Have you heard this before? "I have no idea why I have to take a research course. I've been doing research for years, and I know this stuff already." Those unfortunate words came from the mouth of an incoming graduate student. Strangely (at least to him), when that student turned in his first assignment for my research strategies course (after presumably not reading the chapter in the textbook), he scored near the bottom of the class.

Whether we teach information literacy courses for credit or do info lit orientations, this is a common problem. The "bored and resentful" element is always there, scowling or openly challenging the necessity of having "needless" information literacy inflicted upon them. In the face of such confidence in their own abilities, our temptation is to believe them, arguing, "I realize you probably know most of this. Still, there's always something new to learn." Sadly, that kind of reasoning doesn't compute in the mind of a busy student. If I know it, why do I have to learn it again?

But should we believe students' self- assessment? Are the bored and resentful as competent as they think they are? What if, in many cases, their estimate of their actual skill level is way off?

At the lowest level of reward we find the snacks or other favors for attendance, tools that work surprisingly well despite the fact that our students know how manipulative they are. At a higher level are extra credit perks arranged with amenable professors. The highest of all is the truly entertaining session in which the rare librarian finds a way to make mere instruction fun without gimmicks or rewards.

But take average students. They have been using the internet since age 10 or so, have already turned in their first college research paper with five references in the bibliography (for which the grade was a B), and have maybe discovered a journal database that searches the way Google does. Then, deep into the semester, a librarian shows up in class to demonstrate library search tools and explain research skills. Instant resistance. Let's face it: No amount of entertainment will overcome the belief that this is a wasted hour. What more is there to know, for pity's sake? Everyone in the room already grasps what research is about. In "Lessons Learned: How College Students Seek Information in the Digital Age" (http://projectinfolit.org/pdfs/PIL_Fall2009_ YearlReport_12_2009.pdf), Alison Head and Michael Eisenberg put it this way:

"Students conceptualize research, especially tasks associated with seeking information, as a competency learned by rote, rather than as an opportunity to learn, develop, or expand upon an information- gathering strategy which leverages the wide range of resources available to them in the digital age."

So why do we, our students included, so rarely see the magic? Simply because most research assignments are programmed to sap the life out of those who do them. Students often complain that they don't understand what the professor wants from them and that their research assignments are among the most tedious and nerve-wracking tasks they have to perform. They generally believe they already possess whatever research ability they are ever going to have. Thus "research" becomes a matter of using their clunky and inadequate skills to waste hours of precious time gathering illusive data in order to report on it in an orderly way.

If you had no conception of what better skills might be learned and every research project was another experience in negativity, there wouldn't be any question of why there was no magic. Those of us who train people to become information literate need constantly to remember that, balanced against resistance, is a whole other world in which reenvisioning the task could make the journey amazing.

How do we show them the magic? One of the best ways to start the process is to help them turn whatever research assignment they have into a quest. Emphasize that simply gathering existing data and synthesizing it (information as goal) is boring. Instead, help them turn their project into a hunt for truth (information as a means to solve a problem).

We spend so much time showing students how to use research tools such as catalogs and databases that we fail to help them deal with the fundamental issues of identifying an issue and developing a research question or thesis statement to address it. We don't position student research as a quest for answers instead of a synthesis of existing data.

Consider a training session in a company that sells paper products. "Information literacy" in that setting is getting a grasp of the knowledge functions of the operation - what we sell, how we sell it, and so on. The magic comes from shaping everything in terms of the goal: How do we best get our product out of the door and into the hands of a happy, satisfied customer?

If you can show students the magic in any information quest, you have a doorway to help them learn how to improve their ability to follow that quest.

Let me boil the magic down to one concept: In any research task worth being called "magical," information stops being a goal and becomes a tool; research stops being a dreary exercise in compilation and becomes a quest for what we must yet discover. The magic is in the quest.

References

Kruger, J., & Dunning, D. (1999). "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(6), 1121-11 34.

Gross, M., & Latham, D. (2009). Undergraduate Perceptions of Information Literacy: Defining, Attaining, and Self-Assessing Skills. College & Research Libraries, 70(4), 336-350.

Head, A. J., & Eisenberg, M. B. (2009). "Lessons Learned: How College Students Seek Information in the Digital Age: Project Information Literacy Progress Report"; http://projectinfolit.org/pdfs/PIL_Fall2009_Year1 Report_12_2009.pdf.

William Badke

Trinity Western University

William Badke (badke@twu.ca) is associate librarian at Trinity Western University and the author of Research Strategies: Finding Your Way Through the Information Fog, third edition. (iUniverse.com, 2008). Comments? Send email to the editor (marydee@xmission.com).
Copyright Information Today, Inc. May/Jun 2010
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved

It’s easy. So easy it’s almost criminal. But I can get one-way High PR links whenever I want.

How?

Come closer. Let me whisper in your ear.

It involves articles, the google toolbar and a tracking sheet.

That’s it’s. Because there’s really nothing to getting high PR one way links.

Two Must Finds

All you do is find sites to post your articles on that do a good job of directing pagerank (PR) to their articles pages. Sadly many do not.

Others may but they don’t include that coveted live link from your article.

This just means you’ll have to look a little harder. Since the crown jewel in your search for sites to submit articles to is to find those with other articles that show lives links. And the pages they’re on sport at least PR 3 or higher.

Here’s why this is so powerful. You’ll typically get the lion’s share of that PR. Since unlike a links page, quite often the only external link is to the author’s web site.

Just think. While others are thrashing around trading links, you’re quietly developing high search rankings by simply submitting articles. Nifty seo twist on the idea of article marketing isn’t it?

Your Tracking Sheet

Setting up your tracking sheet is simple too. You want at least three headings including website URL, PR, Live Link.

What goes in the first should be obvious.

Jot down the PR of the article pages themselves in the second.

The third you simply note “Y” for yes if there is a live link from the article’s resource box back to the author’s web site. Or “N” for no if there is not.

Now for the tedious part - finding sites to host your articles.

Typically article banks, directories and the like are NOT going to be your best bet. Sorry. I’m not saying you shouldn’t submit articles to them as part of an overall article marketing scheme. Just don’t do so in the hopes of snapping up many high PR one way links is all.

Instead you want to use Google to help you find individual web sites that post articles. There are many ways to find them. Let me share one.

One Way to Find Sites to Submit to

Simply search on your “target keyword phrase + articles”. And don’t forget the quotes. Doing so tells Google to return all pages with both the keyword phrase and the word articles on them. This should return a healthy list of sites in that keyword niche that host articles.

Now you want to do this search in Internet Explorer with the Google toolbar turned on.

At each site visit a few article pages that have been around for awhile. (Sometimes sites will show the date posted. Other times you just have to kinda guess which might have been there longer.) Keep an eye on the PR of those pages. Checking out three or four such pages should give you an idea of the PR potential. Note the highest PR you find on your tracking sheet.

Also take note if the links in the resource box are live or not.

Once you run through the first list try another focus keyword. Or try a related niche. Just be aware you’ll start to see peats and repeats.

Still don’t stop until you’ve got a nice starter list of 25-30 sites that have higher PR and a live link back.

After you’ve got your list write the best, most informative, helpful article you can. No self promotion. No affiliate links. No hype whatsoever.

Then have at it. Submit it to the list you just developed.

If you’ve got a better than average article you can expect at least 10 or maybe even 15 out of 30 sites to post it. And you’re on your way. Just like that you’ve got 10-15 higher PR one way links. Which is probably more than most of your competitors have. And that’s just one article.

That’s right. Once you’ve got one article in motion, look for more sites. Write another high quality article. Submit it first to those who posted your previous article. They should be your favored class and get first crack at your new one. Then submit it to the rest.

Pretty simple isn’t it? Yet this pretty much lays out how I get 50+ high PR one way links each month. Now you can too.

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