New York, NY (September 9, 2008)—As anyone who works with students quickly learns, being Web-savvy does not always equate with being information literate. More Hands-On Information Literacy Activities – the fresh new book that Neal-Schuman will publish on October 14th – empowers librarians with tested strategies and proven techniques to teach students how to be discriminating searchers and consumers of information.

Authors Fiona Hunt and Jane Birks offer a timely collection of activities to support and inspire the information literacy skills of secondary and undergraduate students. Their purpose is to “tackle the daunting yet critical task of teaching students to first question and then evaluate the academic appropriateness, reliability, and credibility of information sources”. Hunt and Birks explain, “The amount of information that the latest technologies make available at the touch of a button from almost any location continues to increase exponentially. Although we hear that our students are more ‘tech savvy’ and that educational systems worldwide are responding to the need for students to be more ‘critical’ information consumers, the evidence we see in our high schools and universities is contradictory.”

This five-part book contains 20 ready-to-teach “active learning” lessons, developed from a teaching librarian’s perspective and suited for both mainstream and ESL environments.

The authors begin by offering search strategy activities that focus on vocabulary development for more effective searches, search strings practice, and review activities, as well as various orientation activities that introduce the physical environment of the library and the services and information sources available to students. Further exercises are included to help students evaluate the growing number of information sources, emphasize the importance of proper citations, and learn to properly paraphrase information and avoid plagiarism. The last section concludes with a variety of “General Activities” that reinforce principal information literacy concepts and evaluates the pros and cons of online learning.

All of the book’s activities can be used alone or in conjunction with others, and most take less than one hour to complete. A free companion CD-ROM provides librarians and other educators with a complete hassle-free toolkit of supporting handouts, worksheets and answer keys.

Clearly, there is an ongoing demand for continuing instruction in all aspects of information use – from access to ethics – and More Hands-On Information Literacy Activities perfectly and practically fulfills that need.

More Hands-On Information Literacy Activities
ISBN 978-1-55570-648-7.
2008. 6 x 9. 150 pp. $75.00.

About the Authors
Fiona Hunt is currently employed at Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where she has been instrumental in the development of the information literacy program and was a co-developer of the award winning online information literacy tutorial, Infoasis. Fiona has an MLIS from the University of British Columbia and TEFL certification from International House in England.

Jane Birks has 30 years’ experience in education in Australia and the UAE. She is currently employed at Zayed University where she specializes in information literacy program development and delivery. Jane has a Master of Education from University of Southern Queensland in Australia, in which she specialized in online learning, and a Graduate Degree in Librarianship from Queensland University of Technology.

The authors published their first book, Hands-On Information Literacy Activities (Neal-Schuman), in 2003.

About Neal-Schuman Publishers
Founded in 1976, Neal-Schuman Publishers is based in New York City with offices in London, UK. Neal-Schuman is a leading publisher of textbooks in all areas of library and information studies, from library science to archival and records management, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

For More Information
Contact Sarah Eisenberg
sarah.eisenberg@neal-schuman.com