Teaching information literacy through short stories / David James Brier, Vickery Kaye Lebbin.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Teaching Information Literacy through Short Stories examines information literacy themes through 18 short stories. The book provides librarians and instructors a fresh approach to introduce, accompany, and supplement their teaching. The book is divided into six sections corresponding with the six pillars of Association of College and Research Libraries Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Accompanying each short story are questions to stimulate thought and discussion around various aspects of information and scholarship including authority, process, value, inquiry, conversation, and exploration.



Following the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, this book supports the argument that good information literacy instruction is more than teaching students how to find information for their assignments in an expeditious manner. Stories offer a starting place for more complex thinking about the purpose of information literacy and are a wonderful tool to inspire students to acquire the attitudes necessary for broad creative thinking and lifelong intellectual behaviors.



The book is designed to be interdisciplinary and useful in any course or workshop introducing and teaching information literacy skills. The stories contained in the book are appropriate for students from high school through university.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface (p. vii)
• Acknowledgments (p. ix)
• Introduction (p. xi)
• 1 Authority Is Constructed and Contextual (p. 1)
• Renaissance Man (p. 4)
• The Liberation of Rome (p. 10)
• The Amphibious Cavalry Gap by J. J. Trembly as told to James E. Thompson (p. 15)
• 2 Information Creation as a Process (p. 19)
• Megaphone (p. 22)
• The Voice from the Curious Cube by Nelson Bond (p. 29)
• The King (p. 33)
• 3 Information Has Value (p. 37)
• The Censors (p. 40)
• The Memory Priest of the Creech People (p. 44)
• The People Who Owned the Bible (p. 47)
• 4 Research as Inquiry (p. 51)
• A Fable by Robert Fox (p. 54)
• College Queen by William Brandon (p. 58)
• To Serve Mail by Damon Knight (p. 62)
• 5 Scholarship as Conversation (p. 71)
• An Old Man by Guy de Maupassant (translated (p. 75)
• Charles (p. 80)
• Mind Over Mayhem by Mack Reynolds (p. 86)
• 6 Searching as Strategic Exploration (p. 91)
• The World Where Wishes Worked (p. 94)
• Many Happy Returns (p. 98)
• They're Made Out of Meat (p. 105)
• About the Authors (p. 109)

Author notes provided by Syndetics

David Brier is a Social Sciences Librarian at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and is currently the Chair of the Business, Humanities, and Social Sciences Department. He has a Ph.D. in Political Science and a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Hawaii at Manoa along with a Master of Library Science from the University of Michigan. He is the co-author (along with his colleague, Vicky Lebbin) of numerous articles on information literacy. Their latest article, "Learning Information Literacy Through Drawing," explores their ongoing interest in alternative teaching methods for information literacy instruction. His current research focus is on multisensory information literacy.



Vickery Kaye Lebbin is a Social Sciences Librarian at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and is currently the Public Services Division Head. She holds a Masters in Library Science from the University of Michigan and a Masters in Communication from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Vickery is a former winner of the Association of College and Research Library Instruction Section's Innovation Award, honoring librarians who have unique approaches to information literacy instruction, and the Hawaii Library Association's Distinguished Librarian Award. Her publications include numerous journal articles, book chapters, and reviews on a variety of library instruction and information literacy topics.