What the CRAAP?: Comparing Approaches to Teaching Web Evaluation in FYE Programs

Before the 2017-18 academic year, instruction librarians at Loyola University New Orleans’ Monroe Library had been using the highly popular CRAAP test to give students a framework for evaluating open Web resources. The traits of currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose are meant to help undergraduates determine a source’s appropriateness for use in their academic work. The possible limitations of this model became evident to us at the conclusion of our assessment of incoming freshmen’s ability to apply the CRAAP test to a topic of their own choosing. Responding to this demonstrated entry-level information literacy need, instruction librarians began teaching web evaluation using the “what, who, when, where, why, and how” framework. This approach allows for a more open-ended line of questioning for students while still encouraging them to assess the crucial indicators of quality referenced by the CRAAP test. Our assessment of students’ ability to successfully apply the new criteria to find quality relevant sources is ongoing, but faculty response to the shift has been positive. This session will focus on the possibilities for instruction created by the journalistic question framework, as well as the many challenges that students will incur when applying this evaluation method

The Journalistic Approach: Evaluating Web Sources in an Age of Mass Disinformation

A new approach to teaching web source evaluation is necessary for an internet that is increasingly littered with sources of questionable merit and motivation. Initially pioneered by K–12 educational specialists, the journalistic model avoids the cognitive duality of the checklist and a reliance on opaque terms and concepts. Instead, it recommends students apply the six journalistic questions of what, who, where, when, why, and how when evaluating freely available web sources. This approach outlines an evaluative procedure that is open-ended, discursive, and analytic in nature as opposed to formulaic and binaristic. It also requires students to consider both the context of the information need and a source’s potential use as central to its evaluation

Bridge Over Troubled Water

Faculty from within the disciplines interested in transitioning to academic librarianship can be a boon to libraries prepared to make the most of their skills and subject specializations

Free for All

Periodic website redesign projects have become essential -- though often complex and costly -- measures that libraries take to ensure users’ ease of access to resources. Though administrators often enlist university web designers or even outside contractors to undertake these projects, librarians themselves can and should be at the center of any library website redesign. This is easier for libraries with employees who have considerable web development-related skills, but it is also within reach for libraries with smaller staff and limited web development skills. Indeed, free UX testing applications, basic office software, and open source or freely available CMSes such as Drupal make library website redesign projects both feasible and affordable. Generating buy-in and recruiting content editors to help build the new site are two vital measures for a successful redesign, as well as ongoing, post-launch maintenance. During our library website redesign, we leveraged both the communication of UX testing results and periodic peer training activities to create support, invite feedback or input, and recruit partners for content creation on the new site. As our site launched, we sustained the momentum of our peers’ involvement with the site by providing training materials, tech support, and targeted documentation. By combining freely available, user-friendly applications with a strategic, inclusive implementation process, even libraries with limited resources can successfully complete significant website redesign projects