Information Now ─ A Graphic Guide to Student Research

Information literacy is generally defined as the ability to recognize situations in which information is needed and to find, evaluate, and effectively use relevant information from a variety of media. It is an essential skill set in all academic disciplines at all levels of education and also in professional and personal life. The recent dramatic changes in the technologies of creating, storing, and retrieving content have made information at once more accessible but also more difficult to critically evaluate, and universities have increasingly come to recognize that effective instruction in information literacy is essential to incoming students’ success in their academic careers and beyond. With that goal in mind, Matt Upson, C. Michael Hall, and Kevin Cannon have created a unique guide in graphic-novel format that instructs undergraduate students in the fundamental research skills that constitute information literacy that is both academically sound and wildly imaginative and engaging. Following the Association of College and University Libraries Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, the guide stresses skills such as determining the extent of information needed for a research project, accessing the needed information effectively and efficiently, evaluating information and sources critically, incorporating selected information into one’s knowledge base, using information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose, and understanding the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information. Each of the eight chapters ends with exercises that allow students to apply their knowledge to relevant scenarios, and the manuscript concludes with a glossary of critical terms.

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, includingUnderstanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing and The Cartoon Introduction to Philosophy.