“Begin with a Moment:” A Pilot Study of a Method for Supporting Information Creativity in First Year Writing Instruction

Abstract

This presentation describes a pilot study conduced at the University of Illinois during the fall of 2017, which tested the effectiveness of a low-pressure early-semester information creativity session that encouraged students to find resources related to their own life experiences. Results show that students whose final research paper topics resulted from personal experience demonstrated greater satisfaction with their end-of-the semester research papers, a claim supported by instructor observations. This activity provides an occasion for a discussion and definition of information creativity, which is proposed as a companion concept to information literacy. Conceptual tensions between Deweyan inquiry, which was emphasized in the 2015 ACRL Framework, and literacy in its familiar sense are considered, and "information creativity" is proposed as a principle for uniting diverse maker, workshop, special collections, and digital creation activities within a set of practices emphasizing inquiry, experience, expression, and immediacy, rather then the acquisition of literacy.