Information Literacy

1. Biographical Assignment

Find information about two of the authors of your sources, it doesn't matter which authors or which sources. Look for things like birth/death dates, professional information such as jobs held, publications, awards won, etc. Find out anything you can about each author and write up 1/2 page biography on each one. The full length should be one page for both authors. If you go a little over, that's ok.

How do you find out? Google them, look at your sources for biographical information, check a reference source, do they have a blog/facebook account, etc.? See if you can stalk them with your iphone apps (kidding, obviously).

2. Blog assignment

We've looked at various types of sources. Some were found using the library catalog, including call numbers, specialized subject headings, etc. Some were found using periodical databases, with their own structures and subject terms. Some were found using web search engines such as Google, with keywords and a proprietary algorithm.

What could you possibly say about all this? Come up with something. How do you adjust your searching based on the tool you're using? How does the way information is structured/presented change how you relate to/use it? Can you think of an example in or out of class where the way information was structured/presented really helped or hindered you? Post your comment below.

Wurman - Generally acknowledged as the originator of the term.

Tufte - One of the key names in visualizing information

Flowing data - a website devoted to improving information visualization

Spread of walmart video

For the following two items, I'm not so much interested in whether you think this technology is cool, but rather that you think about the effect of the way information is presented on how we process and use it.

Newsweek article about zooming technology

Zooming technology videol

Another take on similar technology from Adobe.

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Follow up from last week: pay for research and pay to read about it!

Posted by GB at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

1. Find ONE QUALITY WEBSITE and ONE BLOG on your topic and write an MLA citation and an annotation for each. Evaluation questions for your annotations are here.

2. Primary/Secondary source assignment: Evaluate each of the sources you've found so far on your topic, and decide whether each is a primary source or a secondary source. Briefly describe WHY this is the case. If you forget what these things are, check here. Type this into a word document and email it to me as an attachment.

3. The links below deal in one way or another with the copyright issues we discussed in class. Comment on one, any combination, or all of them. Offer your opinion, reaction, or questions raised by the links in a few sentences.

Lawrence Lessig at TED
More recent Lessig video.

Creative Commons

Average person infringes 12.45 million dollars of copyright per day, technically.

Plagiarism tutorial

Schmaily Schmow

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Follow up from last week (also related to copyright issues)

Posted by GB at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)

1. Find 1 SCHOLARLY, 1 POPULAR, and 1 NEWSPAPER article on your topic, and write citations and annotations for each.

*NONE OF THE 3 ARTICLES MAY BE FROM THE PERIODICAL'S WEBSITE. YOU SHOULD BE USING LIBRARY DATABASES STARTING HERE. Some tips on how to find articles on a specific topic can be found at this page.

Here are the definitions of the different types of periodicals.

Here is a short video explaining how to find scholarly articles using the EBSCO database.

2. Blog assignment - comment on any/all of the items listed below.

Interview with news veteran Av Westin

Videos from class:
Newspapers clip
Magazines
Alisa Miller at TED
Open Access
Public Library of Science

Posted by GB at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (19)

Thesis statements should be posted to the blog during class. If you don't do this for some reason, it becomes homework.

REMINDER: For #1 and #2 below, please email the assignment to me as an attachment in Microsoft Word. If you have questions, ask them.

1. Find one Reference Book, and one Book (this will most likely be the one you brought to class already) on your topic. Write an MLA citation and an annotation for each.

What to put in all of your annotations. This is a minimum requirement. If you have more to say, say it.

1. What is the content of the source? What is it about? What does it say?

2. Who is responsible for creating the source? What is their background in the topic?

3. Why did you choose the source for your project? How does it relate to your thesis statement?

2. List 10 terms on your topic, and write your own brief definitions for each as discussed in class. There is no worksheet for this, just type them up.

Some ways to generate your terms:

a. Look at your topic/questions/thesis. Which words from these get to the core of what you’re looking for? List them, they are relevant keywords.

b. Look at your book. What is the title, what are chapter titles, section headings,etc.? Which words from these
get to the core of what you’re looking for? List them, they are relevant keywords.

c. Look at the Minerva(catalog) record for your book. What are the official subject headings for this book?
Which words from these get to the core of what you’re looking for? List them, they are relevant keywords.

3. Read and/or watch Privacy/Security material provided below and respond with a comment under this post.

Comment on what we discussed in class or any other aspects of privacy and information, the internet, etc.

Below are links to some things we discussed in class and some extras to get your ideas flowing.

Read or watch as many of these as time/interest allows:

www.epic.org

Locational privacy - what is it and why is it important?

iphone and privacy

So many pixels

Why "I've got nothing to hide, so it doesn't matter" isn't a valid response. Related: Franz Kafka Airport.

$40 for confidential U.S. government contract data in Ghana

Demetri Martin piece about MySpace

Warren and Brandeis article in Harvard Law Review

Posted by GB at 01:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)

Please post your draft thesis statements as a comment under this post.

Posted by GB at 01:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)

1. Choose a topic for your annotated bibliography, and list three questions you would like to answer about the topic. Post this as a comment under this entry.

2. Using Minerva (library catalog), find one book on your topic and bring it to class next week.

3. Read/watch this article and the attached videos, think about it and what you have to do to get the information you need, and post a short paragraph response to it below.

Posted by GB at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (36)