![\"cover_header\"](\"https:\/\/blog.oclc.org\/next\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/cover_header.jpg\")
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We asked students to identify the types of containers from which online information is taken. Information containers can be important, obviously, because they provide critical context when evaluating the quality of sources. One said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThis one looks like a\u2014wait, I can\u2019t tell what that is, but it looks like a book.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Wait. It\u2026 looks like a book? Let\u2019s try again:<\/p>\n \u201cPretty sure it had an ISBN number. It\u2019s an article. Oh, no, books usually have\u2014well, you can download the entire book or download the chapter. So, I\u2019m thinking it’s a book. And it doesn\u2019t have the edition, but I kind of want to say it\u2019s a book about this book.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n That\u2019s closer, but we can do better.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When our team introduced the idea of container collapse<\/a>\u2014the challenge students face in evaluating online information when the context provided by print containers is removed\u2014we pointed out that students both believe that it\u2019s important to know the container from which information comes and that they struggle to identify those containers online. On average, elementary students correctly identified 37% of containers, middle school students 47%, high school students 51%, community college students 48%, undergraduate students 60%, and graduate students 63%.<\/p>\n Did you catch that? Even graduate students could only identify the container of online content about two-thirds of the time.<\/p>\nAlways judge a book by its cover. #OCLCnext <\/a><\/span>Share on X<\/a><\/span>\n We may think that the cover of a book doesn\u2019t matter. But that famous phrase, \u201cNever judge a book by its cover,\u201d really applies to people. Don\u2019t decide how to treat strangers, friends, and colleagues based on their appearance. In that context, it\u2019s great advice.<\/p>\n When it comes to information resources? Not so much.<\/p>\n It turns out that we should judge books by their covers\u2026 but also by many more types of contextual cues that can not only help us get better at identifying containers but also at evaluating the quality of information.<\/p>\n So, the question becomes: how can we help students get better at doing it?<\/p>\n Literary theorist Gerard Genette identified paratext as everything related to an information item that is not part of the content proper. A reader of the Lord of the Rings<\/em> trilogy, for example, might consult the maps at the beginning of the books, the appendices at the end, or even the notes that Tolkien made when writing them to better understand the story.<\/p>\n Paratext is divided into two types: epitext and peritext. Epitext<\/strong> describes other items that refer to or point back to the item; book reviews, author interviews, and critical interpretation are classic examples. In the digital age, hyperlinks to the item in other items, retweets, and fan fiction, among others, have also become important types of epitext.<\/p>\n Peritext<\/strong> describes elements of an item that are not part of the text proper: like the title, author, chapter headings, preface, and (you guessed it) the cover. These elements package information in ways that help readers determine whether and how to engage with it.<\/p>\n Teaching students how to evaluate and identify not only which elements of peritext tend to appear in different containers, but also how the types of peritext are handled differently from one container to another, provides them a framework for thinking systematically about where the information they are evaluating has come from.<\/p>\n That\u2019s where the Peritextual Literacy Framework comes in.<\/p>\n The Peritextual Literacy Framework<\/a> (PLF) was developed by Melissa Gross and Don Latham to help \u201csupport research, professional practice, and information literacy education.\u201d We invited Melissa to talk about her work<\/a> at a recent project team meeting for Researching Students\u2019 Information Choices (RSIC): Determining Identity and Judging Credibility in Digital Spaces<\/a>, an IMLS-funded collaboration of partners from OCLC<\/a>, the University of Florida<\/a>, and Rutgers University<\/a>.<\/p>\n The PLF provides students with a structure for analyzing and weighing the elements of an item that may help them to determine the items\u2019 container type. The PLF identifies six types of peritext<\/a>:<\/p>\nContainer collapse<\/h2>\n
Some background: paratext, epitext, and peritext<\/h2>\n
Six types of peritext<\/h2>\n