Information Pathways: A Problem-Solving Approach to Information Literacy

With the advent of the Information Society, access to resources is vital to the ordinary citizen, the academic, and the career professional, as well as in public administration and private enterprise. Information Pathways: A Problem-Solving Approach to Information Literacy is designed to serve as a textbook for courses that address the need of college students to develop a basic knowledge of the complex matrix of core resources for the retrieval, management, and exploitation of information. This book shows students how to: • Build effective search strategies for solving information problems • Evaluate and use information and information sources • Apply information skills to the writing process • Be at ease with numeric information • Integrate information skills for smooth problem solving • Maintain their new fluency with information Organized into chapters that examine different ways in which information is structured, Information Pathways will help students develop and evaluate strategies for finding and adopting information.

This book is designed to serve as a text book for courses that address the increasing need of college students to develop a basic knowledge of the burgeoning and complex matrix of core information resources for the retrieval, management, and exploitation of information in his or her graduate career. It will be suitable as course text in library and information science undergraduate programs.

Library Journal

Fulton (Sch. of Information & Library Studies, Univ. Coll., Dublin) presents a straightforward guide to conducting research and becoming information literate. Encapsulating several library school courses, the text is too basic for information professionals; however, it's a good vehicle for explaining library research to novice library users in high school and college settings. Divided into 11 chapters, the book addresses factual information, how to research writing, numeric literacy, and other information-literacy topics. Each chapter starts with an introduction and specific learning objectives before moving on to manageable chunks of information. There are also quotes and diagrams throughout to emphasize the details. What makes Fulton's book effective is the inclusion of exercises—this moves the content from theory to practice. VERDICT A useful tool for semester-long info lit courses or as a quick reference for students already familiar with the basics of research.—Nicole A. Cooke, Montclair State Univ. Lib., NJ

Crystal Fulton is a faculty member at the School of Information & Library Studies, University College Dublin, where she teaches information finding and evaluating skills to both undergraduate and postgraduate students.