Information Pathways: A Problem-Solving Approach to Information Literacy »

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.

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

Acknowledgments vii

1 Introduction: The Information Horizon 1

2 The Complex World of Information 5

3 Finding Factual Information 17

4 Selecting and Navigating Electronic Information Systems 39

5 Practices of Information Organization and Access 57

6 Channels of Communication 67

7 Researching for Writing 83

8 Counting on Our Numeric Literacy 99

9 Putting Our Information Skills to Use 113

10 Maintaining Information Literacy Levels in a Changing World 123

11 It's a Wrap! Some Final Thoughts on Finding and Using Information 133

Sources for Further Exploration 137

Index 141

About the Author 145