Jp3166's Blog

Blog Response 7

jp3166 — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 22:51:58 +0000

This reading is about the validity of Primary Sources. Primary sources are eye witness accounts of historical events. Some examples of Primary documents include; letters, journals, and diaries. The author of these Primary Sources needs to be thoroughly examined before these sources can be deemed an accurate depiction of past events.

I learned a great deal from this article. I always took the accuracy of Primary Sources for granted, however, Eicher points out that these sources validity can sometimes be in jeopardy. For example, during the Civil War Newspaper Reports maliciously and purposely distorted facts that misguided their audience’s on several aspects of the War. After reading this article I am without a doubt more skeptical about Primary Sources and their validity.

The reading is extremely relevant to what we are learning in class. Our library has a comprehensive Special Collections department that is comprised of several Primary Sources. I can definitely apply what I learned in this article to my life. For future research, if I ever come across a Primary Source, I will be weary of its truthfulness before I include it in my research. If I was a History major this article would definitely be beneficial to me, but I’m not a history major; however, I am intrigued by history. Consequently, I will keep the information I learned in this article on hand when learning about the past through the perspective of a Primary Source.

Definition set 5

jp3166 — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:10:18 +0000

Primary Source- An original, authentic source commonly used for reference

Secondary Source-Any document that describes a person, place, thing, or event

Tertiary Source-Any summary or compilation of secondary and primary sources

Archives-A place where historical documents are stored for future reference

Special Collections- Library collections that are segregated from general library collections for several reasons such as; historical importance, age, relevance

*Note, all above definitions provided by dictionary.com

Definitions Set 4

jp3166 — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:17:17 +0000

Open Access- A policy of allowing accessibility to all individuals for various types of work. There are no requirements or qualifications that need to be satisfied in order for open access to occur.
Annotation- An explanatory passage that is used to describe a work cited for a paper.
Citation- The act of quoting a reference to an authority for the purpose of establishing the validity of the cited source.
Scope- The Extent, or range of view, an application may be subjected to.
Authority- The power to resolve, or determine the outcome of issues.

*Note- All above definitions provided by Dictionary.com

Blog Response 6

jp3166 — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 22:53:27 +0000

This article deals with the ever-evolving ambiguity that surrounds the doctrine of, ” Fair Use” . In several cases it is seemingly impossible to dictate what works are deemed suitable to be protected under the “Fair Use” doctrine and what works aren’t. This problem is addressed by the article first hand. Jon Else a prestigious Filmmaker copes with this predicament. Much to his dismay he wasn’t permitted to show a certain work that rightfully should have been protected under the “Fair Use” doctrine. This article tells his story and ultimately, why he wasn’t allowed to show that 4.5 second clip of a Simpson’s episode.

I took a Business Law class last semester, so I was pretty familiar with the Fair Use doctrine. The article just helped to apply and support this idealogy by providing a real life example.

The reading is extremely relevant to what we are learning in class. We just talked about Intellectual Property: Trade names, Copyrights, Patents, and Trademarks. This article provides a doctrine that affects Copyrights; more importantly how that doctrine served its purpose, and the ambiguity’s behind it that enabled it to do so.

I can definitely apply this article to my life and what I have read in class. In a growing digital age it is inevitable that Intellectual Property and the laws that help protect it will affect myself and society as a whole; if not now, definitely sometime in the future.

Database Searching

jp3166 — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 22:14:28 +0000

For my popular/scholarly article search I chose a process similar to the one used for my previous searches. Ebscohost is an extremely comprehensive database that I have had luck with in the past. It’s an easy to use step-by-step database that simplifies the searching process.

I used the same keywords throughout the search ( Digital Age and Pira*). My first search had around three hundred results. I was satisfied with number of results and their relevance but I needed to narrow my search for Scholarly Articles. Conveniently enough Ebscohost has an icon that allows you to make this distinction. All you need to do is place a check in the box, ” Scholarly/Peer Reviewed Articles”. That search took me down to ten results, all of which were relevant to my search topic.

After performing this search I realized that there are several factors that contribute to a successful search. Mainly, a good database. Regardless of the searchers skill; it is advantageous to select an efficient, comprehensive, easy to use database when conducting searches on the web. Ebscohost contains all of those components plus many more. I will continue to use it in the future and recommend its use to classmates.

Blog Response 5

jp3166 — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 01:04:02 +0000

This article compares and contrasts website(s) from the internet. The article talks about situations when each could be used properly. As well there are several myths that surround; websites, the internet, databases etc… Several of those myths are clarified in this article.

I had the misconception that search engines search the entire web for material for any particular search. Sherman and Price point out that most search engines are comprised of only about 20%-50% of the material on the web.

This article is extremely relevant to what we are learning in class. Along with necessary strategies and techniques that need to be developed and practiced when searching the web there also needs to be a general understanding of the web. Any supplemential information about the web and its complexities is very beneficial. Many people are naive to several of the functions of the web. They have the notion that when you log on to a search engine you are searching the entire web, when in fact you’re not. This article clarifys many of those misunderstandings. I will definitely use what I learned in this article in future searches on the web.

Searching

jp3166 — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:19:55 +0000

-Start off with a basic keyword search to narrow your results.

-If your results aren’t what your looking for narrow your search further by doing one or all of the following; look up synonyms that relate to your keyword, try boolean searches, try subject searches, use truncation and proximity searches.

-Dont get discouraged, keep trying.

-Start off with a basic keyword search. Using synonmyns for your topic will allow you to narrow your search.

-If you cant get the results that you need, resort to the Advanced Search. This search is self explanatory and very easy to use.

-Dont give up! Google is a very large search engine with several resources.

3. Google is a world renowned search engine used by a variety of people several thousands times a day. Google is very accurate. Google is also very efficient and easy to use, even for the rookie searchers. However there is a downside to Google. Some of the Websites that Google lists in order of relevance are of little authority and sometimes are irrelevant to your searh.

Google has developed a logorithm for how they place websites in relevance on their search engine. This logorithm takes into account how many times that website in particular has been hit on another website(besides Google). This ultimatley undermines the relevance of some searches and is one of the bad attributes of Google.

Blog Response 4

jp3166 — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:34:28 +0000

This reading is about conducting research in an efficient, timely manner that will maximize the researcher’s knowledge on the topic he or she is researching. This article provides several useful tips to utilize when conducting research. Prioritizing the relevance of research topics is difficult for many researchers; this article seeks to clarify that task.
This article suggests using post –it notes to prioritize relevant information while conducting research. I plan on using this tip in the future.
The information is relevant to what we are currently learning in class. It will prove to be very helpful when we have to write our annotative bibliographies.
Yes, I can apply what I have learned in this article to being a student. The article doesn’t address how to do research; it addressed how to do effective, efficient research. As a student I’m always seeking to further develop my research skills and this article did just that.

Blog response 3

jp3166 — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 21:58:16 +0000

This article provides useful research tips that help prevent scholars from plagiarizing works when doing research. It offers research tips on how to cite work correctly, and provides examples of work that have been correctly paraphrased. This allows the reader to distinguish between works that are plagiarized and works that aren’t plagiarized.
This article recommended highlighting author’s quotations and direct ideas when incorporating them into your own notes for research. I feel that this suggestion will be very helpful for me when conducting research in the future.
The information is extremely relevant to class on information and research. In those types of classes you will paraphrasing, summarizing, using citations… etc. This article covered all those topics subjecting them to circumstances that exhibit plagiarism.
Yes, of course I can apply what I learned in this article to life. This article furthered my knowledge on proper techniques that may be used for future research
Yes, this relates to the citations that we are currently learning.

Definitioins set 3

jp3166 — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:37:38 +0000

Peer Review- Evaluation of a persons work by a group of people.

Stop Word- A frequently used word that is not indexed in webpage’s.

Databases- A collection of data arranged for a better ease of search.

Citation Databases- Multidisciplinary databases of bibliographic information.

Abstract Databases- A collection of databases in a specialized subject area.

Full-Text Databases- Databases containing the entirety of a specific source.

Wikis- Web pages that groups of people can edit together.

Interlibrary Loan- System upon which one library obtains work for a user by borrowing it from another library.

Worldcat- A Global catalog of library collections.

Microfiche- A flat sheet of microfilm in a form suitable for recording averaging in size at 4 inches by 6 inches.

Microfilm- A film on which printed materials are photographed and reduced to size for easy storage of a large quantity of information.

Boolean Operators- Define the relationship between words or groups of words.

* Note all above definitions provided by Dictionary.com