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    Using inquiry methodsto foster informationliteracy partnerships

    Nancy Dennis

    The American Social History Project's New

    Media Classroom (NMC) initiative has helped

    librarians learn how faculty might improve their

    teaching of humanities courses by integrating

    Web sites, electronic texts, digital archives, and

    on-line discussion groups into course activities

    and student research. This article will explainwhat the NMC is, placing it within broader

    debates on pedagogy, curriculum, and

    information literacy. It will show applications

    of NMC inquiry activities to a library setting

    and suggest that the NMC model furthers the

    status of academic librarians by encouraging

    them to participate more fully in classroom

    activities.

    The New Media ClassroomInitiated in 1996 by Bret Eynon and Donna

    Thompson of the American Social History

    Project at the Graduate Center at the City

    University of New York (CUNY), the NMC

    teaches high school and college teachers how

    primary sources on the Web might transform

    the traditional pedagogy and content of

    humanities courses[1]. In week-long regional

    summer workshops, participants from

    Massachusetts to Washington explore and

    evaluate on-line archival, image, and electronictext collections. By studying outstanding

    examples of ``dynamic syllabi'', participants

    learn how Web-based primary documents,

    inquiry assignments, multi-media, interactive

    class discussion groups, and student-authored

    Web pages might enhance their own courses.

    Donna Thompson insists that NMC's priority,

    however, is ``.. . not the technology, [but] . . .

    keeping the classroom student-centered and

    focused on significant content material'' (Eynon

    and Thompson, 1999).

    Two New Media Classroom workshops wereheld in North Adams and Worcester,

    Massachusetts in the summers of 1999 and

    2000, respectively. Web sites for the workshops

    are North Adams at [2]; and Worcester at [3]. In both sessions

    participants debated the questions: Can serious

    history research be conducted on the World

    Wide Web? How might new media enhance

    classroom teaching?

    The author

    Nancy Dennis is Outreach Librarian at Salem State College,

    Salem, Massachussetts, USA.

    Keywords

    Librarians, Higher education, Partnerships, Learning,

    Thinking styles, World Wide Web

    Abstract

    By broadening the definition of information literacy to

    include classroom activities, the Association of College and

    Research Libraries' (ACRLs) Information Literacy Competency

    Standards for Higher Education challenge academic librar-

    ians to reach beyond the library to teach critical thinking.This article explains how the American Social History

    Project's New Media Classroom initiative fosters active

    utilization of primary sources on the Web. After placing

    NMC's inquiry activities within educational, school librarian,

    and academic librarian debates, their use within women's

    studies classes at Salem State College is demonstrated. It is

    argued that such activities help academic librarians to

    achieve parity with discipline faculty members by encoura-

    ging librarians to become integrally involved in classroom

    activities.

    Electronic access

    The research register for this journal is available at

    http://www.mcbup.com/research_registers

    The current issue and full text archive of this journal is

    available at

    http://www.emerald-library.com/ft

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    NMC workshops celebrate the populist,

    multicultural aspects of primary source

    collections on the Web, consciously

    interrogating documents and images along the

    lines of race, class, gender, and ethnicity.

    Sessions spotlight the mega World Wide Web

    sites ` History Matters''[4], ` Crossroads''[5],and ``EDSITEment''[6]. Each will be briefly

    explained.

    Sponsored by the American Social History

    Project's (ASHP) Center for Media and

    Learning, and the Center for History and New

    Media at George Mason University, ``History

    Matters'' , is a

    treasure trove of primary resources and

    teaching materials for teachers of US history.

    Particularly noteworthy are the ``Digital

    Backboard'', which provides lesson plans

    involving digital archives and photograph

    collections, and ``Many Pasts'' which contains

    first person accounts in text, photographs, and

    sound.

    The American Studies Association's

    Crossroads site at Georgetown University is a

    vast resource for interdisciplinary scholars in

    American history, cultural studies, art,

    literature, and sociology. Four categories:

    communities, curriculum, reference/research,

    and technology, provide selective listings of

    primary source Web sites, dynamic syllabi,

    curriculum projects involving technology, and

    research projects for integrating the Internet

    into high school and college courses.

    Teachers of literature and language arts,

    foreign languages, art and culture, and history

    and social studies will find the National

    Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Web

    site, ``EDSITEment'' , a guide to top humanities sites,

    lesson plans, at-home activities, and additional

    learning activities particularly helpful.The New Media Classroom initiative

    applauds historians' attempts to radically

    change the way they teach history. Instead of

    viewing primary sources as the exclusive

    domain of graduate students, more history

    teachers are involving high school students to

    examine primary documents to make history

    ``come alive.'' John McClymer, History

    Professor at Assumption College, calls this

    ``authentic learning,'' since it asks students to

    engage directly with materials to form their own

    conclusions, much as historians do in actual

    research (Bass, 1999). The plethora of primary

    documents on History Matters, Crossroads,

    and EDSITEment makes this possible.

    NMC shows how students might share their

    findings in class or on-line via the ``SpeakeasyStudio and Cafe,'' a user-friendly message

    board developed at the Washington State

    University[7]. In some classes, students post

    their own essays (often with hypertext links) on

    class Web pages, or create their own Web pages

    on specific themes. Exercises encourage

    students to work in groups, receiving feedback

    from peers.

    NMC workshops instruct participants in

    creating inquiry activities to help students

    develop critical thinking skills by asking them to

    analyze primary source materials, rather than

    just to browse and take notes. In road testing

    activities on ``The Heaven Will Protect the

    Working Girl'' Web site, NMC-ers experienced

    inquiry activities as their students might, clearly

    seeing their advantages over traditional linear

    activities for exploring Web sites[8].

    The ``Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl''

    Web site is a companion to ASHP's

    award-winning video of the same name[9]. Set

    against the background of the 1909 Shirtwaist

    Workers' Strike in New York City, the video

    tells the fictional story of two teenage girls one

    Jewish, one Italian working in a sweatshop

    who become friends, suffer numerous

    indignities at work, and, ultimately stand up for

    their rights. The Web site provides inquiry

    activities that ask students to debate critical

    issues relating to the video by engaging with

    multiple perspectives presented in primary text

    sources, photographs, oral history interviews,

    illustrations, historiographic essays, and links to

    related Web resources.In ``Sweatshops, Then and Now,'' for

    instance, students compare contemporary

    accounts of garment work with those of the

    early twentieth-century, asking: ``In what

    specific ways did the efforts of early garment

    strikers lead to lasting improvements in working

    conditions? How are the methods of current

    activists fighting against sweatshops similar to

    and how are they different from the methods of

    the early twentieth-century union activists?''

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    This exercise asks students to report their

    findings to the class in small groups. Other

    activities ask students to role-play past events or

    to comment on the Shirtwaist Workers' Strike

    from perspectives of editors of newspapers with

    vastly different audiences.

    The four inquiry activities in ``Heaven WillProtect the Working Girl'' cover sweatshop

    exploitation, daily lives of sweatshop girls,

    differing photographic images of immigrant life,

    and the cultural meaning of present day and

    historical fashion items. After viewing the video

    and listening to fellow students report on all

    four inquiry activities, a student would have a

    multifaceted understanding of turn of the

    century immigration and labor. The New Media

    Classroom Teachers' Handbook lists more inquiry

    activities, as do the Web sites ``History

    Matters,'' ` Crossroads,'' and ` EDSITEment''

    (American Social History Project Center for

    Media and Learning, 1999). These sites lead, in

    turn, to places like the ``American Memory''

    (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/amhome.html) and

    ``Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture''

    (http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/utc/), which

    provide teaching activities in addition to serving

    as archival repositories[10,11].

    While Bret Eynon conceded at the 1999

    NMC workshop that high school students

    might not have the historical background aprofessor has to make expert analyses of all

    documents, he argued that inquiry activities

    generate an enthusiasm for materials and a

    sense of personal discovery that might outweigh

    any drawbacks[12].

    NMC inquiry activities and educationaltheories

    The NMC's inquiry activities can be viewed at

    the higher end of Bloom's taxonomy of criticalthinking (Bloom, 1956). By asking students to

    analyze primary sources, make inferences, and

    form conclusions, inquiry activities clearly rely

    on the analytical and evaluative skills which

    Bloom describes. They also reflect Dewey's

    insistence that students learn by ``questioning,

    poking, and reflecting'' (Barron, 1997). Such

    inquiry activities stimulate active learning since

    students do more than listen. In a history class,

    they might engage with primary materials to

    ``do history'' (Wells, 1995). Inquiry activities

    also foster collaborative and cooperative

    learning, since communicating with others is a

    key component (Dabbour, 1997; Wells, 1995).

    As an example, in the NMC workshop,

    members worked together as they analyzed

    photographs and primary texts, searching forconnections between Nike sneakers and

    shirtwaist dresses.

    One such inquiry approach is problem-based

    learning (PBL) which requires students to

    confront a complex problem. To solve the

    problem, students must locate and synthesize a

    great deal of knowledge (Carey, 1998).

    Students probe evidence as they search for

    connections, grapple with complexity, and

    advance solutions (Stepien and Pyke, 1997).

    The ``Sweatshops'' exercise of ``Heaven Will

    Protect the Working Girl'' asks students to dothese things in comparing present-day

    resistance against sweatshops with that of

    earlier union activists.

    Like NMC participants and leaders,

    classroom teachers from diverse disciplines and

    grade levels note positive effects of inquiry

    activities. Monroe maintains that inquiry fosters

    the ``real work that comes when students tell

    others what they have found'' (Monroe, 1996).

    Kraft reports that inquiry activities transformed

    his college English class and improved student's

    involvement with material (Kraft, 1985).Harste observes that ``inquiry lets students

    organize around a community of learners,''

    asserting that it makes learning something one

    discovers, rather than something one ``gets

    right'' (Harste and Leland, 1998). Galas

    observes that using inquiry in a children's

    literature class made students the center of a

    research quest, giving them personal meaning

    (Galas, 1999). Skarecki comments on the

    multi-sensory experience of using primary

    sources on the Web to teach history (Skarecki

    and Insinnia, 1999). In a science class, Ahern-Rindell found that inquiry encourages students

    to learn more by teaching them less (Ahern-

    Rindell, 1998).

    Inquiry activities within library/information science

    As library instruction evolves from instruction

    in the use of research tools to the development

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    of critical thinking and evaluative skills,

    increasingly, library and information science

    scholars have encouraged school librarians to

    develop inquiry exercises to foster information

    literacy. In his seminal article ``School library

    media programs and free inquiry learning,''

    Daniel Callison proposes that school mediaspecialists ` create . . . learner-oriented

    laboratories, which support, extend, and

    individualize the school's curriculum''

    (Callison, 1986). He asks librarians to re-locate

    their roles in the information process from that

    of information providers to active participants

    ``at the critical center of the free inquiry

    process.'' Media specialists could teach ``higher

    levels of information analysis and criticism''

    (Callison, 1986).

    As Jay observes, becoming key participants in

    developing thinking skills will help school

    librarians move beyond ``stereotypical services''

    of circulation of materials, storytelling,

    housekeeping, and instruction on the card

    catalog. They must become ``joint planners''

    with teachers in instructional design,

    curriculum improvement and integration of

    advanced technologies. Librarians and teachers

    can work together to create lessons that fuse the

    teaching of content with processes of thinking

    and searching (Jay, 1988).

    Karen Sheingold concurs, envisioning the

    school library as ``an apprentice's workshop for

    thinking'' (Sheingold, 1986). The school

    librarian ``is an expert who can help guide the

    child through a process of inquiry.'' Inquiry

    fosters higher-level skills of stating a problem,

    constructing questions, analyzing data, and

    presenting different points of view. In contrast

    to traditional linear research projects which tell

    students to find information on ``topic X,''

    inquiry activities help a child create his/her own

    knowledge.

    Henri and Dillon outline advantages of``resource-based enquiry,'' in which students

    learn by directly engaging with resources, much

    as NMC activities do (Henri and Dillon, 1992).

    Building on Callison, they further argue that

    one cannot separate cognitive processes from

    the searching stages of information literacy.

    Teachers see benefits of interweaving

    information skills and higher order critical

    thinking skills into their curriculum. Like

    Callison and Jay, Henri and Dillon see

    professional advantages for librarians who

    extend their curricular and pedagogical

    involvement:

    If teacher librarians are isolated from the

    mainstream curriculum it is likely that their input

    to the research process will remain largely at the

    manipulative level. In this sense teacher librarians

    will be involved in developing some (but a very

    limited number of) information (research) skills.

    The value of teacher librarians' input into the

    process is greatly enhanced when they are able to

    be involved in the cognitive processes. When this

    occurs it could be said that the teacher librarian is

    intimately involved in the process of information

    literacy (Henri and Dillon, 1992).

    Rakes demonstrates how Internet resources are

    ideally suited to resource-based inquiry

    activities. School librarians could apply such

    activities to teach information literacy (Rakes,

    1996). Craver's Using Internet Primary Sources to

    Teach Critical Thinking Skills in History,

    continues this theme, by outlining a myriad of

    lesson plans in which students critically

    examine primary sources on the Web (Craver,

    1999).

    The California School Library Association's

    From Library Skills to Information Literacy: A

    Handbook for the 21st Century, supports this

    position by defining information literacy as the

    overlapping of the ``searcher's thinking,''

    ` search process,'' and ` instructional strategies.''

    Important to both teachers and librarians,

    information literacy encompasses problem

    definition, location and exploration of

    resources, information analysis, data

    application, and presentation of conclusions

    (California School Library Association, 1997).

    All segments involve creative, reflective, and

    evaluative steps. Many activities are recursive,

    as students revise information needs.

    California's ` Thinking-meaning-centered''

    curriculum teaches students to construct their

    own questions, contextualize content, assesstheir own learning, make connections to

    existing knowledge, and forge personal

    connections to materials. It uses culturally

    sensitive, collaborative, and developmentally

    appropriate pedagogical techniques. Drawing

    upon the work of John Dewey, the guidelines

    endorse the use of inquiry activities and the

    scientific method while designing learning

    activities to explore a problem. They encourage

    teachers and librarians to adopt resource-based

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    learning, in which students engage with print,

    electronic, visual, and sound resources.

    Assignments should be interesting and

    challenging. The guidelines provide sample

    inquiry activities that resemble NMC exercises.

    ``Relating literature to life,'' for example, asks

    students to draw upon novels and primarydocuments to discuss the role of the Japanese in

    World War II. ``Picturing history'' asks students

    to examine historical photographs to answer

    critical thinking questions on the California

    gold rush.

    Ideally, schools will assemble ``curricular

    planning teams'' of students, classroom

    teachers, school media specialists, bilingual/

    English as a second language (ESL) specialists,

    other related school personnel, parents, and

    community members to support information

    literacy. Like Callison, Jay, Henri, and Dillon,

    the California guidelines insist that school

    librarians will assume a prominent role:

    Library media specialists have often felt left out of

    the traditional approach to instruction because

    teachers saw little need for materials over and

    beyond those carefully designed to achieve

    specified objectives, be those textbook, workbook,

    multimedia kit, or computer package . . . Library

    media specialists encountering the constructivist

    approach might find themselves in the center of a

    unit as the students begin to seek resources in the

    school, in the community, through librarynetworks, and from the Internet to begin trying to

    solve their problem (California School Library

    Association, 1997).

    Inquiry and academic librarians

    The Association of College and Research

    Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy

    Competency Standards for Higher Education,

    provide further justification for broadening

    academic librarians' roles in the learningprocess (Association of College and Research

    Libraries, 2000). While standards one and two

    involve traditional information searching

    activities, standard three covers evaluation of

    information and synthesis of content material.

    The latter is normally the domain of classroom

    teachers. Standard four covers using

    information to produce a paper, report, or

    presentation, also a typical classroom activity.

    Standard five concerns the legal, social, and

    economic aspects of information; arguably, the

    terrain of either teachers or librarians. In

    extending the components of information

    literacy beyond the selection and use of

    information sources (as Callison, Henri and

    Dillon do), the ACRL standards show that

    librarians' work has significance far beyond aninformation searching session in the library

    (Callison, 1986; Henri and Dillon, 1992). What

    better reason do academic librarians need to

    seek closer integration with classroom activities?

    In her 1988 ground-breaking appeal to

    academic librarians, Sonia Bodi calls for

    librarians to teach critical thinking, adapting it

    to the needs of different disciplines (Bodi,

    1988). Developing critical thinking is essential

    for students working with complex subjects and

    problems without easy solutions. In reinforcing

    what is being done in a classroom, academic

    librarians will be teaching analytical skills from

    higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy of learning.

    Carla Stoffle calls for academic librarians to

    partner with faculty in designing courses and

    curricula (Stoffle, 1998), and Ilene Rockman

    describes a successful summer workshop for

    faculty members to incorporate information

    competence into their courses (Rockman,

    2000). Meanwhile, Karen Curtis' research

    found that there is presently little overlap

    between what nursing librarians and faculty

    teach. She asks: ``who will teach information

    sources, faculty or librarians?'' (Curtis, 1996).

    Dividing teaching of information literacy into

    separate domains of librarians and faculty runs

    counter to the ACRL definition of information

    literacy as a continuum that straddles library,

    classroom, and student activities. Like Callison

    and Jay, Curtis concludes that ``a team

    approach to information literacy involving the

    librarian and nursing faculty is essential if there

    is to be a change in the educational process''

    (Callison, 1986; Jay, 1988; Curtis, 1996).Where might academic librarians begin?

    Herrington asks librarians to move beyond the

    traditional bibliographic instruction (BI) lecture

    format, postulating that providing a lecture on

    research for one course does not necessarily

    lead to transference of literacy skills for other

    assignments (Herrington, 1998). Tuominen

    concurs with the need to re-think pedagogies,

    showing how conventional approaches to

    library instruction often proceed from

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    librarians' pre-conceived ideas about user's

    searching habits. This undermines attempts to

    make students independent learners

    (Tuominen, 1997).

    Working closely with faculty to teach higher

    level thinking skills requires reconceptualizing

    library instruction. We must shift the focusfrom librarians postulating what students need

    to know to librarians supporting students

    creating their own paths towards information

    literacy. Instead of simply lecturing about what

    makes a good Web site, for example, librarians

    might create inquiry activities that help students

    construct their own criteria of model sites,

    through their own experimentation.

    Academic librarians are applying creative

    strategies to support such critical inquiry. In a

    two day workshop at Pacific Lutheran

    University, Debra Gilchrist taught the inquiry

    process to faculty and librarians (Gilchrist,

    1993). Gilchrist describes how she incorporated

    inquiry activities in subsequent bibliographic

    instruction sessions.

    In the ``Deep Slice'' assignment, for example,

    students examined sources on the French

    Revolution to answer the critical thinking

    question: ``What was life like in 1760?''

    Following students' submission of papers,

    Gilchrist conducted an evaluative ``debriefing''

    session in which students commented on their

    reactions to the research process.

    Barbara Schilling et al. provide intensive one-

    to-one counseling to students researching a

    problem-based activity in the Patient-Doctor

    Relationships Course at the University of

    Pittsburgh School of Medicine (Schilling et al.,

    1995). Librarians act as coaches, teaching

    information literacy skills at pivotal moments in

    the problem-solving process. They tailor

    instruction to needs of individual students,

    rather than presenting a generic information

    literacy lecture to the whole class. Glenn EllenStarr and Paul Gaskill employ a triage of

    instructional techniques in coaching students

    working on the Community Studies inquiry

    assignment at Appalachian State University

    (Starr and Gaskill, 1997). In searching for

    print, electronic, media, and human resources

    to construct a portrait of the leisure service

    delivery system in their home towns, students

    ``learn how to do things in the discipline,''

    acting as professionals in leisure studies might.

    In a project that resonates of Callison and Jay,

    Sonntag and Ohr are creating a ``learning

    library'' at California State University, San

    Marcos where librarians support active learning

    through a multi-level course-integrated

    Information Literacy Program (ILP) (Callison,

    1986; Jay, 1988; Sonntag and Ohr, 1996).

    Inquiry in library research classes: a casestudy

    Tilley and Callison propose that librarians and

    teachers blur boundaries of their respective

    domains to serve as ``cognitive apprentices'' of

    information literacy. The authors claim that

    high schools provide the most structural and

    curricular support for interchanging librarian

    and faculty roles, asserting that:

    . . . by the college level, the roles of instructors and

    librarians have become so independent of one

    another that cooperation of this kind would be

    difficult for a number of reasons, both instructional

    and logistical (Tilley and Callison, 1997).

    One could argue that academic librarians, too,

    have a framework for integrating with classroom

    activities. Faculty status empowers academic

    librarians to teach outside the library.

    Implementing the new ACRL Information

    Literacy Competency Standards broadens their

    contributions to cover subject content in

    addition to information searching. NMC

    inquiry activities provide a vehicle for doing so.

    In Fall 1999, I designed the inquiry exercise

    ``Who and What Define American Women?''

    for library sessions in the course ``Introduction

    to Women's Studies and the Seminar in

    Women's Studies''[13]. Because of a long-

    established relationship with the instructor,

    Professor Pamela Shaw-George, I had complete

    discretion in designing the objectives and

    methodologies of this activity. It would reflectour new approach to library visits: to generate

    excitement about new types of women's sources

    on the Internet, while reinforcing awareness of

    women's issues. We wanted students to

    experience extraordinary collections of Web-

    based primary sources. I would instruct

    students in the use of specific tools and the

    development of search strategies in follow-up

    one-to-one tutorials when students began

    working on research papers.

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    Earlier, in March 1999, I had created the

    ``Women's History Month Exercise,'' to

    cultivate an awareness of women's

    contributions while introducing outstanding

    women's studies Web sites. Working at their

    own pace, first year seminar students answered

    specific queries about prominent women andpresent-day women's issues. Instead of my

    saying ``These are Web sites on women's history

    or politics,'' I asked: ``What is National

    Women's History Month, and why should we

    care?'' ``What have American women

    contributed to our country's history?'' Sub-

    questions directed students to find specific

    facts, such as when National Women's History

    Month began and what it commemorates, and

    why we remember Charlotte Perkins Gilman,

    Mary Mahoney, ``Mother Jones,'' and Gloria

    Steinem. Students browsed suggested sites on

    women's history, politics, art, music, and

    current events to find answers.

    While this activity went beyond the typical

    librarian-centered show-and-tell, I felt that the

    specific nature of the questions constrained

    responses, limiting students' interrogations of

    Web resources. It was artificial problem-

    solving. Though students successfully identified

    prominent women's contributions, the activity

    did not ask them to make broader connections

    between these facts and why we celebrate

    National Women's Month. The questions did

    not ask, for example, how Elizabeth Cady

    Stanton might respond to present day concerns

    of pay equity and child care.

    The Web site ``Who and What Define

    American Women?'' follows the NMC model

    of asking students to scrutinize a selection of

    primary source Web sites, while debating broad

    critical questions. Students interrogate

    resources by class, gender, region, and race.

    The class divides into three groups, selectingone of three activities: ``Woman as worker bee

    or honey bee,'' ``High brow versus low brow,''

    or ``Quilting bee.''

    In ``Worker bee or honey bee,'' students

    explore two sites: Powers of Persuasion , the

    collection of US government propaganda

    posters from World War II available from the

    National Archives and Records Administration

    (NARA), and What Did You Do In the War,

    Grandma? , a Brown

    University project featuring oral histories of

    women who contributed to the war effort, at

    home and abroad[14,15]. While browsing this

    information, students ponder: what did women

    do in World War II? In which ways are imagesof women on these two sites similar? How do

    they differ? What issues and concerns faced

    women during this period? If you were drawing

    the powers of persuasion posters, how would

    you portray women?

    ``High brow versus low brow'' asks students

    to analyze images of working-class women and

    the Gibson Girl from the turn-of-the-century.

    ``Quilting bee'' leads students to sites from the

    Library of Congress, museums, and craft stores,

    asking them to consider the meaning of quilts

    across geographical regions, gender, race, and

    class. Both activities ask students to connect the

    present-day to the historical.

    After conducting this exercise three times

    over the past two semesters, the librarian and

    faculty instructors continue to be amazed at the

    transformation of the class. Student responses

    are overwhelmingly positive. ``Who and What

    Define American Women?'' promotes

    pedagogically advanced learning through

    student-centered activities, multicultural

    materials, resource-based learning, critical

    thinking, and developmentally appropriate

    challenges. Students actively engage with

    materials, excitedly talking about differing

    images of women. They laugh, debate, and help

    one another. A high level of excitement

    pervades.

    The instructors stay in the background, as co-

    facilitators. They are ready to respond to

    students' questions, providing input, or relating

    sites to class discussions, but place primary

    responsibility for discovery on the students. The

    instructors trust the students to find their ownway, and to discover what is important to them.

    Quite often, the students see things that did not

    occur to either of the instructors, and even the

    most reluctant students become engaged in the

    enthusiasm of the group.

    Because the instructors speak less, the

    students learn more, going beyond the initial

    questions to examine other materials on these

    sites. For example, while ``Worker bee or honey

    bee'' asks students to look at poster images of

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    US women in the Second World War, students

    soon remark on the idealized depictions of

    white males, and stereotypically odious

    drawings of Japanese and German individuals.

    After 45 minutes of examining sources, small

    groups present their findings to the class which

    stimulates more discussion. Because each groupcovers radically different approaches to imaging

    women, the class cumulatively imparts a rich

    portrait of American women from 1900 to date.

    In addition to responding to the critical

    thinking questions, students provide

    sophisticated analyses of Web sites,

    commenting on the point of view, agenda,

    authority of information, and use of evidence.

    This is an improvement over the scavenger-

    hunt evaluation exercise in which students

    scour Web sites for authors, sponsoring

    organizations, dates of updating, etc. In the

    inquiry exercise, students integrate evaluative

    comments with analyses of content, relating

    both to course themes of gender, racial, and

    classist stereotyping. Comparing and

    contrasting sites prompts far more thoughtful

    insights about Web sites' qualities than in a

    scavenger hunt exercise.

    ``Who and What Define American Women?''

    clearly fits within the realm of Standard Three

    of the ACRL Information Literacy

    Competencies: ``The information literate

    student evaluates information and its sources

    critically and incorporates selected information

    into his or her knowledge base and value

    system.'' In discussing the critical questions,

    students extract main points from Web sites,

    apply criteria for evaluating the data, synthesize

    main ideas, compare new knowledge with the

    course text and lectures, investigate different

    portrayals of women, debate findings with

    others, and revise search strategies to further

    interrogate Web sites. The assignment also

    carries over into the first segment of StandardFour: ``The information literate student,

    individually, or as a member of a group, uses

    information effectively to accomplish a specific

    purpose'' (Association of College and Research

    Libraries, 2000).

    By creating and executing this exercise

    together, the instructor and the librarian move

    from the library domain into the classroom, as

    Callison, Jay, Henri, and Dillon advocate

    (Callison, 1986; Jay, 1988; Henri and Dillon,

    1992). Students view the librarian as a co-

    partner in the learning process. This makes it

    easier when the students return for one-on-one

    research sessions and can be shown more

    examples of primary source Web sites on

    women, locally developed, such as ``Women's

    Studies Internet Resources'' , a listing of archives, electronic

    texts, syllabi, and learning activities[16].

    Observations on an inquiry exercise

    Daniel Callison, Glenda Rakes, and Carolyn

    Hughes provide excellent step-by-step guidance

    for creating inquiry activities (Callison, 1986;

    Rakes, 1996; Hughes, 1986) which are student-centered. While the librarian and instructor do

    the work up front, the rest is up to members of

    the class. If educators tell students what they

    will see on the Web sites, or calls their attention

    to particular sites, the point of the exercise will

    be lost for students will only see what they are

    directed to see.

    Several additional factors contribute to this

    activity's success support from the faculty

    member to include the librarian in the planning

    process, support from the librarian

    administration to promote library outreach

    efforts between faculty and librarians, advanced

    knowledge of the subject discipline on the part

    of the librarian, a hands-on Internet-equipped

    classroom in the library, and sufficient class

    time (in this case, a weekly class which permits

    two and a half hours for the activity in which the

    students explore for 45 minutes, and then share

    their experiences for the remainder of the class

    period).

    Conclusion

    By establishing an information literacy

    continuum that extends from the library into

    the classroom, the ACRL Information Literacy

    Competency Standards for Higher Education

    challenge academic librarians to expand their

    role in the learning process. If academic

    librarians are serious about fostering

    information literacy, they will augment the

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    teaching of information selection and access

    with critical thinking activities in the classroom.

    While librarians can teach some aspects of

    critical thinking skills during the search process,

    they can do much more while students are

    synthesizing content. Creatively partnering with

    a faculty member to develop inquiry activities is

    one approach for achieving this goal.

    Academic librarians are advantageously

    poised for immersion in classroom activities.

    Privileges of faculty status and the acquisition of

    additional subject degrees provide them with

    both the framework and expertise for stepping

    beyond the library. In doing so, librarians have

    the potential to establish a ``clinical model'' that

    supports students and faculty at a critical

    junction: the classroom (McGowan and Dow,

    1995). Activities such as the New MediaClassroom initiatives, and other projects, help

    to demonstrate the value of librarians as integral

    partners in the student learning process.

    Notes

    1 The New Media Classroom Summer Institutes.

    Sponsored by the American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning of the Graduate Centerat the City University of New York in cooperation with

    the American Studies Association's Crossroads Project.Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

    2 The New Media Classroom: Inquiry and Learning at

    MassMoCA, July 1999. Created by Howard Lurie,Arnold Pulda, and Bret Eynon.

    3 2000 New Media Classroom Summer Institute: ``LocalEvents, (Inter)National Significances'', AssumptionCollege, Worcester, MA, July 17-21. Created by John

    McClymer, Arnold Pulda, and Debra Chad.

    4 History Matters. Sponsored by the American SocialHistory Project/Center for Media and Learning of the

    Graduate Center of the City University of New Yorkand the Center for History and New Media at GeorgeMason University with funding from the NationalEndowment for the Humanities and the W.K. Kellogg

    Foundation. 5 American Studies Crossroads Project. Project Director

    Randy Bass. Sponsored by the American StudiesAssociation and Georgetown University.

    6 EDSITEment. Sponsored by the National Endowmentfor the Humanities.

    7 Speakeasy Studio and Cafe. Sponsored by Washington

    State University.

    8 Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl: ImmigrantWomen in the Turn-of-the-Century City. Created bythe American Social History Project/Center for Mediaand Learning of the Graduate Center at the CityUniversity of New York.

    9 Video: Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl:

    Immigrant Women in the Turn-of-the-Century City.Created by the American Social History Project/Centerfor Media and Learning of the Graduate Center at theCity University of New York.

    10 American Memory Historical Collections for theNational Digital Library. Sponsored by the Library ofCongress.

    11 Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture: A Multi-media Archive. Directed by Stephen Railton.Sponsored by the University of Virginia.

    12 Lecture by Bret Eynon, American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning of Graduate Center atthe City University of New York at NMC MassMoCA.19 July 1999. North Adams, MA.

    13 Who and What Define American Women? Created byNancy Dennis. Sponsored by Salem State College.

    14 Powers of Persuasion: Poster Art From World War II.Sponsored by the National Archives and RecordsAdministration.

    15 What Did You Do In the War, Grandma? Created byLinda P. Wood and Judi Scott. Sponsored by the BrownUniversity Scholarly Technology Group with funding bythe Rhode Island Committee for the Humanities.16 Women's Studies Internet Resource Guide. Created by

    Nancy Dennis. Sponsored by Women's StudiesProgram at Salem State College.

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    American Social History Project Center for Media andLearning (1999), New Media Classroom Teacher'sHandbook Prototype Edition, Graduate School andUniversity Center, City University of New York,New York, NY.

    American Studies Association (1997), Engines of Inquiry: APractical Guide for Using Technology To TeachAmerican Culture, American Studies AssociationCrossroads Project, Washington, DC.

    Association of College and Research Libraries (2000),Information Literacy Competency Standards for HigherEducation, Association of College and ResearchLibraries, Chicago, IL.

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    Barron, J.D. (1997), ``Theoretical foundation for informationliteracy: a refresher course in Ed Psy 301'', SchoolLibrary Media Activities Monthly, Vol. 13 No. 10,pp. 47-50.

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    Research Papers of the Sixth Treasure MountainResearch Retreat for School Library Media Programs,March 31-April 1, 1997, Troutdale, Oregon, Hi WillowResearch and Publishing, San Jose, CA, 1998,pp. 245-54.

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