I chose to search Merlot from the list of “official” sites and You Tube from the open list. I searched both of these using the phrase “information literacy”. I hadn’t used Merlot before and found it easy enough to search, but a lot of the resources I found were codes of practice, protocols, competency standards, details of research projects etc. as opposed to actual reusable teaching resources. Eventually I found an information literacy game which I thought was fun up to a point, but I didn’t agree with much of the content! Also it was very specific to the University of North Carolina, who had developed it and it would have taken quite a lot of time to re-work it. Another criticism of Merlot is that it appears to be pretty US biased.
I found my You Tube search to be much more satisfying and successful. I immediately found a great video from the University of Sheffield explaining to students what a difference information literacy skills can make to their success. The first half of the video was very generic and could be used with our students immediately or we could make our own with a bit of time and resource. Obviously one limitation of You Tube is that the resources you find there are all videos, but there are no accessibility issues for students. I like to use videos in short snatches to back up a point I am making and also provide a change of activity or change the pace of the session so this is a resource I come back to again and again for ideas.
Behavioural and Social Sciences Subject Librarian at the University of Huddersfield.