Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Blog Post 11


This semester, this library class had a lot of information taught and learned. The library ethnography was actually a useful assignment. It did teach me how to easily look up books in the library which I had not known before. I think this should be kept for future semesters. It was an easy assignment that helped give me the knowledge for looking the books up. I think the topics were taught at an equal and good time paste. I do understand that all the assignments given were for a purpose of learning, but I think that it was a bit too much work given for this class. But overall, the information taught in this class is and will be useful for all of my present and future classes. Some of the information taught I already had a basic knowledge of it or knew well, but of course there was some stuff I learned as well. The different formats we have learned are also going to be useful to future classes when doing papers and making sure I cite my sources. It is also important how to find credible sources when doing research papers. This will be a key concept that I have learned that will help me even more to make sure I do great research and do it correctly.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Facebookistan extra credit


The Facebook Show is talking about the controversial life and privacy issues about Facebook. In the Facebook verses Europe segment, the guy, Bob Garfield, and the lady, Brooke Gladstone, talks about how Europe is more sensitive about privacy concerning FB and how they made FB do changes. There was a guy that asked FB to give him all of his information dealing with FB. He realized how some of the data they gave him was not all of the data about him and that even post that he deleted was not deleted. It also talks about how FB deals with data and does not fully do what they are suppose to do. This also includes how FB collects data on non-members as well. And even because of all of this stuff going on, there have been many Europeans that have requested their data and now because of it, FB will make something where someone can get their data and they don’t have to be in Europe. They also speak on how FB needs to inform members of the data they are collecting and that if a person in college takes pictures that are not appropriate, and in the future wants to remove the pictures, they will disappear. We should definitely care about this and know that this is important because this can affect people in the future especially when they are trying to get a job. If a person has picture they want to remove, they should be able to remove them. And we have a right to know that FB is collecting data on us and to know the data that they are collecting. Another segment is talking about the like button. It explains the different aspects of the like button and why do we like things. Another segment is about FB fight against the epiphanator, and they this manufacture epiphanies. The guy talks about we befriend people to see our lives. The first segment relates to these two it is all about privacy. When the last one talks about befriending people, you are letting them know some of your private information you may put on there. The like button makes you keeps a count of your data and with this, it can be privacy. They all reflect a sense of privacy that FB does not know, but I guess they are or will.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Reviewing types of Sources


With a book as a source, a person will find background information on a specific topic and more in depth information. A book, depending on if it is creditable, is a great source to use in a research paper because I think you can’t go wrong with a book. If a person has a research paper on past events, a book would help more because of the background information and goes in to details on that subject. A person can use a book in their research very easily because of the information the book contains. There is so much information that a person can quote key incidents in the research topic. With a blog post, you can find a person’s opinion on the research topic. Depending on whom the person is and what your topic is about, a blog post can be a good source. If your research topic is about something medical and the blog post is by a well-known creditable medical doctor, you can use that doctor’s blog post in your research paper. You can find an expert on a subject by scholarly journal articles. You will have good information as far as research on the specific topic. It can also be a great source if you are looking at recent topics because you have an expert’s ideas on that topic. You can use them as important parts to your research paper as well. With Wikipedia, you can also find background information on a specific topic and details on it. I think the only reason that makes it a bad source is because anyone can write and edit an article. Other than that, Wikipedia can be used in your research paper by just using some general information about the topic. 

Monday, October 29, 2012

In class assignment 10/29

How I found the Medical article:

  • went to library homepage
  • clicked on Galileo and Databases
  • clicked on search 
  • copied and pasted the title of the article in the search bar
  • it was the first link 
  • clicked on the email tab and emailed it

Homework 10/29

An annotated bibliography is a list of books or articles with notes, which includes a summary of the sources. An annotated bibliography consists of three major parts, which are a citation, a summary and an annotation. With the citation, it just consists of about one or two lines, depending on which citation the professor wants. The summary is no more than a few sentences, while the annotation is the rest of the annotated bibliography. This is when I include most of my information about the topic. I would say how and why the annotated bibliography is important and how it relates and ties into my research topic. I believe the reason why you want us to write an annotated bibliography is because as the guy in the video said, it makes us do our research early and we learn how to do research selectively and carefully. And of course, we learn about how to correctly research topics. It helps us learn about our topic further and the research that has already been done. Another thing it helps with is preparing us for a research project. If we do this, we have an idea of where we want to go and more details on our research project.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Blog 10/24


The topics we have covered in this class have been additional information on things that I have learned in another class. In college, the professors, especially the English professors, have pushed plagiarism into the students mind in order for them not to plagiarize. It is important because there are serious consequences for plagiarism in college and I believe the professors try to avoid those in order to help the students. With library research, these topics are all related as far as looking up information the correct way. With the knowledge learned in this class, applying it to other classes will be simple. The information learned is basic knowledge for all types of research that should be applied. The information is not hard but it is a lot of information to know and keep in mind when doing research. If a person does not follow the guidelines of the basic information, it depends on the severity of it and what can be done to handle the situation. Because we are in college now, we are considered adults and our consequences for bad actions are more severe than what it would be if we were still in high school. These are basic skills people should know and apply to all types of research. I have a clear understanding and I have no questions.  

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Sunday, October 21, 2012

October 17th Homework


The Trouble for Elsevier snippet is about the cost of scholarly articles and how it started a major boycott. It is talking about how scholarly articles are being restricted and that universities pay too much to get the articles but it takes too long to get it to the readers. They want librarians to boycott for-profit scholarly articles. The New England Journal of Medicine snippet is about the Journal of Medicine’s 200th anniversary. The lady talks to the editor and chief about its highs and lows of the Journal including the mistakes they have made over the years. He said that the first treatment of leukemia is one of the published achievements. The Changing Nature of Knowledge snippet is about how the nature of knowledge is shifting on the internet. The guy talking states that knowledge over the internet is turning in to big contradictory connections that travel on forever, that the facts are not the facts anymore, and that the facts do not solve disputes anymore, but the nature of knowledge is more open and has a bigger horizon than it did. How these articles relate to each other is that knowledge is attained to write this journal and scholarly articles. How knowledge is shifting today because of the internet is how some of the scholarly articles are trying to make a profit off of them and that the horizon of knowledge has grown over the years is how the New England Journal’s successes increases by the more informed and better quality of information they write about. I was quite bored listening to these snippets but I can say it was quite informal. These stories definitely have to do with me as an undergrad student because I am in the society where the nature of knowledge is growing and how some of my research is or might be limited because of the major companies trying to make a profit. And for my field of study the Journal of Medicine is a great way of me keeping up with information around the world in the medical field.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Plagiarism vs Copyright


Plagiarism to me is when someone takes another person’s work(s) and uses it for their own benefit without giving the original owner credit. Even if a person rewords someone else’s work and does not give credit to the original author, it is still a form of plagiarism. Some people reword the works and cite the owner but only changes a few words are still considered plagiarism. If a person truly rewords someone else’s work and puts the information in their own words and give the owner credit is not plagiarism. The difference between plagiarism and copyright violation is basically the law is involved. Plagiarism is just a form of being dishonest. A copyright violation is a violation of law and can be an end result of being sued and fined. It is very hard to tell the difference and I thought in order for something to be copyrighted a person has to trademark whatever it is, which is not the case anymore. An example of plagiarism that is not a copyright violation is when a person is writing a paper and uses someone else’s work as their own without giving credit. An example of a copyright violation that is not plagiarism is the case of the Ohio Marching band where the song they did was well known and assumed everyone knew it and made it their own is copyrighted. Because they didn’t buy the rights to do the song is a violation and they could be sued.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Jumping into a Conversation


If I wanted to join a conversation to show that I know the topic at which the people are talking about, I would gently say “Excuse me, but I overheard you talking about (the subject the people are talking about). I (and whatever it is that I know about the topic).” When I actually do jump into a conversation, I turn to the person or people and smile and just ease my way into the conversation. If I know what I’m talking about, then the information will just flow out easily and the people would understand what I am talking about and they really wouldn’t mind that I eased my way into the conversation. You really can’t just “jump” into a conversation that you were not in originally. If a person just “jumped” into a conversation I was having with another person or people, I would be kind of annoyed because they were not in the conversation in the first place. That is why I say you have to ease into a conversation not jump in. I know some people may know what they are talking about, but the information does not flow easily, but if the information seems correct and makes sense then, I wouldn’t mind because that’s more information than I knew and they didn’t just “jump” in the conversation; they eased in the conversation.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Filter Bubbles With Different Databases


I think that filter bubbles can be in the different databases. I do think that no one really takes the time to delete website searches, cookies, passwords, and other things that were said on the webpage about how to get rid of the filter bubbles. When students or just people in general use the databases in the library, they do not think to delete what they search for. I am not sure if the librarians or other people that work in the library take the time out to delete the history and the other stuff, but they all build up and I think Google or any of the other search engines do the filters and I think the search engines limit future searches even more. I personally have not noticed any searches, but I think if I, or someone else, were to bring their personal laptop to the library and search the same topic on their laptop and the computer in the library, I do believe that there would be different searches. I still think that it is crazy how the simple research Pariser did with his friends is a great example of the filter bubbles and I think if someone did the same simple research with different library databases and home computers or laptops will yield the same results as Pariser, different results for the same topic. 

Monday, October 1, 2012

Filter Bubbles

Filter bubbles can be good and bad at the same time. The good thing about filter bubbles is that it is basically catered to what us as an individual research about or look up. The bad thing about filter bubbles is that we don’t even choose our filter bubbles. Eli Pariser said that search engines like Google and Yahoo and even Netflix and Facebook do the filters for us as individuals. I think it is horrible that we don’t even get a say on what we would want to filter our search on. Some people probably would not want to have filter bubbles, but because people do not know about it, they cannot say anything about it. I think just the simple research that Pariser did as far as have some friends look for a specific topic, which was Egypt. The fact that two of his friends had different results is not cool at all. I think it is crazy that this is actually happening and we do not have a say in what gets filters for us. When trying to do research for any type of topic, even if a person is just looking for some simple quick information, they will not get all the information. The filter bubbles stop people from getting all the possible information they could obtain for that specific topic. With academic research especially, we as students or individuals, are researching to get all types of information for that topic, but if there are filter bubbles, we can’t get all the information which could make a difference for a grade of a B to an A, or just well-rounded knowledge on that specific topic. I think the page that Ms. Pashia had on this assignment is a good way to get rid of the filter bubbles and it turns out that I have already been eliminating filter bubbles because I randomly clear out my history and delete cookies and do some of the other things that are on the site. I would definitely suggest that people should do this in order to eliminate these filter bubbles.

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Reflection of My Research Topic


I still think that my research question needs to be more defined or updated where I can more information as well as correct and effective information , now that I think about it. I have a general topic that is not too broad and not specific, but I think that it is not fully helping me get a better understanding of my topic. I believe my topic is a good topic; the big issue is that I can go so many ways with it and I need to be even more specific than I am now. Because my major is biology, I am looking at the biological aspect of viruses in the United States and since there are so many viruses, I do not want to just limit my search to one or two, but get a general concept that is not too general. I still have a lot of work to do as far as making my research question the best research question for this project and doing more research as well to help answer my research question.  So in the end, I need to define my research question more in order to better my research for my topic. 

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Applying Skills to Other Classes


I have already had a basic knowledge of some of the information we learned in class. This class is just enhancing the knowledge I already knew for researching. I have learned more about how to search for sources that are more useful and creditable. With this knowledge, I will be able to redefine my search for other classes I may have to do research for. This will help me get better information on the topic at hand. It also helps me understand and know what sources are good sources to use and has a good amount of information that will help with my topic. I used Galileo once in high school and now, I know more about it and how to use it. So if I come across a subject in another class, I know that Galileo can be a good source for that topic. I already knew how to cite my sources because high school and college has drilled plagiarism into my head and that I need to cite my sources so that I will not get in trouble for it. I have been taught to cite the sources and especially cite them correctly. So as far as today, I already knew a lot of stuff, this class just helped better my understanding.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

High School Library vs. College Library

I never used my high school library unless I really had to. Even when I had to use my high school library, it was not for getting books so I cannot compare my high school library to my college library. The one thing about my high school library is that the library did not have a big selection to choose from. Before my high school was remodeled, there were huge gaps on the shelves where books should be. When my school was remodeled there were more books, but there still was not a big variety. I even asked some of my friends that were in the library and they said they really could not find what they are looking for. With college, I have not had to look for books until this class and the process is quick and easy. The only thing is that when I actually look for a book it can get kind of confusing because of the letters and numbers. When I was looking for a specific book for the research project, the book I was looking for was not completely in the right spot, but that could have been from a student. How the books were organized and arranged was confusing as well. The way to get books are simple and easy but when you actually have to find it was a little confusing.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

September 10 Homework

My group members and I decided to make our project about the health viruses that are occurring in the word, especially in the United States. I went to the librarian at the front desk for help with some possible options on books for our topic. I started off with a lot of options. There were so many good sources but I narrowed it down to the top four based on the title and the subjects of the books. I looked at all four of them. Two of the books were on Galileo so I looked those up as well. I did an overview of the two books that were in the library and on Galileo. I narrowed my search to the two sources online, mainly because they were more recent than the books on the shelves. The two electronic books were Viruses and Human Disease by James H. Strauss and Ellen G. Strauss and Human Viruses in Water by Albert Bosch. After I chose these two options I read them completely and it was very hard to choose just one that would be best for our topic because they both had recent and up to date information that will be used. They both dealt specifically with human viruses, but still had information that showed where viruses can be, like in the water. People need to be aware of things like this and both of these sources gave me great insight on it. I think both of the books are beneficial to our research in different ways, but still coincides with one another. 

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Interviewing an upperclassman


When interviewing my friend who’s an upperclassman, he had a lot of similarities I had. This is my third year at the West Georgia and I know a few things about papers, projects, and all other assignments given by college professors. We agreed on the same things. First, all assignments including research papers are completely different in college than high school. It was funny how my other upperclassmen friends and I agreed that high school did not prepare us for college. With research papers in high school, we did not have to do much, but look online and cite our sources. In college, there is a lot more work. I personally have not had to do a research paper yet but my friend said it was not as simple as high school research papers. My friend said his professor did not really give him any limitations on how to research the topic other than to use credible sources and cite the sources correctly when writing the paper. Although they basically could do whatever they wanted with their papers, the professor had specific questions they had to answer and he said those questions made the paper difficult besides looking for multiple credible sources. Overall he said the paper was an okay paper and he got an okay grade. He said it was a lot of work and that if he started as soon as he got it, he might have gotten a better grade and it might have been just a little bit easier.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Library Ethnography Project

http://www.slideshare.net/acs589/library-ethnography-project    In this project, I took pictures and I found the book we were looking for.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Redefining My Research Question

I will redefine my research question by first looking at different aspects of the general topic. Once I narrow them down I will choose which one has the best and more information on the specific topic. I am not sure of exactly what I want to do it on, I will need to do more research in order to be more clear and to choose which specific topic I want to research on. After that, I will make my question more specific, but not too specific.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Major Health Viruses

Our topic is based on the major health viruses of today. One main example of a major health virus is the West Nile Virus. This outbreak is the biggest outbreak in the US and there are many concerns people need to know and how to protect themselves. Because my major is Biology this interests me in a sense that many people are dying because so many people do not have any symptoms or are getting sick. Looking more in dept into the biological aspects and more importantly how it affects people, children in particular, is the approach I am going to take in researching our topic.