The Big Six Skills approach to the information problem-solving process can be
used whenever you have an assignment or project that requires information. (And
most assignments and projects do!)
The Big Six Skills are: Define Task, Strategize, Locate, Use, Synthesize, and
Evaluate. To make it easier to remember, think of the Big Six in three stages:
Beginning, Middle, End.
Beginning: what do I have to do? What kind of information do I need to do it?
Middle: think about the best sources of information, then find and use them.
End: synthesize information and evaluate both the product and the process.
Apply the Big Six Skills approach by asking questions related to each task:
What is your assignment for this class?
What kind of product or performance is required?
Often your teacher will use key words in assignments, such as:
Analyze, Compare, Contrast, Define, Describe, Discuss, Evaluate, Explain,
Illustrate, Relate, Summarize. If you find these words in the assignment, they
will help you define your task.
In traditional library research papers task definition is selecting a topic,
finding background information, identifying issues, and narrowing the topic,
which then allows you to formulate research questions related to a hypothesis.
Determine range of possible sources and select search terms to use in
catalogs and indexes. There are two basic categories of sources of information:
text and human. Text includes books, magazines and CDROMS. Human sources include
television, radio, speeches, interviews.
In our library we have mostly text sources. Some resources have been set aside
in a reserve collection for use in the reference room. Think about what kind of
information you will need: facts, opinions, statistics, etc. and what kinds of
sources would be most appropriate for your particular need.
There are primary and secondary information sources. Primary sources include
experiments, observation, historic documents, etc. Secondary sources include
books, indexes, reference books, etc.
Once you have determined what the best sources would be, the next step is to
find them. For books you need to find the relevant Dewey Decimal classification
numbers. You will need to search the OPAC for books and CD ROM indexes for
magazine articles. The key to access within a resource is vocabulary. In a
minute we’ll come back to the topic of searching in electronic databases.
Use of information involves the application of information to meet your
defined task. Once you have found the sources you will need to extract relevant
information. The most common form of extracting information is note taking. You
can also highlight (in your own books) photocopy or download to a floppy
diskette. Be sure to document the source of the information. Later you will need
the source information for citing or creating a bibliography.
Synthesis is the integration of information drawn from multiple sources. Once
you feel you have enough information, begin to organize for your final product
or performance. Presentations may be written, visual or oral. (report, video,
poster, speech, etc.) Your presentation format may be determined by the teacher
as part of the beginning task definition.
Evaluation is making a judgment based on a set of pre-established criteria.
It is important that you make two judgments:
Determine how effectively the original task, as defined, was met, and assess the
efficiency of the entire information problem solving process. Both the end, as
well as the means, are important. You evaluate both the
product and the process you used to create it.
The phrases "Big Six Skills" and "Big Six Skills Curriculum"
are all copyrights of Michael B. Eisenberg and Robert E. Berkowitz. Permission
is granted for full educational use of these terms provided that recognition is
properly and duly noted. Permission is not granted for commercial use.
