Mark Lenker (Educational Initiatives Department, UNLV Libraries) had an essay published in the journal Communications in Information Literacy. makes a case for centering library instruction on the public’s declining trust in experts. The recommended guided discussion involves reframing the point of library research. The purpose is not to find sources to support an irrefutable argument (an unrealistic and potentially discouraging goal for undergraduates given our contentious, hyper-partisan public discourse). Rather, the idea is to build a more thorough and realistic understanding of a research question. This approach to teaching research emphasizes genuinely acknowledging points of contention and pursuing complex questions with intellectual humility.
