Merry Christmas!

A happy and information literate Christmas to all readers of the Information Literacy Weblog!
The photo is of the Christmas wreath I made this year, December 2025, as usual using lower branches from the tree.

The information literacy of Christmas Puddings

It's that time of year, and I was searching for my mother's Christmas Pudding recipe (which I archived on this blog in 2015): googling information literacy christmas pudding. Seeking the link I wanted, my eye was caught by the "AI overview", which, to my surprise, had attempted to cobble together something about information literacy as applied to Christmas Puddings.
Can I do better than Google Gemini? I rather think I can!

Christmas puddings: through the lens of the ACRL Information Literacy Framework
All quotations in blue are from the Framework

Authority Is Constructed and Contextual
Here we have to consider both the pudding itself and the recipe. So, who is an authority for recipes? There are several candidates: celebrity chefs (high citation counts), recipes from the earliest days of festive puddings (historical accuracy), the first hit you get when searching christmas pudding recipes (algorithmic calculation), your mother's recipe (she's your mother).
Now, ACRL tells us that we must "view authority with an attitude of informed skepticism and an openness to new perspectives, additional voices, and changes in schools of thought." Therefore we ought to look at other people's mothers' recipes, recipes that have none of the ingredients you'd expect to find in a pudding, dubious-looking recipes from the 1960s, and the last recipe to be posted on tiktok. However, at the end of the day, "the information need may help to determine the level of authority required." I want a recipe that will deliver a pudding I know I like to eat, so my mother's recipe it is.
It will be a similar process in deciding "who is the authority who decides that this is the best pudding?" If they are a jury member at the International Taste Institute they must know a thing or two about good food, as must the head buyer responsible for seasonal desserts at a leading supermarket chain. The Consumers' Association is bound to have conducted tests, with proper criteria and everything and with my expert googling powers I can identify the "Christmas puddings: ranked" articles in all media outlets and see which is consistently top.
Once again, though, information literates "recognize that unlikely voices can be authoritative, depending on need." Thus, deficient though I am in any cookery qualification, I determine that the ultimate authority for judging "is this pudding nice?" is - me.

Research as Inquiry
Information literate learners "appreciate that a question may appear to be simple but still disruptive and important to research". Therefore they will find the question "What is a Christmas pudding, anyway?" meaningful and worthy of inquiry. In pursuing this, they will "maintain an open mind and a critical stance" (is it even a pudding?), "demonstrate intellectual humility" (admit they know nothing of the history of cooking) and "seek appropriate help when needed" (what does Wikipedia say about puddings?)

Information Has Value
As we all know, information has "several dimensions of value, including as a commodity, as a means of education, as a means to influence, and as a means of negotiating and understanding the world." The information contained in my mother's Christmas Pudding recipe can educate you about what a woman born in the 1920s thought should go into a Christmas Pudding (it is not, for example, vegetarian). It could be valuable if you use the recipe to produce the expensive commodity of Fortnum & Mason's' luxury pudding for non-vegetarians and make a tidy profit. You may think there is social capital in proving that your mother could cook. Also, "Experts understand that value may be wielded by powerful interests in ways that marginalize certain voices": so they will know that Elon Musk's (2025) Super-duper seasonal recipes book is not value for money, ignoring, as it does, the Christmas Pudding recipes of ordinary working people.

Scholarship as Conversation
"Communities of scholars, researchers, or professionals engage in sustained discourse with new insights and discoveries occurring over time as a result of varied perspectives and interpretations."
Indeed, debates about what should go in a Christmas pudding, what recipes are used in different countries, how you cook it (steamed, boiled or microwaved?), what it symbolises etc. etc. rage, in humble kitchens and in the ivory towers of academe. See, for example, Brieger et al. (2014), Chevalier (2018), Williams (1897), or Young (2005).
Should one even be eating this embodiment of one's colonial past? Discuss.

Information Creation as a Process
It certainly is! You can't just think up a successful recipe without going through a process. You have to "look to the underlying processes of creation as well as the final product to critically evaluate the usefulness of the information." Critical questions are "Did this cook actually taste the pudding?" and "Is this pudding recipe just a random collection of ingredients suggested by AI?"
You would expect the recipe creator to "value the process of matching an information need with an appropriate product", for example, it needs some spice and they select (say) cinnamon, rather than jalapeno pepper. They would also be able to "articulate the capabilities and constraints of information developed through various creation processes" and thus rank a recipe developed through thoughtful addition of ingredients and judicious tasting of the end products higher than a vaguely-worded recipe that now and then produced something edible.
You also need to "look beyond format when selecting resources to use": yes, usually you always use videos for recipe guides, but perhaps you could, after all, benefit from my mother's Christmas Pudding recipe, even though it's just written down.

Searching as Strategic Exploration
Information literate people will "determine the initial scope of the task required to meet their information needs." The recipe they use will be determined by questions like: What size of pudding do I want? Will I be serving it to vegan friends? How far am I prepared to go in terms of exotic ingredients? Can I be bothered with steaming?
They will "identify interested parties, such as scholars, organizations, governments, and industries, who might produce information about a topic" (see above)  and then "determine how to access that information" (shall I buy a cookery book? shall I go straight to a trusted source like this or this? what about Youtube?). Using "different types of searching language" (Christmas, Xmas, Figgy) one will "recognize the value of browsing and other serendipitous methods of information gathering" (scroll through all the photos of puddings to spot the yummiest).
However, you also need to "know when [you] have enough information to complete the information task".
Perhaps I'll just follow my mother's Christmas pudding recipe, after all.

Good information literate eating! If you found this even vaguely amusing you might like the SCONUL 7 Pillars of chocolate literacy which is shorter and probably wittier.

Images
Photo of Christmas puddings potted up ready for steaming by Sheila Webber, taken November 2025.
Holly image by Ted Balmer on Unsplash

References
Brieger, D. G., Amir, A. B., Punch, G. J., Lim, C. S. H., & Toh, J. (2014). What proof is in your Christmas pudding? Is caring under the influence possible? Medical Journal of Australia, 201(11), 702-704. https://doi.org/10.5694/mja14.01478
Chevalier, N. (2018). Iconic dishes, culture and identity: The Christmas pudding and its hundred years’ journey in the USA, Australia, New Zealand and India. Food, Culture & Society, 21(3), 367–383. https://doi.org/10.1080/15528014.2018.1451042
Musk, E. (2025). Super-duper seasonal recipes. [This is misinformation, but I think you knew that.]
Williams, E.E. (1897, December). Our Christmas plum puddings. Windor Magazine, 7, 64-68. https://www.victorianvoices.net/ARTICLES/Windsor/Windsor1898A/W1898-PlumPudding.pdf
Young, P. (2005). Economy, Empire, Extermination: The Christmas Pudding, the Crystal Palace and the Narrative of Capitalist Progress. Literature & History, 14(1), 14-30. https://doi.org/10.7227/LH.14.1.2 [It is about Dicken's story, but includes a pudding recipe, I think that counts.]

April Fool's adjacent

Here are some links to posts with April Fool's day as an inspiration:
- Cox, S. (2016, April 2). April Fool's! https://librarydisplays.org/2016/04/01/april-fools/ (April Fool pranks done by, and to, a school library)
- Flanagan, E. (2023, February 13). Teaching Information Literacy in the Classroom. https://www.erintegration.com/2023/02/13/teaching-information-literacy-in-the-classroom/ (nb it is selling priced items "The posters are included in both color and blackline and can be used in an April Fool’s Day theme or as a digital citizenship bulletin board all year round.")
- geoztinker. (2024, December 14). infuriating ai generated “bird” calendar i found… they’re all horribly wrong…which one is your favorite. https://www.reddit.com/r/birding/comments/1hdsorz/infuriating_ai_generated_bird_calendar_i_found/ You can do a "how many mistakes can I spot" exercise.
- Winick, S. (2026, March 28). April Fools: The Roots of an International Tradition. https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2016/03/april-fools/ (Detailed history about April Fool's Day, from the Library of Congress)
Photo by Sheila Webber: All the blossoms fell off this tree into a circle below! (No, April Fool, it's yet another photo of crocuses)

Merry Christmas 2024!

A very merry holiday season to all who like Information Literacy!
As usual, the photo is of the wreath I make each year out of trimmings from the bottom branches of our Christmas tree.
A peaceful and joyous time to you.

Merry Christmas!

A very merry Christmas to all readers of the Information Literacy weblog! 

Photo by Sheila Webber: the wreath I made this year, December 2022

Merry Christmas to all information literacy enthusiasts!

A merry and information literate Christmas to you! As usual on Christmas Day, the photo is of the wreath I made out of offcuts from this year's Christmas tree. It is getting a bit damp outside, but the cool and rain will keep the greenery fresh....

7 Top tips for working from home!! #workfromhome

I am working from home. I would rather not be. I have never, ever, fantasised about delivering online lessons in althleisurewear from my kitchen table or from under a duvet.

I realise that I’m very lucky to have a job, and home to work from. However, privilege doesn’t prevent people moaning, and I’m no exception. Similarly, the fact that I’m fed up with the flood of advice on how to work from home won’t stop me adding to it.

So here we go!

Tip one. It is perfectly ok to shout and scream at your computer, but do not hit it.
Violence gets you nowhere. In particular, violence gets you nowhere when you no longer have a nice helpful technical expert who can replace the kit when it gets broken.

Tip two. Keep something absorbent near your computer
Crammed into an unsuitable space, at some point your beverage of choice will spill over your keyboard. Accept this as inevitable, and be prepared.

Tip three. Continue drinking your beverage of choice.
All too soon we’ll be reduced to boiled water and dry biscuit, so let’s enjoy little luxuries while we can.

Tip four It is still ok to get distracted by the internet.
If that cute labrador video is what you need to get you through the online meeting on business continuity planning, watch it. Perhaps while the meeting is actually in progress. People will think you are laughing at their jokes rather than the doggies' lovable antics, so it's win-win.

Tip five. You don't have to be more sociable than you were before.
Slack. Facetime. Zoom. Skype. Whatsapp. Whereby. Collaborate. All those Google thingummies. There is no end to the way people can pop their virtual heads round the pixelated door. If your previous idea of a sociable day was a 5 minute chat in the office kitchen when your coffee making happened to coincide with someone else's, just say no to this always-on mania.

Tip six. Nor do you have to take up meditation, mindfulness, yoga, podcasting, or decaffeinated tea.
Unless you want to, obviously.

Tip seven. If you think working from home is ... not ideal, don’t feel obliged to say it’s a dream come true.
You can see I'm taking my own advice on this one.

And so that my wonderful colleagues, and my employer, don't write me off as a total curmudgeon, this is just an adverse reaction to all those irritating "top tips" articles, tweets and blog posts!  And showing I can do one that's just as irritating!

Stay safe - and information literate!

Librarian gifts: Ascendance of a bookworm

My previous suggestion (Desk Set) was released in 1957 and my final one is just finishing its run now, but I have to admit that Desk Set has a more rounded and contemporary view of librarians than does Ascendance of a Bookworm. However, I thought I should throw in something very new, and it will appeal to fans of cute Japanese anime. Myne (our heroine) has just achieved her ambition of becoming a librarian (because she LOVES BOOKS) when she gets killed by an earthquake (or more specifically, is buried under a load of books during an earthquake). She wakes up, however - to discover she has been reincarnated as a young girl in a vaguely mediaeval alternate world (this anime is an example of the isekai genre of anime). To her distress she discovers that her new family has no books, and indeed that making her own books might be the only way to get a book, since only rich people can afford them.
The episodes so far are about her persistent attempts to make paper (which in turn, she realises, means learning how to make the tools needed to make paper), to learn to read in a new language etc. and to gradually learn the truth about the mysterious fevers that attack her ...
I think you'll know by now whether this is the type of thing you or any librarian friends would be keen on. It is particularly slow moving at the start, but it gives time for character development and - anyway, I'm still watching it 12 episodes in (the final ones are streamed at Christmas).
If you were giving this as a gift what you would you would actually be giving is a subscription to Crunchyroll (which would be a good gift for someone who likes anime anyway, as it streams lots of anime series). Otherwise you can watch it for free, the main disadvantage being that each episode would be interrupted numerous times by adverts (you also have delayed access to each episode). It streams here https://www.crunchyroll.com/en-gb/ascendance-of-a-bookworm and below is the trailer ("I'll stop at nothing to become a librarian!).

Librarian Gifts: Desk Set - hurrah for Hollywood

My next gift suggestion is, as far as I know, the only Hollywood film about the impact of automation on the workplace library. Desk Set has an all-star cast. Katharine Hepburn is in charge of the reference library at Federal Broadcasting Network, managing a team of savvy librarians, mostly providing their service over the phone. Spencer Tracy is the computing and efficiency expert bought in to see whether EMERAC ("Electromagnetic MEmory and Research Arithmetical Calculator"), a computer the size of a small room, can improve the reference service. The librarians assume that it's going to replace them, merry jinks ensue and there are no prizes for guessing whether Hepburn ends up with Tracey or smooth executive Gig Young. Altogether there are some excellent performances, a glimpse into librarianship of yesteryear and (spoiler alert!) a happy end. As you will see in the trailer, it even has a seasonal Christmas party scene.

Despite the film's age, the DVD seems readily available through the usual outlets.

Gift ideas for librarians: the Invisible Library series

I continue my short series of librarian gifts. By the way, these are all works of fiction/ fantasy which feature librarians: real librarians' are diverse and so are their tastes, so I'm not straying beyond that boundary.
About a year ago I came across the Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman, and I've consumed five of the six books published so far. The heroine, Irene, is a Librarian, in a universe where fae and dragons are constantly on the brink of war, there are alternate worlds galore, and the Library is key in maintaining the order of the universe and preventing human worlds from getting squashed by more powerful beings. This order is maintained by librarians obtaining all variations of all books ever published and depositing them in The Library, thus forming stable connections with the worlds from which the books were purloined.
Since tracking down and obtaining books by whatever means is the key function of a Librarian, the skillset is a bit different from the one outlined in CILIP's Professional Skill and Knowledge Base (and indeed from the curriculum here at the University of Sheffield Information School).
As Cogman says in an interview appended to The masked city "Languages are very important ... General physical health, martial arts skills and great marksmanship are all useful - as is the ability to run fast when needed." After also mentioning diplomacy, spycraft, burglary, art theory and literary criticism, Cogman sums up "The perfect Librarian is calm, cool, collected, intelligent, multilingual, a crack shot, a martial artist, an Olympic-level runner ... a good swimmer, an expert thief and a genius con artist" although "In practice, most Librarians would rather spend their time reading a good book".
I should add that using catalogues and search engines is important to Librarians, and obviously collection development is at the heart of their work. Irene's information literacy is well developed, as she uses all her senses to gather information in any given world/situation and then applies this to everyday life decision-making, in order to avoid death and mass destruction.
I think one of the reasons I took to the series is to do with my time at the British Library, which we referred to internally as The Library, as if it were the only one in the universe. However, Cogman's series may appeal to anyone who likes alternate worlds, fantasy action, and books.
Genevieve Cogman's website is here http://www.grcogman.com/ and it has links to online booksellers, as well as her blog etc.

Gift ideas for librarians: Library Wars

In the run up to Christmas I will blog a few gift ideas for the librarian in your life. The first is the Japanese manga/ anime/ film Library Wars. In the Library Wars world, being a librarian isn't just about answering reference queries (though cataloguing, circulation and reference still play their part). It also involves being a crack shot, abseiling down library buildings and thwarting violent kidnappers. The key idea is that censorship has a stranglehold on society. Any books that are judged unsuitable from a moral, social or political point of view are seized by the army of the "Media Betterment Committee" (MBC) and destroyed.
Libraries have become a bastion of resistance, defended by the Library Task Force, and the brave librarians take their lives in their hands protecting books. The trigger for the whole series is the MBC storming a bookshop where the young heroine is about to buy the new addition to her favourite fantasy series, only to have the book snatched from her hand. Heroically, a member of the Library Task Force defends her right to read it and returns it to her: this leads to her determination to make the Library Forces her career.
To be honest, it is not the best anime/ manga I have encountered, but neither is it the worst, and I can't help smiling at a series where one moment the heroine is being chided for not shelving books accurately enough, and next moment she is sniping at MBC soldiers, to help ensure that a valuable cache of books gets helicoptered to safety.
Unfortunately it looks as though, if based in the West, the manga is the only medium that seems easy to get hold of at the moment, but I am the proud possessor of the anime series (13 episodes) and was also luck to catch the first of the live-action film versions on an international plane journey. I have embedded the trailer of the third live action film, as it includes a glimpse of a library book cart, the line "Deliver that book!! People are waiting!!", plus lots of rather cross librarians (and also a lot of books being destroyed, one way or another).  This is the information on the Anime News Network site (there are reviews for the anime and some volumes of the manga): Manga: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/manga.php?id=8952; Library Wars live action film https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=20111; Library War (note the lack of the plural in this version) anime https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=8951

#HarryPotterBookNight2019

As tonight is Harry Potter Book Night, I will celebrate by linking to an old post, in which I (in 2003) examined the pedagogy of Harry Potter. The boy wizard himself practices experiential learning and the Harry Potter books provide ample examples of what not to do in the information literacy classroom (e.g. denying that Authority Is Constructed and Contextual by continually looking for right and wrong answers, or turning your learners into ferrets), and some examples of good practice (e.g. rather a lot of Searching as Strategic Exploration, including most of book 7). Anyway, here is the blog post: https://information-literacy.blogspot.com/2003/06/the-pedagogy-of-harry-potter-5.html

For more Potterism, there is also: Freier, M.P. (2014). The librarian in Rowling's Harry Potter series. CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, 16(3). https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.2197 "In her article "The Librarian in Rowling's Harry Potter Series" Mary P. Freier discusses Hermione Granger's skills as a librarian and researcher which lead to the defeat of Lord Voldemort. In each novel in the series, Hermione's research provides the necessary information for the solving of the mystery. Throughout the series, Hermione proves to be the only character who can use books effectively without putting herself or others in danger. Hermione begins the series as a child who loves the library, but does not always know how to use it effectively, while Madam Pince begins the series as a stereotypical librarian and disappears entirely by The Deathly Hallows."

Merry Christmas to all information literates!

I hope that you had a good 2017, and Merry Christmas!
This is the Christmas wreath I made this year (I clip something from the Christmas tree to make it).

Be chocolate literate on World Chocolate Day

[I will do a more serious post later, but...] Today is World Chocolate Day, according to lots of news sites. This is an example of when information literacy becomes a bit irrelevant. A quick google search reveals that today is not to be confused with International Chocolate day, which is in September. It is not evident who started the idea of World Chocolate Day, or what keeps it going other than manufacturers' desire to sell chocolate and news media's knowledge that pictures of chocolate attract clicks. But who cares? As the Wikipedia article notes "Celebration of the day includes the consumption of chocolate". Enough said. The more excuses to eat chocolate, the better. Pictured is the wrapper of some chocolate I just ate. And I will remind readers of my earlier blog post the Seven Pillars of Chocolate Literacy: develop those chocolate lifeskills!

Merry Christmas from the Information Literacy Weblog

A very merry Christmas to all readers of the information literacy weblog. I hope you have a great holiday season!
Photo by Sheila Webber: the holiday wreath I made this year (from offcuts of the Christmas tree), December 2015

My mother's Christmas pudding recipe

This is nothing to do with information literacy. However, every year I worry that I will lose the scrap of paper on which my mother wrote out the ingredients for her Christmas pudding recipe. I suddenly thought that this blog might be a safe place to put it - and this is the time of year to be making them (I did mine 2 weeks ago ;-).

Ingredients
4 oz breadcrumbs
4 oz suet (this is the only non-vegetarian part, but I do think suet is best unless you are vegetarian)
2 oz flour
2 oz mixed peel (or basically any type of nice quality candied peel or fruit, chopped up)
4 oz sultanas
4 oz raisins
2 oz currants (in fact I usually leave these out and add more sultanas or raisins, or chopped dates)
4 oz soft brown sugar
2 oz ground almonds
pinch salt
eighth oz cinnamon (heaped teaspoon)
eighth oz mixed spice
quarter of a grated nutmeg
1 grated carrot
1 grated apple
2 eggs, lightly beaten
half lemon (cut peel plus juice)
half wineglass brandy or armagnac
beer (not lager) - how much will depend on how dried up the dried fruit and breadcrumbs are.
I also usually put in some walnut pieces, preferably Californian ones

Put all the dry ingredients in (everything up to the eggs - I usually put the grated carrot and apple in last of the "dry" ingredients), and mix up well.
Then add the wet ingredients, starting with the eggs. The end product should be not too dry - the dried fruit will normally soak up part of the liquid in due course. Once mixed, ideally leave it overnight for the liquid to get soaked up, and stir again.
This is enough for 3 smallish puddings. Leave at least half an inch clear at the top of the bowl. I use pyrex (glass) or china bowls. I put a layer of greaseproof paper and tinfoil together, make a fold in the middle (so there is room for expansion when there is steam inside the bowl and tie the paper/tinfoil on with string (tinfoil on top, greaseproof next to the pudding).
Steam for 3 hours for a small pudding, 4 or 5 hours for larger ones. Then keep them til you want to eat them. They improve with keeping at least a week or two, and I've eaten one up to 9 months after cooking (it was still yummy) as long as you keep them somewhere dry and moderately cool.
When you want to eat them, steam for an hour (hour and a half for a larger one). You don't need to change the paper/tinfoil topping (unless it actually is more than a few months since you originally steamed it, in which case you may wish to double check it is still ok - you can tell from the top of the pudding).
The photo shows 2 of the three puddings I cooked with the above quantities, with my reading glasses there for scale purposes.

Friday post: #hatnote Listen to #Wikipedia grow

For some relaxing new-agey sound, go to Hatnote's Listen to Wikipedia. "Bells indicate additions [to Wikipedia] and string plucks indicate subtractions. Pitch changes according to the size of the edit; the larger the edit, the deeper the note. Green circles show edits from unregistered contributors, and purple circles mark edits performed by automated bots. You may see announcements for new users as they join the site, punctuated by a string swell. You can welcome him or her by clicking the blue banner and adding a note on their talk page." It was built by Stephen LaPorte and Mahmoud Hashemi and is open source (the picture is a screen grab, I chose a part of the screen that wasn't showing the information on what was being edited). http://listen.hatnote.com/

I was alerted to this by Carole Williams on the ili-l discussion list http://lists.ala.org/wws/info/ili-l - it was in a post on a session about teaching source evaluation, and she mentioned having this playing up on screen when students were coming into class saying "It makes a great starting point for a quick discussion of the changing nature of information". I think this is a great idea, I'll think about when I can use it ;-)
Williams, C. (2015, 24 March) RE: Re: RE: Source Evaluation lesson plan. http://lists.ala.org/wws/arc/ili-l/2015-03/msg00167.html

Is Gibbs' team info literate? The information literacy of #NCIS

Workplace information literacy is all the vogue, and so I offer an information literacy analysis of a team of workers who have to solve impossible information problems on a weekly basis: the NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) team headed by Special Agent Jethro Leroy Gibbs. In case you never watch NCIS, it is a hugely successful TV series in which they solve crimes involving a (dead) navy person. I will focus on the ur-team, headed by Gibbs, rather than the flibbertigibbet spinoff series. After iterative conversations with the data (i.e. I’ve watched a lot of NCIS) I am able to offer the following analysis, using the framework of the SCONUL 7 pillars of information literacy.

“Okay, let's get to work!”

Pillar 1: “Identify the information need”? Check! No sooner has a dead marine washed upon the beach/ been discovered by a courting couple/ inexplicably flumped out of the sky, than Gibbs is barking away at people demanding names, and cause and time of death. And the team keeps reviewing and identifying new information needs all the way through the episode until the perp finally breaks down under Gibbs’ merciless interrogation.

Pillar 2: “Scope “ – so that’s “Can assess current knowledge and identify gaps” (Check! the team act as one to share what they know and then scatter to do whatever it is they do best), “understands what types of information are available” (Check! do they ever stand round wondering where on earth to look next? "Heck no!"), and “Demonstrate the ability to use new tools as they become available” (Check! there is NO database or hard disk inaccessible to the combined wizardry of Abby and McGee. Even DiNozzo can manipulate a camera, laptop and wifi when circumstances dictate (vide the case of the man stabbed with a knitting needle in the airborne aircraft lavatory; pictures zoom to Abby and Ducky before you can say “so the air hostess is the hit man!”).

Pillar 3: “Plan: construct strategies for locating information and data” Check! This is most evident when the team plan how to collect physical and personal evidence, whether it’s Ducky contemplating how to get the corpse to tell him how the murder was committed, or Ziva and Gibbs deciding how to get into the suspect’s home and snag his toothbrush for a DNA test. The elegant search strategies used to extract information from the plethora of digital sources are usually taken as read. Although Abby and McGee sometimes can’t resist filling in the systematic detail, Gibbs soon reminds them that it’s only the answers he’s interested in.

Pillar 4: “Gather: locate and access the information and data they need” Check! and double check! Gibbs and his team have access to every conceivable information source known to man. They use satellites and tiny cameras, they use huge great video suites and petite mobile phones, they track all kinds of objects all around the world using amazing networky gizmos, they use news databases, and bank records, and can hack into any database after the most minimal effort, they can call on their own vast and infallible memories, they have extensive personal networks of people just dying to do them favours. If by any chance the person/object/database doesn’t happen to be in Washington DC, only a small amount of jokey posturing will see them on a flight to Iraq, or Paris, or Mexico to scoop up the info in person.
The only element lacking here is “understanding the difference between free and paid for resources”. As far as I can see, the only way Gibbs and co. ever pay for information, is, now and then, with a certain amount of personal angst (e.g. having to say “please” to the FBI).

Pillar 5: “Evaluate”. This is one where I pondered a while. Most of the information they get from official databases (fingerprints! tox screens! phone records! service records!) simply gets accepted as correct, unless there’s a plot device about falsifying something. However, the team do “Critically appraise and evaluate their own findings and those of others”, principally when gathered round the screen next to Gibbs’ desk fighting over who is going to feed him the latest juicy fact. As well as contesting each others’ findings (i.e. making snarky remarks and snatching the digital pointer), they are always subject to Gibbs’ devastating critique (notably “yer think?” and “so that’s all you got?”). After all, Gibbs’ Rule #3 is “Never believe what you are told. Double check.”
The most air time is, again, devoted to evaluating personal sources. The team itself is trustworthy (except when fighting personal vendettas, carrying out orders from Mossad, or protecting a close relative, obviously). People the team knows and trusts are mostly good information sources, although TV cliche dictates that periodically one or other of the team will be Horribly Disallusioned when it turns out their girlfriend/boyfriend/mentor/old commanding officer is liar and a cheat.
Other people can only be identified as good or bad information sources once they’ve been marched to the interview room for ritual humiliation by one of the team, whilst a random selection of  team-mates indulge in light banter behind the 2-way mirror.

Pillar 6: “Manage: Can organise information professionally and ethically”. They must be super-efficient at organising information, as the only things they lose are embarrassing personal items (leading to much humorous byplay) or files stolen by someone Up To No Good. However, this pillar seems to be the one blot on their information literate copybook. Does Gibbs’ team “Demonstrate awareness of issues relating to the rights of others including ethics, data protection, copyright, plagiarism and any other intellectual property issues”? I think not! McGee hacks into everything, the gun-toters of the team hack into people’s houses, and obviously Ducky and Mr Palmer hack into the corpses, though the latter is really just routine forensics. Now and then national security is mentioned, and sometimes someone will wonder whether all this is right. However, generally speaking ethical information behaviour isn’t allowed to stand in the way of wrapping up the case before the credits whump in.

Pillar 7: “Present: Can apply the knowledge gained: presenting the results of their research, synthesising new and old information and data to create new knowledge and disseminating it in a variety of ways”. Check! and triple check! They always solve the case: job done. How the results are disseminated will depend on the plot point. The team may end the episode soulfully watching a complete fabrication being broadcast on the ZNN news channel (e.g. the bullet-riddled demise of Director Shepard, reported as a nasty domestic accident, possibly involving blazing chip fat), or getting the warm fuzzies (e.g. watching the wife and fatally-ill son of a dead hero helicopter pilot being respectively stoic, and cute: and were it not for the investigative powers of Gibbs’ team, that hero would have been branded a coward!)

What is perhaps most awesome is the way they combine their individually awesome talents to become a mega-awesome whole. Remember, Gibbs' Rule #15 is “Always work as a team”. He is an archetypal manager in his information behaviour: he sets clear goals, provides incentives (e.g. buckets of carbonated beverage; though not being shouted at is usually enough for DiNozzo), he demands summarised intelligence and regular updates (“what yer got?”), he prefers personal communication (“speak to me Abs”), disdains unnecessary detail (“speak English!”), and combines his personal knowledge base, his gut feeling and the vast streams of information from his team to arrive at a decision (“Gibbs is always right!”).
The rest provide complimentary sets of skills, knowledge and personal contacts. Abby and Ducky are the most expert experts in the world in space and don’t have to do trivial things like read the literature to keep up to date. However, they do go to conferences (mostly for people to cluster round them and ask for autographs, I imagine) and if their gigantic brains fail to identify an appropriate solution, they always know some other expert who will come up with the goods. If an information source is trying to run away, Ziva can exercise her skills in hitting people. DiNozzo is good at putting evidence in bags and noticing quirky things that turn out to be really, really important.

So, I think that pretty well demonstrates that the NCIS team are A1 information literate (apart from that pesky ethical thing, which I’m sure Gibbs would discount with a quick whack to the back of the head). In fact they could be rechristened the Navy’s Completely Information-Literate Service.

Does anyone know Gibbs’ phone number, so I can ring up to propose it? I’m sure he’d love that. He’s always so open to unsolicited suggestions for change.

Pictures by Sheila Webber, taken in Second Life. Those with eagle eyes will have spotted that there are 2 rule 3s. This is Gibbs. He makes up the rules.

The seven pillars of chocolate literacy: a new curriculum

To celebrate chocolate week I am posting this slightly whimsical play on the famous Seven Pillars of Information Literacy. I present the 7 Pillars of Chocolate Literacy: only chocaholics need read on.
I admit, I am a chocoloate addict. I don’t need vast quantities, but I feel edgy if I don’t know where my next chocolate is coming from. To avoid a chocolate meltdown it important to develop chocolate lifeskills and become an independent chocolate learner.

Identify. First you need to recognise the nature of your chocolate need. For example, what is the context in which you will be consuming the chocolate? is the need for an urgent chocolate fix, or are you planning for a long term chocolate future?

Scope. You need to identify the gap between the chocolate you have and the chocolate you need. For example, you might have a half eaten Toblerone and a handful of milk-chocolate covered peanuts, when you sudenly feel the urgent need for a nice chunk of 70% cocoa dark chocolate. What options for filling the gap are available to you? Are there any shops open? Do you have any chocoholic friends that might be prepared to help? Think out of the chocolate box, too: if you’d wanted milk chocolate, there would be the possibility of scraping the chocolate off the peanuts.

Plan. Having looked at the options for getting the chocolate, work out a strategy, tailoring it to the chocolate channel you are going to use. For example, with the chocoholic friend you either need to be really persuasive or to lure her away from her chocolate stash and then grab a couple of chunks. A chocolate-literate person is likely to have websites of all the online chocolate vendors bookmarked neatly in a folder, and be able to recognise the word “chocolate” in every major world language. Have a backup plan if your initial strategy fails: for example the first shop you go to may just have cheap and tasteless chocolate.

Gather. Go get the chocolate.

Evaluate. The usual criteria apply here. Currency: is the chocolate within its sell by-date and/or edible? This is most likely to be an issue with old, forgotten bits of chocolate you find at the bottom of your handbag or lingering at the back of a drawer. Coverage: does the chocolate meet all of your chocolate needs or will you need two contrasting types of chocolate? Authority: is the chocolate brand one you recognise and respect? Reliability: is all the chocolate of the brand likely to be good, or is it a bit hit and miss? Price: is the chocolate value-for-money, or is it simply Cheap? The chocolate-literate person will be able to recognise when two-for-one deals are worth grabbing and reject discounts on chocolate that is so dull you ought to be paid to eat it.

Manage. A very important part of chocolate literacy. You need to store your chocolate so that it is easily retrievable, and kept in optimal conditions. The chocolate literate person will scan the environment regularly to ensure that he or she is aware of the latest chocolate trends, and map paths to the nearest chocolate wherever he or she is. Ethical use of chocolate is obviously also vital e.g. responding to others’ emotional crises with offers of chocolate, knowing whether your chocolate was ethically sourced, and understanding when sharing your chocolate is socially unavoidable.
Use of chocolate comes under this pillar too: basically the use of chocolate is to eat it, so this is an aspect that most people find quite straightforward.

Communicate. Knowledge sharing is a key aspect of 21st century society. However, if you have some chocolate and you want to eat it all, telling other people about it is a really bad idea. So the chocolate-literate person will find the delicate balance between sharing (e.g. providing expert advice on the difference between Lindt Extra Creamy milk chocolate and the normal Lindt milk chocolate) and keeping quiet (e.g. about the fact that he/she has examples of both in his/her briefcase).

The next step is developing A New Curriculum for Chocolate Literacy, including indicators for chocolate literacy, and then embedding ANCFCL into as many courses of study as possible. A constructivist pedagogy for chocolate literacy will be appropriate, with a big emphasis on experiential learning. Learners will construct their own context-specific understanding of chocolate literacy, and then deconstruct it by eating the chocolate. I see loads of scope for public-private sector partnerships (i.e. companies give us their chocolate, we trouble the concept of chocolate literacy, and then write obscure research articles whilst eating the chocolate).
If any of you feel this has a future do comment below.
Photos by Sheila Webber: chocolate-related items from Dubrovnik: 1) Milka with biscuit; 2) 100% chocolate desert at the 360 degree restaurant (it was really chocolatey); 3) upmarket Croatian chocolate with praline filling

Hitchhiker's guide game: not infolit, but fun

There is a free anniversary edition of the classic Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy game, which was published 30 years ago as a text-only interactive fiction game, written by Douglas Adams himself with games-writing genius Steve Meretzky. They have added a few graphics, but fortunately kept the game basically intact. If you like puzzles and you like Hitchhiker, you should like this. I actually played the original game (and indeed most of the games published by Infocom). If you are not of that era, you will need to read the instructions page. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1g84m0sXpnNCv84GpN2PLZG/the-hitchhiker-s-guide-to-the-galaxy-game-30th-anniversary-edition Apologies, this is nothing to do with information literacy (unless someone can find a connection?), but I'm hoping a lot of people who like information literacy also like the HHGTTG
Photo by Matthias Weinberger: The Hitchhikers Guide: https://www.flickr.com/photos/51035610542@N01/52759172/