Abstract
The explosion of Generative AI tools, led with the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, has dramatically changed the ways in which information can be created, accessed and disseminated. This, in turn, has seen a shift in how information literacy sessions need to be approached within academia. Whilst the triumvirate of core concepts (resource discovery, information evaluation and source acknowledgement) remain central, it is the middle of these three which has risen to the forefront in terms of how students approach AI generated content.
Despite this we are still relying on evaluation frameworks created for the internet and social media ages that are no longer fit for an information landscape where GenAI tools present “content” that is devoid of the context of a source (Woods 2023; Blechinger 2023).
The CRAAP Test (Blakeslee 2004) and similar checklist approaches to information evaluation have come under more and more scrutiny in recent years (Seeber 2017; Fielding 2019; Bull, MacMillan and Head 2021; Sye and Thompson 2023; Kamela 2024), yet they remain at the forefront of academic libraries’ approaches to teaching on this aspect of information literacy. An investigation of 79 UK university websites shows that 90% of the approaches being recommend to students for evaluating information remain based on checklists.
Therefore, it has been important to consider why these approaches persist and how we can model the positive aspects of them in any new framework for evaluating information in the GenAI age.
As such the TRYangle Approach has been developed, tying together the key aspects of previous models such as SIFT (Caulfield 2019) and CCOW (Tardiff 2022), alongside newer approaches and ideas such as Bull, MacMillan and Head’s (2021) concept of “proactive evaluation” and the importance of developing confidence and an enquiring mindset (Dawkins and Legrand 2024). The result is a diagrammatical framework upon which students can hang their development of understanding around these key areas, enabling effective evaluation of information from any type of source.
Within a mindset that encourages students to have the confidence to “question everything” sits the Evaluation TRYangle, made up of these 3 interconnected areas:
• Test & Check – using lateral searching techniques to explore the reliability of the source, creators and the information presented
• Retrieval Method – understanding that it is as important to consider why and how the information is being presented to you as it is the content itself
• Your Global Self – appreciating the reader’s own place within the information exchange and how what they bring to the evaluation process can impact upon the usefulness of the resources that are discovered
Those attending this session will get a clear understanding of how the approach has been developed and how it can be used to teach students effective evaluation techniques, as well as having the opportunity to provide feedback ahead of research activities taking place with students to formally assess its effectiveness.
References
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BLECHINGER, J., 2023. Reflections on Information Literacy in the ChatGPT Era. Pathfinder: A Canadian Journal for Information Science Students and Early Career Professionals, 4(1)
BULL, A.C., MACMILLAN, M. and HEAD, A.J., 2021. Dismantling the Evaluation Framework [viewed 28 August 2025]. Available from: https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2021/dismantling-evaluation/
CAULFIELD, M., 2019. SIFT (The Four Moves) [viewed 28 August 2025]. Available from: https://hapgood.us/2019/06/19/sift-the-four-moves/
DAWKINS, V. and S. LEGRAND, 2024. Cultivating critical information evaluation through motivational confidence: An exploratory crosswalk analysis. Journal of Information Literacy, 18(2)
FIELDING, J.A., 2019. Rethinking CRAAP: Getting students thinking like fact-checkers in evaluating web sources. College & Research Library News, (December), 620–622
KAMELA, M., 2024. Cut the CRAAP: Replacing vertical evaluation with lateral reading. New directions for teaching and learning, 2024(180), 49–58
SEEBER, K., 2017. Wiretaps and CRAAP [viewed 02 September 2025]. Available from: https://kevinseeber.com/blog/wiretaps-and-craap/
SYE, D. and D. THOMPSON, 2023. Tools, Tests, and Checklists: The Evolution and Future of Source Evaluation Frameworks. Journal of New Librarianship, 8(1), 76–100
TARDIFF, A.B., 2022. Have a CCOW: A CRAAP Alternative for the Internet Age, Journal of Information Literacy, 2022-Jun. Journal of Information Literacy, 16(1), 119–130
WOODS, L., 2023. AI chat tools and information literacy. In: Information Literacy Group Blog. 21 February [viewed 02 September 2025]. Available from: https://infolit.org.uk/ai-chat-tools-and-information-literacy-laura-woods/
