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Information Literacy Habits of Mind (HOMs) Toolkit

Where Should I Search? It Depends

Context: This lesson plan comes from Project CORA. It is best suited to meet learning outcomes related to articulating the value of the open web compared to databases, or outcomes related to matching information needs with information tools.

Assessment: This lesson provides several opportunities for formative assessment (discussions and a handout), and the handout can be used for summative assessment if its collected and compared to other sections with similar outcomes.

Time: 30-45 minutes

This lesson is intended to illustrate that there are benefits and drawbacks to using content from both Google (the free web) and databases (deep web), and introduces students to skills needed to be able to distinguish open access and institutionally-paid-for resources.