Particularly if you’re in a public library, the material you use to teach information literacy to patrons has to work for those with different IL levels and needs. The following are examples of materials you can use to check different age-level boxes. Remember too that other items you find can often be tweaked to suit your patron population; part of the skill involved in IL work is adapting the resources you find to match local needs.
NAMLE, the National Association for Media Literacy education, has just published its January newsletter, which offers numerous resources that are aimed at K-12 educators, but that can also be used at the college level, particularly with community college students and freshmen at four-year institutions. The newsletter features Newseum’s resources for Black History Month, for example, as well as PBS News Hour’s lesson plans that can be used in conjunction with its programming, and information on NAMLE’s webinars.
Also think about using memes as IL tools, an idea suggested in Vicky Ludas Orlofsky’s Intellectual Freedom Blog post “Memes, Fair Use, and Privacy.” Memes—as Orlofsky points out, “Often, cats are involved—are beloved by young and old alike. The article offers clear, interesting explorations of fair use and privacy as they relate to memes, which could help you to create a lesson that neatly covers these important IL topics while being highly engaging. Do you have other ideas for crossover IL content? Something that works well in your library? Please let us know in the comments!
