Information Literacy Translate Gender

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Gender Bias, Information Literacy

People often talk about how machines don’t have bias. However, that’s not exactly true. After all, they are programmed by people who do have biases. One of those you might not expect are in things like translators. According to Fast Company, instances have been found in “Bing Translate, Google Translate, Systran, and other popular machine translation platforms.” They follow gender bias. Teachers and nurses are assumed to be women and require female word forms, doctors and engineers are assumed to be men and require male word forms. This happens in both directions of translation, to or from English. So don’t necessarily trust something is unbiased just because it comes from a machine. Think about your words and your word choices and don’t make those same assumptions.

Sarah Uthoff is a reference library at Kirkwood Community College. LIKE the Kirkwood Community College Library on Facebook and find links to Sarah all over the web at her About Me Profile.

Information Literacy Dice Pass Phrase

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Information Literacy, National Information Literacy Awareness Month, Passwords, Strong Passwords

Passwords are the bane of modern existence. Trying to remember them and keep other people from being able to easily guess them causes many headaches. Don’t get discouraged and resort to the worst passwords or other easily guessable things. Don’t use the same password for everything since hackers at one site will try it on the others.

One good trick is to use a phrase or sentence you will remember and then just using the first letter or number of each word in the phrase. So if your phrase was the last sentence the password would be 1Gti2uaposywr. However, if you are really security conscious you can go even further. You can go beyond a password with a passphrase.

A Passphrase Past a Password

A passphrase is a series of words instead of one. This series should be made of random words that you can create a mnemonic to help you remember.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation recommends rolling dice and using them to help determine words from their word list using a random number. If you’d like to try it find the full explanation and word lists.

Sarah Uthoff is a reference library at Kirkwood Community College. LIKE the Kirkwood Community College Library on Facebook and find links to Sarah all over the web at her About Me Profile.

November is Information Literacy Month 2019

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Information Literacy, National Information Literacy Awareness Month

Information literacy means making sure people can find, evaluate for quality and use the information that they need. This can be for school related subjects, like picking good resources for a research paper or speech, or it can be for everyday life, like picking out the best loan or credit card for you.

Library Services is the heart of information literacy here at Kirkwood Community College. We not only help students, faculty, and staff with individual questions, but we offer instruction to classes through face to face classes, videos, and databases, Brain Fuse that is directed more to the individual and Credo Instruct that can be accessed both by individual students and dropped in Talon as objects that can then connect with class gradebooks.

Kirkwood Library Services has done several things over the years to celebrate and promote this event. This year we’re adding to our series of blog posts. Watch for them all month to learn more about information literacy. Check out previous information literacy posts on this roundup.

Sarah Uthoff is a reference library at Kirkwood Community College. LIKE the Kirkwood Community College Library on Facebook and find links to Sarah all over the web at her About Me Profile.

Let’s all become fact-checkers

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evaluation, Fake News, Information Literacy

Even before the term “fake news” gained widespread use during the 2016 election campaign, Kirkwood faculty widely agreed (72% of those surveyed in 2015) that students need to do better at evaluating information sources used in their research.

We at the Library often get requests from faculty to help teach students how to effectively evaluate information sources, so we are always on the lookout for the best ways to teach these important skills. We have used tools like the CRAAP Test, which does a good job of guiding us to dig more deeply into a source, past its initial appearance. However educator and researcher Mike Caulfield has found that this deep dive to interrogate a source — an approach that serves us well in the world of academics — does us a disservice when we try to apply it to the overload of information in our daily lives and on our social media feeds. What this world of attention-grabbing, misleading headlines, and outright lies needs is a simple and quick approach that is easily understood and learned by students (and teachers and librarians!) of all ages. 

Enter “Four Moves and a Habit”, a process adapted from the work of professional fact-checkers to quickly gauge whether a particular news story, website, or piece of information is worth the time needed for the “deep dive”. Caulfield published an extensive (and free) online book, Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers, describing this approach in great detail back in 2017. Since then he has been developing teaching materials and testing the method out on college as well as younger students to fine tune it. As of now these are the tools I recommend for teachers to learn for themselves and use with their students:

1. The (short!) YouTube video series “Online Verification Skills”
2. And as a reminder once you’ve learned the steps, this handy infographic of the 4 moves. 

Information Literacy Roundup

Tags

Information Literacy, National Information Literacy Awareness Month, Tech Tips

November is here and that ends National Information Literacy Awareness Month, but information literacy and tech literacy are things to work on for everyone all year. Please revisit our posts.

What is Information Literacy?

• Introduction to the Month
• What is Information Literacy?
• Iowa Official Proclamation of National Information Literacy Awareness Month
• President of United States proclaims NILAM
• New Books Related to Information Literacy
• New Books Related to Information Literacy 2018

Things to Think and Know About

• Asking Good Questions
• Copyright
• Have a Plan for an Online Afterlife
• Online Activities and Job Hunting
• Passwords
• Privacy
• Private Browsing Online
• Social Media
• Tracking Down a Study
• Twitter Bad History Feeds

Keep calm, think it through and we’ll be back with more helpful tips next year!

Sarah Uthoff is a reference library at Kirkwood Community College. LIKE the Kirkwood Community College Library on Facebook and find links to Sarah all over the web at her About Me Profile.

Information Literacy Bad Historic Twitter Feeds

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Information Literacy, National Information Literacy Awareness Month, Twitter

Twitter is a fun and interesting place to find a conversation. You can find the Kirkwood library there at @KirkwoodSmart. (There are also trolls although I’ve had people say worse things to me on Facebook.) But Twitter does have its problems. One of these are the historic photo tweet feeds.

Some of these chronic offenders just take images that don’t belong to them and post them without verification, without credit, and without context. They can be used to spread mis-information and at the very least take attention and money away from the owners of the images and interesting information away from YOU!

When exactly is an image from? What was really going on there? Why was it taken and most importantly, did Theodore Roosevelt ever really ride a moose? (You may be cool, but you’ll NEVER be Teddy Roosevelt riding a moose across a river cool. — OK that line which I love is actually from an uncredited meme, but it’s true!)

Doctored Image from Sept. 9, 1912 New York Tribune, See linked article

The Problem with Feeds

Historian Alexis Cole explains in her article what’s bad about these feeds and how they could be made much better. So what can we do about them?

Feeds to Unfollow

Even if you love finding interesting feeds of photos stop helping these feeds. If enough people unfollow they’ll go away leaving more room for legitimate sites. So go to your Twitter account right now and unfollow:

@HistoryinPics, @HistoricalPics, @HistoryInPix, @historylvrsclub

There are others but those are some of the biggest offenders.

Feeds to Take Their Place

But if you like old, cool stuff online never fear we have your back. Cole recommends following these accounts instead (and yes the University of Iowa suggestion was hers, I just moved it to the top).

@UISpecColl

News from the University of Iowa Special Collections libraries. Also on Tumblr http://uispeccoll.tumblr.com  & YouTube http://youtube.com/uispeccoll 

@PublicDomainRev

Online journal and cabinet of curiosities dedicated to showcasing the most beautiful and unusual out-of-copyright works available on the web.

@BeineckeLibrary 

“An inspiration to all who enter.” Visit in person or online to engage the past in the present for the future.

@SchomburgCenter

Where Every Month is Black History Month.

@UKParlArchives

We hold & provide access to the records of UK Parliament and other political and parliamentary collections. Use our #Tower tweets to discover more.

@HarvardArchives

People. Discoveries. Change. History. The Harvard University Archives.

@ShapellManu

Explore history in its original form through letters and manuscripts of Lincoln, Einstein, Mark Twain, American Presidents and more.

@medievalpoc

People of Color in European Art History: Because you wouldn’t want to be historically inaccurate.

@librarycongress

World’s largest library. Explore collections, services & plan a visit. Follow @LibnOfCongress to meet Carla Hayden, 14th Librarian of Congress.

@schubertiadellc

Dealers in autographs, manuscripts, books, artworks and collectibles in the performing and visual arts. Follow for beautiful books & photos every day.

Other Cool Old Stuff Feeds

I personally would also suggest:

@IUPUI_SpecColl

@ref_archivist (this is only one of several great the Henry Ford Benson Library accounts – find and follow them all!)

P.S.

And sadly no, as far as we know Teddy never did ride a moose and that definitely isn’t a real image. But kudos to the newspaper team behind the September 8, 1912 New York Tribune for putting that out into the world. Heather Cole, curator of Harvard’s Theodore Roosevelt collection, tells you the real story.

Sarah Uthoff is a reference library at Kirkwood Community College. LIKE the Kirkwood Community College Library on Facebook and find links to Sarah all over the web at her About Me Profile.

 

New Books: Information Literacy 2018

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Information Literacy, New Books

Here at Kirkwood Library Services we like to post from time to time a collection of books recently added to our collection on a particular topic.  In honor of National Information Literacy Awareness Month we have books on information literacy. Look for one the next time you stop by the library. These titles are housed in Cedar Rapids, but you can request them to be delivered to any of the other centers at any time.

And check out last year’s list.

Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism by Safiya Umoja Noble, Call Number: 025.042 N752a

Before You Know It: The Unconscious Reasons We Do What We Do by John Bargh, Call Number: 154.2 B251b

Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarist, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News by Kevin Young, Call Number: 001.95 Y737b

Digital Privacy and Security Using Windows: A Practical Guide by Nihad A. Hassan and Rami Hijazi, Call Number: 005.446 H353d

Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker, Call Number: 303.44 P655e

Essential Type: An Illustrated Guide to Understanding and Using Fonts by Tony Seddon, Call Number: 686.224 S447e

The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google by Scott Galloway, Call Number: 338.7 G174f

The Internet Trap: Five Costs of Living Online by Ashesh Mukherjee, Call Number: 302.23 M953i
NOTE: “Whether we are checking emails, following friends on Facebook and Twitter, catching up on gossip from TMZ, planning holidays on TripAdvisor, arranging dates on Match.com, watching videos on Youtube, or simply browsing for deals on Amazon, the internet pervades our professional and personal environments. The internet has revolutionized our lives, but at what cost? Mukherjee uses the latest research in consumer psychology to highlight five hidden costs of living online: too many temptations, too much information, too much customization, too many comparisons, and too little privacy.”

The Right of Publicity: Privacy Reimagined for the Public World by Jennifer E. Rothman, Call Number: 342.73 R846r

Think Before You Like: Social Media’s Effect on the Brain and the Tools You Need to Navigate Your Newsfeed by Guy P. Harrison, Call Number: 302.302 H319t

Understanding the Digital World: What You Need to Know about Computers, the Internet, Privacy, and Security by Brian W. Kernighan, Call Number: 004 K399u

Urban Myths About Learning and Education by Pedro de Bruyckere, Paul A. Kirschner, and Casper D. Hulshof, Call Number: 370.1 D288u

Sarah Uthoff is a reference library at Kirkwood Community College. LIKE the Kirkwood Community College Library on Facebook and find links to Sarah all over the web at her About Me Profile.

Information Literacy Tracking Down a Study

Tags

Citations, Information Literacy, National Information Literacy Awareness Month

Here at the Kirkwood library, and at most academic or school libraries, we deal a lot with citations. Most of the time we are concerned with citing to avoid plagiarism, but there is a second reason to have citations and that is to make sure the information is good.

Double Checking Citations

Sometimes even if there is a citation people might just make them up, they might be taking things out of context, or they might exaggerate a point. Personally I once was very excited to see that a Rose Wilder Lane book was the first to use the term Young Adult in its advertising. So I looked up the citation in the book that mentioned it, that referred me to another book, that referred me to another book, that referred me to another book. By the time I reached the end of the trail the book was now described as one of the first of a new classification of books known as Young Adult. The statement asserting its status got weaker every book I went back.

Especially be careful of things being passed around online. People grab things that are “interesting” to share without checking anything else and a list without citations or sources might float around the web or even end up in print full of errors without anyone noticing. This especially happens when people think they make a point they already agree with. For some tame examples, teachers had to live under terrible rules in the 19th century or that there are bigger discipline problems in classrooms today than in the 1940s.

Pulling a Fast One

Recently I found an article from the Fast Company that talked about a very prevalent study. One so well known that it’s passed into everyday thought and is just assumed to be true. The story is that a study of a Yale class from 1953 showed that those who had set goals had made more money that all the rest of the class combined. It’s a great story and self-improvement speakers have been using it since at least before 1991. However, it is NOT true. There was NO such study.

Upside and Downside of Goals

As the Fast Company article says goal setting seems to be a human trait and there are definite benefits of goal setting in keeping organized and on track. However, goal setting can create a myopic focus where the goal itself becomes the focus instead of what the goal is supposed to lead to. For instance, if the purpose of a Facebook page is to bring people into your business and you focus too much on getting a certain number of likes rather than getting people through the door. It can narrow options and send resources chasing something that might not be in your best interest.

So while it never hurts to have a plan, don’t become so focused on it that you lose other opportunities that might be even better. Think about WHY you’re doing something. Don’t believe that the only thing you need to do is make goals to have a successful life.

Things On the Internet and in Print Aren’t Always True

While it seldom would happen with an unpublished paper you write for school, having clear citations can help people who read it and want to learn more on a topic or who want to know how you know that. It also doesn’t hurt to question even the published articles and books you read and to check back the citations on things that seem new and startling or even something you’ve seen everywhere around the web. Just putting something in print, online or on paper, doesn’t make it true, but having and checking citations can help you tell the real from the fake.

Librarians for the Win

The reference staff at the Yale University Library was able to prove both through citation analysis and in-depth research that no such study ever took place at Yale in 1953 or any other year.

Sarah Uthoff is a reference library at Kirkwood Community College. LIKE the Kirkwood Community College Library on Facebook and find links to Sarah all over the web at her About Me Profile.

Information Literacy Private Browsing

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Information Literacy, National Information Literacy Awareness Month, Tech Tips

If you are not yet taking advantage of the private browsing feature on your website, you ought to be!

Browsers

First a word about a web browser is the interface you use to access websites. Popular browsers include Chrome, Firefox (Mozilla), Edge (Microsoft), Safari (Apple), and Opera. Most computers come with a single browser. If you are still only running that one browser download another one right now! If you are having trouble on the internet the first thing to do is to try another browser and often that will fix the issue.

Private Browsing

One step you can take for a more secure web browsing experience is to use the private setting on your browser. Even though private browser settings are called different things through different platforms all major browsers will have a private browsing option.

When you have private browsing engaged certain functions are blocked or not recorded. According to TechAdvisory.Org: “Your web browser — whether it be Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari, or Opera — remembers the URLs of the sites you visit, cookies that track your activity, passwords you’ve used, and temporary files you’ve downloaded.” Using the private settings can hide passwords, autofills, and telling advertisers your history and patterns. While your behavior still can be tracked by more sophisticated tactics, this simple step will make it harder for you to be tracked or for your information to easily fall into the wrong hands. It’s especially a good idea to use them when you are on a public computer, particularly if you’re using passwords.

Bonus Benefit – Multiple Accounts At Once

While you can also do this by having multiple browsers open at once, private browsing settings let’s you log into the same website with 2 different accounts at once.

The Specifics

Check out these two in depth articles.

Forbes lays out what each browser’s private browsing is called and what specifically each one does and doesn’t do.

How to Geek gives specific directions on how to use the private browsing setting in the most popular browsers with details on using it on multiple platforms and devices.

Sarah Uthoff is a reference library at Kirkwood Community College. LIKE the Kirkwood Community College Library on Facebook and find links to Sarah all over the web at her About Me Profile.

National Information Literacy Awareness Month

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Information Literacy, National Information Literacy Awareness Month

October is National Information Literacy Awareness Month. Although not publicized nearly as much as it was when it was first declared in 2009, each October libraries shine a spotlight on Information Literacy.

Information Literacy

According to the American Library Association information literacy is: “Information literacy is a set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information. Information literacy also is increasingly important in the contemporary environment of rapid technological change and proliferating information resources.”

In other words information literacy is the ability to realize when you need information and then find it, evaluate it, and use it to answer your question or complete your project.

Kirkwood Stands Out

Although library services try to teach information literacy all year, we take a special focus during October. Here are highlights of our previous Information Literacy Posts.

There’s a lot of stuff going on in October, so we didn’t dedicate the entire month to Information Literacy posts here on the blog, but we’re going to send out several this week. Enjoy!

What is Information Literacy?

• Introduction to the Month
• What is Information Literacy?
• Iowa Official Proclamation of National Information Literacy Awareness Month
• President of United States proclaims NILAM
• New Books Related to Information Literacy

Things to Think and Know About

• Asking Good Questions
• Copyright
• Have a Plan for an Online Afterlife
• Online Activities and Job Hunting
• Passwords
• Privacy
• Social Media

Keep calm, think it through and we’ll be back with more helpful tips this year!

Sarah Uthoff is a reference library at Kirkwood Community College. LIKE the Kirkwood Community College Library on Facebook and find links to Sarah all over the web at her About Me Profile.