“Information Literacy” by Ewa Rozkosz is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Information Literacy is the ability to locate, evaluate, and appropriately use information. It does not matter whether your information is obtained from a print or electronic source, that source must still be evaluated to ensure credibility.
The Association of College & Research Libraries define Information Literacy as the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning.
Information literacy forms the basis for lifelong learning.
It is common to all disciplines, to all learning environments, and to all levels of education.
It enables learners to master content and extend their investigations, become more self-directed,
and assume greater control over their own learning.
Campus library services and materials are available. Need books? Need to use a computer with Internet? Need to print and/or make copies?
Come by or call or email your campus library for assistance.
LIBRARY HOURS
Monday - Thursday 7:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Friday 7:30 - 11:30 a.m.
Saturday & Sunday CLOSED
COLLEGE WIDE PHONE NUMBER
(800)648-3271
FAYETTE CAMPUS LIBRARY EXT# 5141
(Located on the East Wing of Complex)
Mary Harris - Librarian
mary.harris@bscc.edu
Lesley Whitehead - Library Assistant
lesley.whitehead@bscc.edu
HAMILTON CAMPUS LIBRARY EXT# 5356
(Administration Building)
Tammy Sanders - Librarian
tammy.sanders@bscc.edu
JASPER CAMPUS LIBRARY EXT# 5748
(Irma D. Nicholson Library Building)
Rebecca E. Whitten - Librarian
rebecca.whitten@bscc.edu
Pat Bowden - Library Assistant
pat.bowden@bscc.edu
PICKENS CAMPUS LIBRARY EXT# 5646
(Adjacent to Main Office)
Stephanie Butler - Part-time Librarian
stephanie.butler@bscc.edu
SUMITON CAMPUS LIBRARY EXT# 5242
(1200 Building - 1st Floor)
Rebecca E. Whitten - Librarian
rebecca.whitten@bscc.edu
Alaina Browning - Library Assistant
alaina.browning@bscc.edu
Bevill State Community College -- Student Technology Loan Program
Beginning on the first day of class, and throughout the semester, currently enrolled students can check out laptops from their campus library. Laptops are checked out for the entire semester and are required to be returned on the last day of final exams.
ALL students (new and returning) will need to bring the following required items with them to the Library to check out a laptop:
The College Libraries cannot hold laptops for students
All student laptops are available on a "first-come first-serve" basis ONLY
If you have any questions, please contact your campus library.
We hope everyone has a great semester!
All sources must be evaluated while understanding the topic, assignment, audience, and discipline.
PRIMARY SOURCES
Primary sources are first-hand accounts or individual representations written by someone who experienced and/or witnessed an event; providing direct and/or firsthand evidence about an event, object, person, or work of art. Creative works are also considered to be primary sources.
Examples are original documents such as autobiographies, diaries, government documents, letters, speeches, and/or works of literature (fiction, poetry, etc.).
SECONDARY SOURCES
Secondary sources are sources that interpret and evaluate primary sources with extensive and in-depth analyses. They summarize, evaluate, and analytically interpret primary material, often by offering a personal perspective. Use secondary sources to see what others have discussed. They can be a good place to gather background information on a topic. You can also use secondary sources to explore what subtopics have already been explored on a given topic.
Examples are abstracts, bibliographies, biographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, literature reviews/criticisms, journal articles, and/or textbooks.
PRINT SOURCES
A print source is exactly as its name suggests – it is material that has been printed and can be produced in a hard copy. Print sources have generally been through some type of critical review/quality control process in order for publication to occur – preventing poor material from reaching the library shelves. Print sources must still be evaluated how relevant they are to the topic as well as its reliability.
Examples of print sources are books, magazines, scholarly journals, and newspapers.
WEB SOURCES
A web source is exactly as the name suggests – it includes anything found on the Internet. Some web sources are databases of scholarly articles and these databases are a great place to find information. Other web sources can be self-published with unclear origins. There is little quality control over the information on the Web and anyone with access to the Internet can publish online; therefore, the information on the Web may not be accurate. Each web page must be critically examined for credibility.
Examples of web sources are government and educational websites (.gov or .edu) as well as reputable news sources (The New York Times, etc.)
DATABASES
Databases are electronic organized collections of accurate and authoritative reference information which can be searched from one central location and are not considered to be Internet sources. Databases are specifically for reference and research and can contain magazine, journal, and newspaper articles, as well as citations to podcasts, blogs, videos, and other media types. Some databases contain abstracts or brief summaries of the articles, while other databases contain complete, full-text articles.
Examples are Academic Search Premier, Bloom’s Literary Reference Online, Issues & Controversies, etc.
AVL – ALABAMA VIRTUAL LIBRARY.
“The Alabama Virtual Library provides all students, teachers, and citizens of the State of Alabama with online access to essential library and information resources. It is primarily a group of online databases that have magazine, journal, and newspaper articles for research. Through the AVL, an equitable core of information sources is available to every student and citizen in Alabama, raising the level of excellence in schools and communities across the state.” (AVL Homepage)
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE NET AND THE WEB - The Internet can be viewed as Amazon while the Web can be viewed as something on sale at Amazon.
THE INTERNET / THE NET
The Internet is the biggest world-wide communication network of computers in existence. The Web is just one of many things (called applications) that can run on the Internet and it is used by billions of people all over the world. The Internet has millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks, which together carry many different kinds of information.
THE WORLD WIDE WEB (WWW) / THE WEB
The Web is a worldwide collection of text pages, digital photographs, music files, videos, and animations which is accessed via the Internet. Because anyone can publish material on the Web, researchers must use their critical thinking skills to determine the reliability of a source. Content may appear or disappear at any time. The Web is searched using search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.
Bevill State Community College Libraries LibGuides are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
A brief video that illustrated the importance of information literacy and how it applies in the real world, beyond the classroom. This brief video highlights information literacy and why it's important to teach students these concepts while in college. Please note: there is no voiceover narration in this video.
Copyright: Vanessa Garofalo, MLIS - Modern Librarian Memoirs
Song Licensed through Envato Elements
This video provides a brief overview of information literacy, as defined in the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (Association of College & Research Libraries). The video was created by The Ohio State University Libraries Teaching and Learning Department. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
What is Information Literacy? This video briefly explains, in plain English, information literacy in light of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education and explains how these concepts apply in the real world, beyond the classroom. It is geared toward students, faculty, and anyone wanting to learn more about Information Literacy.
Copyright: Vanessa Garofalo, MLIS
What does it mean for a source to be credible? Why is it important to use these sources? How can you tell if a source is credible? This video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States license.
Find out what information literacy is and why we need it. Creative Commons Attribution License (reuse allowed)
This graphic describes many components of information literacy.
Source: Developing Information Literacy, Technology skills