An ePortfolio with information on Missy Paulin Martinez and examples of the work she has created as a student of the School of Information Resources and Library Science at the University of Arizona.


Teaching Internet Use: a School Librarian Shows the Importance of Critical Thinking

Using the Internet takes a leap of faith.  Sometimes, however, that leap of faith turns into a swift fall into a canyon of misinformation.  For new students, deciphering accurate, factual information from the slightly inaccurate, wildly inaccurate and just plain weird is a (not so funny) comedy of errors. How do you know it's factual?  What do you look for -- misspelled words, bad grammar, weird statistics?  And more importantly, when you're searching in a second or third language from your own, how can you spot the inconsistencies so blatant to a native reader?The New York Times recently published an article about school librarians, with a description of how school librarian Stephanie Rosalia teaches students to search for information online.Ms. Rosalia, the school librarian at Public School 225, a combined elementary and middle school in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, urged caution. "Don't answer your questions with the first piece of information that you find," she warned.Most of the students ignored her, as she knew they would. But Nozimakon Omonullaeva, 11, noticed something odd on a page about Christopher Columbus. "It says the Indians enjoyed the cellphones and computers brought by Columbus!" Nozimakon exclaimed, pointing at the screen. "That's wrong."

Missy Martinez stands in front of the spires at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington

Missy Martinez...

graduates in May 2009 from SIRLS at the University of Arizona.
Her library career track is Information Professional, with an emphasis on technology. Her undergraduate degree from Gonzaga University is in English and Philosophy.