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InformationNowA Graphic Guide toStudent ResearchMatt Upson,C. Michael Hall,and Kevin CannonTHE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESSCHICAGO AND LONDON

Matt Upson is assistant professor and director of libraryundergraduate services at Oklahoma State University.C. Michael Hall is a writer, cartoonist, and public speaker who advocates for comics andgraphic novels in libraries and educational settings and creates visual aids for libraries.Kevin Cannon is the illustrator of numerous educational and fictional graphic texts, includingUnderstanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing and The Cartoon Introduction to Philosophy.The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London 2015 by The University of ChicagoAll rights reserved. Published 2015.Printed in the United States of America24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 1 2 3 4 5ISBN-13: 978-0-226-09569-1 (paper)ISBN-13: 978-0-226-26775-3 (e-book)DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226267753.001.0001All copyright rights in the Dewey Decimal Classification are owned by OCLC OnlineComputer Library Center, Inc.; The Summaries are used with OCLC’s permission;DDC, Dewey, and Dewey Decimal Classification are registered trademarks/service marks of OCLC Online Computer LIbrary Center, Inc.Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataUpson, Matt, author.Information now: a Graphic guide to student research / Matt Upson, C. Michael Hall, and KevinCannon.pages cmISBN 978-0-226-09569-1 (pbk.: alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-226-26775-3 (e-book) 1. Informationliteracy — Comic books, strips, etc.Michael, author.2. Library research — Comic books, strips, etc.II. Cannon, Kevin, author.I. Hall, C.III. Title.ZA3075.U67 2015025.5'24 — dc22015000685This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

CO N TEN T SP REFA C EVIIINTRODUCTION:I NFOR M AT I O N O V E R L O A D11THE PROCESS:ST EPS TO F I N D I N G A N D U S IN G T HE RIG HTI NFOR M AT I O N . A N Y T I M E . A N YW HERE.2H O W I N F O R M AT I O N I S O R G A N I Z E D A N D F O U N D :25TH E B A S I C S311S E A R C H I N G A N D L I B R A R Y C ATA L O G S :U ND E R S TA N D I N G T H E H U N T FOR IN F ORM AT ION4J O U R N A L S A N D D ATA B A S E S5SEARCHING THE OPEN WEB6E VA L U AT I N G Y O U R S O U R C E S7U S I N G I N F O R M AT I O N E T H I C A L LY8CONCLUSION106AC KN O W L E DGM E N TSG LOS S A R Y1111095571819039

P R EFACEThis book has pictures, we swear! You just have to get past this enormous one-page chunk oftext before you are rewarded with the ample fruits of your labor. OK, OK, take one quick sneakpeek. Turn the page but come right back.Great. Satisfied? Since we’ve got you here, there are two important items we want toaddress.#1: This book is about information. How to find the right kind, how to use it effectively, howto evaluate it efficiently, etc. As a current or perhaps soon-to-be undergraduate, the information you use—and your understanding of it—is critical to your success as a student and as afuture professional. We want this book to reinvent the way you think about information. Wewant you to be more critical of the information you find and use. We want you to have a betterunderstanding of where the information you use comes from. We want you to be more awareof how to locate the best information for your needs. And we want you to realize that findingthe best information can be hard work, especially now that there is more information beingcreated by more people than ever before in human history. We want you to do a lot of things,but we’re here to help. And when I say “we,” I mean librarians. Obviously we’re a little biasedhere, but librarians are one of the most important resources in your quest for information. Weknow our way around books. That’s been our job for quite a while now. But more importantly,we’re information experts. Books aren’t our only tools; we’re not limited to one medium. Weknow how to find stuff, and, more importantly, we can help you figure out how to find the rightstuff on your own. So, if this book teaches you one thing (hopefully, it will teach you more,but . . .), it’s that your friendly neighborhood librarian can and should be one of your first stopswhen you start researching. OK, enough self-promotion.#2: We decided to make this book a comic because we believe that comics can moreefficiently teach concepts and skills than traditional prose, thanks to their use of engagingcombinations of text and images and appropriate utilization of metaphor and relevant context.Because comics stimulate the parts of your brain that handle visual elements as well as theparts that handle language, they can potentially give your brain more opportunities to connectwith the content than you’d have with a strictly text-based book. Plus, comics are fun to writeand draw and a lot more fun to read than your average textbook.All right, we’ve said enough here. Read the book, learn something new, and enjoy!vii

IN T R O D UCT I ONINFORMATION OVERLOADOh, hi!You look alittle lost.How can Ihelp?Ah, a researchproject, huh? And youdon’t know where tostart? Sure, we canhelp with that!Uh-huh, right, right.OK. So, you’ve searchedonline and were swampedwith resources? Don’tknow what to use?Sounds like weneed to start withthe basics. Let’stalk about 1

Well, I’m glad youasked, because I have a whole lotof answers. Believe it or not, Googlecan be a great resource. So can Wikipedia.in fact, any piece of information has thepotential to be useful, regardless ofwhere you find it So, you’re probably asking yourself,“Why am I in a library? Why can’t I justGoogle anything and everything I needfor this project?” but I’mgetting aheadof myself.Yeah, goodquestion!See, tools like Google andWikipedia are not even close to beingthe only resources you can use forresearch. And they don’t even scratchthe surface of how much informationis out there. And there’s a LOT ofinformation. Too much.2I ntroductionEnough tosweep you off yourfeet if you’re notprepared.Comeon I’llshow you.

Let’s imagine thislittle trickle of waterrepresents all the informationcreated by ancient humans.Not much,huh?A lot of oraltradition, maybe somecave paintings, an inscribedtablet here or there But as the humanpopulation increased and ourforms of communication evolved andspread, the amount of informationproduced grew exponentially. Moreand more people added their own“flow” of information to theincreasingly deep andswift current.in f or m ation o v e r l o a d3

As literacy rates roseand basic education became morecommon, even more information wasproduced. The ability to create andpublish information spread to moreand more of the population aseducation and technologyadvanced.More and more books andarticles were published every year.Mass production allowed for moreaccess, since there were many copiesof items, not just one or a few likethere’d been earlier.And then camethe internet andthe World WideWeb!All of a sudden,potentially anyone and everyonecould post whatever they wanted,whenever they wanted. You can complainabout the person in front of you at thecheckout line to hundreds, even thousandsof people in just a few seconds!it can be overwhelming!Let’s get outof here!4I ntroduction

Whew! Well, now that that’s over, youcan tell how potentially overwhelminginformation can be, especially now.Things changed really quicklyonce the internet and personalcomputing became commonplace.Now billions of people can createand disseminate information inthe blink of eye.But you already know that.You probably sat down at a computerthis morning or used a phone or tabletto post something online, making yourown thoughts available for the worldto see. And guess what?Millions, evenbillions of other internetusers also decided to dothe same thing.This can be great! More people are accessinginformation than ever before,* making usmore informed, intelligent, and responsibleglobal citizens every person with theirown unique voice and an outlet to the world!On the other hand, since anyone can dumptheir information into the flow, we haveto confront an increasing number of viewpoints on an increasing number of topics.*For up-to-date statistics on worldwideinternet usage, see the international Telecommunication Union’s iCT Facts and Figures page ts/default.aspx.Again, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, butit poses a challenge: How do we managethat flow of information and find reliableand useful information for the varietyof tasks we have to accomplish every day?So, that confusion you feelabout what’s the rightresource to use?That’s partof informationoverload.Say, for example, you’re working on anacademic research project. The typeof information you’ll need for thatassignment is going to be completelydifferent than the information you’d needto decide which mobile device to buy.Different kinds of tasks requiredifferent kinds of information anddifferent ways to find that info.in f or m ation o v e r l o a d5

And information overload isn’tjust about the huge number ofpeople creating information eachday. it’s about technology, speed,and access, too.Nowadays, it is incredibly easy for an individual to create and duplicate information.create and duplicate informationcreate and duplicate informationcreate and duplicate informationcreate and duplicate informationWay back in ancient times, students wereforced to use a contraption known asa typewriter, or even—gasp!—writethings out by hand. (they had to knowhow to spell, too.) Creating just onecopy took a lot of work.Way befolabore re that, scribdto create do countless h escuouspending mo ments by h rsntanmeticulously hs, even yea d,wrillustrating a riting and s,ber ofvworks ery small n.Euniqueumand v ach copy w aluablase.The invention of movable type in China inthe eleventh century and in Europe a fewcenturies later allowed for greaterspeed and flexibility when producing printedinformation. And when Johannes Gutenbergdeveloped the printing press in Europein the fifteenth century, the process ofmaking multiple and accurate copies ofdocuments became much easier and faster.I’m settingall kinds ofrecords here!in fact, “easier and faster”could be the motto for informationcreation and duplication over the millennia.it took a long to time to pick up steam,but now that it has, there seems tobe no slowing down.6I ntroduction

There are also moreways to access informationthan there used to be.We used tohave to go to theinformation inmany cases.Now, more thanever, the informationcomes to us.The wide array oftechnology we have atour disposal ensures thatwe’re never more thana few seconds away fromdiscovering something.it can be too much:Too many ways for informationto reach us and not enough ways tofilter out what we don’t want.Managing all of theinformation that we comeacross can be a challengebecause we encounter somuch of it in so manydifferent ways.And the paths to accessare still multiplying. What willbe the next new way to use information?Augmented reality? Wireless internetaccess points in our brains?Sounds like science fiction,sure, but the tools we use everyday would sound like alien technologyto the people of fifty, eventwenty years ago.in f or m ation o v e r l o a d7