A Guide to Citing Images, a new infographic from our friends at NoodleTools, offers a MLA-aligned flow chart to guide researchers through a variety of image citation situations.  But it is not just about image documentation.

It asks learners to ask themselves a few important questions before using and documenting images that were born digital.  

NoodleTools labels an image born digital if: it was created in digital form, or if you do not know where the image itself is physically stored. 

The poster suggests special scrutiny for digitally born visuals, including: comparing the images with others, checking for metadata, locating the white dot–reflection of the light source–in the eyes of people, and using shadows as a test of consistency.

But, OMG!

While this infographic is a fabulous teaching tool, discovering it led me to terrific instructional content in the NoodleTools’ Show Me^© Information Literacy resources.

This is high quality stuff, my friends.

Darn that Debbie Abilock!

I am going to have to update my entire Research Guide to incorporate this thoughtful content.

One of the smartest librarians I know, Debbie understands that assessing credibility is too complicated for the traditional checklist or acronym.

It’s contextual. It’s complicated. It’s about, as David Warlick advises, seeking information about your information.

It has to do with the researcher’s information need, the platform, the author’s authority, and so much more.

According to Debbie:

Genres have their own set of rules and norms that affect your questions.  Currency, for instance, raises different questions for sources even within the same discipline. In the humanities a “born digital” image is going to trigger a unique set of evaluative questions related to corroboration that are unlike those for a literary essay where the critic’s claims and the strength of his evidence, rather than currency and sourcing, are at the heart of your evaluation.

The resources include differentiated EMBEDABLE and PRINTABLE pages (11 sets for Advanced, 7 sets for Junior, 5 sets for Starter) on understanding how to identify a particular information source, how to assess its credibility, and how to document it.

You can also embed  widgets (http://www.noodletools.com/guide/showme/widget.html) in your own LibGuide or Web pages.

Source types covered vary depending on level.  The Advanced module includes instruction on the following:

For a better sense of what these look like embedded, here is the embedded Starter Show Me^© module on Websites;

the Junior module on images;

and the Advanced module on journals.

You are going to want to embed these on your own sites for September instruction!

See also Sandy and Media Literacy