbnail images (graphical summaries) can increase efficiency in processing results, and that enhanced thumbnails (augmented with readable textual elements) had more consistent…

Discusses the need for information literacy in the workplace in the face of information overload and problems related to end user information skills. Explains how to improve information literacy by assessing the organization's infrastructure, including available information technologies and information processes; considering demographics; and…

Two challenging criteria for judging information involve bias and authority. In both cases, judgments may not be clearly possible. In both cases, there may be degrees or levels of acceptability. For students to gain experience and to demonstrate skills in making judgments, they need opportunities to consider a wide spectrum of resources under a…

Teachers who design meaningful and developmentally appropriate tasks will motivate their students to engage in the content and as students work through the Big6 process, interacting with the content, they learn and practice information and technology skills. A valuable task definition technique is to develop questions that students in each group…

Staff development workshops conducted by library media specialists can assist teachers to integrate information literacy skills and technology into their curricula. Guidelines are presented on the planning and implementation of such workshops.