University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Curiosity is a luxury of the financially secure: The affective thresholds of information literacy

Mabee, Sarah H.; Fancher, Sarah E.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/106727

Description

Title
Curiosity is a luxury of the financially secure: The affective thresholds of information literacy
Author(s)
  • Mabee, Sarah H.
  • Fancher, Sarah E.
Date of Publication
2020
Keyword(s)
  • Libraries
  • Affect
  • Poverty
  • Cognitive processing
  • Information literacy
Geographic Coverage
Southwest Missouri
Abstract
Prior research has examined the ways in which affect and poverty impact cognitive processing. In this article, we examine themes that emerged via directed conversations with focus groups of students enrolled at a large, open-enrollment community college located in a high-poverty area of Southwest Missouri. We explore several affective dimensions of information literacy, including frustration and anxiety with the process of and expectations surrounding academic research, feelings of information overload, and guilt and shame about relying on web sources as well as the intersections with class status and economic privilege. We propose additional affective learning practices and dispositions that articulate the steps to information literacy that learners need to develop along the way. Finally, we examine some considerations for designing effective assignments that acknowledge the many affective components of college-level research.
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press and the Illinois School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Series/Report Name or Number
Library Trends 68 (3). Winter 2020
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Identifiers: URI or URL
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/106727
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2020.0002
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2020 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Owning Collections

Library Trends 68 (3) Winter 2020: Strange Circulations: Affect and the Library [Restricted Access] PRIMARY
Library Trends 68 (3) Winter 2020: Strange Circulations: Affect and the Library. Edited by Kate Adler and Lisa Sloniowski.