| |
|
|
|
|
The Information Cycle is a visual model of information production, distribution, use, and storage within a discipline. Each discipline has a unique version of this model. In describing research activities, the information sources generated and used by scholars engaged in those activities -- from informal, unpublished works through summary and review literature -- and the archival tools used to store and retrieve that information, students acquire a deeper awareness of the structure and flow of disciplinary information. The ability to make connections between specific archival resources and research activity increases the ability to think critically and solve problems in unclear or faulty situations.
If your department or college has not worked with a librarian to develop such a model, contact your librarian.
Students trace the path of a single research project from one point on the cycle to another. Students who track the various types of literature generated by research studies acquire a clearer picture of information development and distribution patterns in a discipline. Seeing the connections, as well as the differences, between conference proceedings and popular literature, online discussion lists and peer-reviewed publications, trade journals and summary or review literature, deepens the learner's awareness of information patterns not easily visible when individual sources are assigned as textbooks and reserve readings.
Students
explore one or more segments of the disciplinary information cycle.
Describing
a single research activity and its related publications allows students to explore
information sources in-depth, better understand discourse methods in your field,
and deepen their understanding of the role specific information genres play
in disseminating knowledge. Mapping these sources to finding aids and archives
can help to orient the learner by developing pathfinders for future use.
Students see a copy of your discipline's cycle in the background of all the research they do for your department's courses. Most students take around a dozen to fifteen courses to complete the degree requirements for a major. For each course, they typically receive information through lecture, textbooks, reserve and other assigned readings, and instructor recommendations. While they receive the readings in the context of the course learning objectives, they don't often see them in the context of all communication and publishing within your field. Introducing readings via the Information Cycle allows the student to better locate them in a flow of information related to research activities and provides a clearer, less fragmented picture of the information world being developed by you and your colleagues internationally.
View some information cycles under development