Metaphors people use to teach information literacy

What follows are metaphors people use to teach the (generally individual) information literacy process associated with academic information literacy and aspects of information literacy, such as evaluation. These were contributed by people who belong to the LIS-INFOLITERACY list or heard of my original request for other people's metaphors. It would be nice if others put theirs up on this site as comments - or maybe the pool has dried up! I'm sure not. Some would make good cartoons.

1.[use – evaluation] Further to the shopping metaphor for finding information: when it comes to evaluation, most learners have already had the experience of
'comparative shopping' where they compare the relative merits of one product with another, weighing up the pros and cons of competing products (sources) before making a final decision where they will spend their money (or in the case of an information source, time); emphasising the skills that a learner already has can be a way of engaging them with a process they may initially take to be quite foreign and unfamiliar. In this sense it acts more like an analogue than a metaphor.
Jason Eyre

2. [access – sources – coverage] A& I tells you what is available no matter who published it or whether we have full text access - if it's important they may be able to get the full text on another database (we are in the happy position of having a lot of full text available via the IReL consortium deal funded by the Irish government) or through Inter-Library loans. Wiley (or Science Direct) give you the full text there and then, but it is only looking at one publisher's output and therefore extremely restrictive.
Claire O'Brien,

3. [process – planning] Explaining to students that searching for information can be a bit like planning an important dinner party. They shouldn't go shopping without first writing a list of ingredients (search strategy) as they might waste time and get the wrong items once in the shop. Also, the quality of the ingredients and organisation of items can differ depending on which shop they use.

[access - use – organisation - define topic - vocabulary] Also, the idea of where to find things once in the shop - I think supermarkets are quite good for explaining how information is categorised and how articles are indexed. For example, where would you find raisins? Could be several places: snack aisle, health food aisle, fruit and veg or the baking aisle. So an article can be indexed with several different tags.
Nancy Graham


4. [access – sources] Attached my map of 'Law island'- paths of convergent evolution at work ;) The idea is that this is a final 'map' of one part of law.

In the lecture that goes with it I 'follow' and idea as it moves from inception to being part of the law- like the rivers on the map. And then as a student you explore and annotate that map.

Smith, Peter


5. [process – constructivist – personal routes] I like all of these! But wanted to add to the kayaking/journeying metaphors - in a similar vein to Drew's comments on the needle in a haystack - that there may not be one "correct" route - people with the same assignment could use different information and produce equally good results (so long as the information was reliable of course!), they could also take different routes to finding the same information resources, and of course, most people have completely different information needs from each other, we are not all writing the same assignment/trying to get to the same place!

[process – access – strategies] So, to further develop the kayaking metaphor (one close to my heart, having done a bit of kayaking myself), there are lots of different rivers (ponds, lakes, canals, oceans - depending on the size of your task I suppose), and different ways to navigate each. If you come across some rapids, you might take a sensible, steady course, avoiding rocks, or you might rush in and get a bit battered (but maybe have more fun on the way....?). You could develop the "information as water course" metaphor as well - related to the natural resource ideas in point 6 below: water cycle/information cycle? tools that help you distill/filter?

I will stop now before I get too carried away ...
Anna Brown


6. [process - define topic – sources – evaluation – knowledge] My ‘body in the library’ metaphor. I talk about approaching a literature search as a detective approaches a murder investigation:

What is the identity of the subject (victim)? Does it have other names?
Does the subject relate to other subjects (the victim’s family / friends)?
Does it turn up on bibliographic databases (police records)?
Which ‘witnesses’ to the subject are more reliable and why (Wikipedia / Journals / Books)?
When was the subject last seen alive (what’s the most recent state of knowledge and debate)?

I’ve been using this approach particularly because departments asked me to talk about assessing the quality of information as well as search strategies. They wanted an emphasis on thinking critically about information as well as finding it. Also, most students (even where they come from other cultures) have seen some detective dramas.

However, I think it’s time I changed my metaphor as I’ve been doing this a number of years now…
Rebecca Read


7. [use – source – evaluation] I have used a mapping metaphor- textbook as basic guide, journal article vs latest update on a blog. The students make their own 'map' reflecting their needs and experiences.



Pete Smith

8. [process – define topic – access – evaluation – norms] We're currently redeveloping our info lit site and are planning to use a cake metaphor along these lines:

What ingredients do you need?
Incorporates:
Decide what you need to know
Types of information
Identify the resources you need
Learn how to cook (building a search strategy)

Where can you get the ingredients?
Incorporates:
Using books, journals, databases, internet
What, which, how

How does it taste?
Incorporates:
Evaluate the search results
Evaluate your search strategy

What is the recipe?
Incorporates:
Referencing
Plagiarism

We're still devising the content, but when one of my colleagues, Isobel Brooks, explained the idea we all took to it! As with all metaphors, we could probably extend it ... taste and textures of the finished cake, the essential ingredients, different varieties, what can go wrong...
I like the way your kayak metaphor is a journey, and highlights the many pitfalls (or whirlpools) when seeking information. It's also very dynamic, and might hint that next time you're going through the rapids, you'll be able to call on your previous experiences.
Tanya Williamson

9. [access - sources - evaluation] Our findit@portsmouth site uses the information landscape in terms of relative complexity/academic weight of different types of resources. (http://findit.port.ac.uk/)
Linda Jones

[process - constructivist] I have adapted "sporty reader" for students to describe their research habits. In sporty readers you have to describe how you read in terms of a sport (ie: " I am a deep-sea diver, I like to immerse myself in a new environment, sometimes it is murky, sometimes beautiful and colourful etc " you get the idea). For researching so far I had an orienteer (brilliant!), a hill-walker ("long and slow process but you get a great view at the top", fly-fishing (dips in) and lots of divers...

Sporty readers was introduced to me by Jerry Hurst during a Chatterbooks training session.
Agnès Guyon


For those doing research at a higher level then yes, just talking about the process is fine. But for many of our students, a metaphor helps them understand some quite tricky concepts. I always emphasise that it is a metaphor and that it is related to a research process. As long as they can make use of the metaphor, it’s ok.
Pete Smith

Your references to water reminded of the following metaphors for information seeking behaviour: http://www.abo.fi/~jheinstr/thesis.htm
Carol Webb