Reviewing Your Information Diet
Your "information diet" consists of the habits of information consumption that you typically engage in. By reviewing your information diet you have an opportunity to look at the quality of your information consumption habits. Just as a review of your food diet would allow you to ask questions about the the levels of sugar, fat, and nutrition in your diet, a review of your information habits helps you understand whether you have the right amount and balance of sources of information for your goals and lifestyle.
There are two goals to this assignment. First, you will represent your current information diet by making a short wiki page with links to your major current information sources. List any local, national, or international newspapers you consult regularly, as well as other internet sites that you use routinely to find information. You may have a favorite review site for movies or music, a site that has information about an interest or cause that you follow, or some magazines that you turn to regularly. You might use an "aggregator" like iGoogle, that pulls information from other sources for you. You can organize your page with headings that reflect either the frequency that you use the source or the type of source. As an example, you can look at my current information diet page: Alfino's Information Diet
Once you have represented your basic current information diet, we will look at some library resources that help you make new choices about the quality, depth, and range of topics that you might want to try out. Librarians have useful guides for thinking about different categories of information, such as journals of thought and opinion (see Foley Library - http://www.gonzaga.edu/Academics/Libraries/Foley-Library/Subject-Guides/Arts-Humanities-Subject-Guides/ThoughtAndExpression.asp). Many of your classmates will also have suggestions about sources for particular topics. We'll trade suggestions in class and through interaction with librarians. The goal of this part of the assignment is to develop your information diet page with links and references to a variety of sources. You should consider several objectives in pursuing this goal such as:
- . Increasing the number of high quality publications in your diet.
- . Balancing sources according to political and ideological perspectives, geographic focus, and primary vs. secondary sources.
- . Looking for sources on special interests and hobbies.
Your completed information diet wiki page should reflect a development from your initial page. You should demonstrate a knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of your choices and commit to following your diet by visiting the sites you identify, updating your list in light of new sources.
