Information Literacy Skills > Reviewing the whole process

Introduction

When looking back on any task we have undertaken, we can usually see some things which, if we were to do the activity again, we would do in a different way. As the saying goes, "hindsight is a wonderful thing." You will not have the chance to undertake this particular information task again. However, what you can do is review your information searching experience, identify what worked well and what didn't work so well and use these lessons in any future information task.

You have already evaluated the information which you found in order to demonstrate that it is suitable for your purposes. What we are looking at here is not reviewing the actual information but reviewing the process by which you found it.

To review the information searching process, it is useful to look at:

• your choice of keywords and the method by which you chose these keywords
• your choice of information sources - were these the most appropriate for your purposes?
• your search strategy - did you go about consulting the sources in the most methodical and efficient way?

You probably did some fine-tuning of your information searching process as you went along. As you look at the questions which follow, think back to any changes you made to your original plan and why you changed your approach at these points.

As you work through the following pages, we would like you to take notes of your thinking as you progress.

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