Unit 9 - Evaluating Information

For my searches I used google and I looked up:

Information Literacy Kids

.COM:

"Children's Library." Childrens Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. http://ascplcl.wordpress.com/.

This seems credible because it is updated on a weekly basis and is written from library employees and is backed by the library.

.GOV

"Technology, 8.1 Educational Technology, E. Research and Information Literacy." Technology, 8.1 Educational Technology, E. Research and Information Literacy. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. http://www.nj.gov/education/cccs/standards/8/8-1-E.htm.

This website is the website for the New Jersey Government's Educational System. Its surely credible because it is a government site and it has all the laws and the standards for all of the new jersey state schools.

.EDU

"Standards." Information Literacy for K-16 Settings. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. http://www.csulb.edu/~lfarmer/infolitwebstyle.htm.

This website seems to be very legit. It was updated yesterday and so I know that it is very current. It is the link to a lesson plan and key points of understanding information literacy for some sort of class at California State University.

.ORG

"About Reading Rockets." Reading Rockets. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. http://www.readingrockets.org/about/.

This organization is a national multimedia literacy initiative offering information and resources on how young kids learn to read. it is clearly education based and has lots of resources. It is funded by a grant from the US department of Education.

Summary
I think that there is valuable information that you can get from looking at different level domains. If you wanted a quick answer about something wikipedia could answer I think .COM's are fine but if you want to find answers about some group specifically than it would be more proper to look at a .ORG web page. .EDU's are my favorite because most all have information that is aimed toward advancement of students, which will include researches done by other college level students along with much more. The most reliable and trustworthy seems to be a .GOV because it is backed by the government.

Unit 8 - Types of Information: Focus on Search engines and Web SItes

Search Tools:
Alta Vista
I chose to work with Alta Vista becasue I did not have any awareness about it, it was something that was new to me. It allows you to type your search statement with a boolean strategies. This search engine is an advanced searching database and allows you to search with keyword or date. It is powered and run through yahoo which gives it credibility. It gathers results based on the main topics of the search statement. It also uses automatic phrase detection if you forget to put something in quotes, it wouldn't matter.

Metasearch Tools:
Surfwax
This is a search engine that gathers its results from many other common web databases. It tries to interpret the meaning of what you want to say. I can type oba and it will assume that I am going to reference Obama because that is what is so commonly searched. Also, it would let me type ro+ry and would result in Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan because that is what is commonly searched when using those words, or in that case letters. It allows you to sort by relevance, alphabetical, or by source. It is a browser that is specifically looking at RSS sites and covers the last seven days searching through 140 different sites. After searching, you receive a description as well as what is know as "SiteSnaps" which provide the authors metatag and key related topics.

Subject Directory:
INFOMINE
The results in a subject directory like this are predetirmined. You are researching subject as opposed to statements. Scholars, librarians, and other professionals have handpicked results for each subject and that is where you are directed to. It pulls from many types of publications and resources including databases, electronic journals, electronic books, bulletin boards, listservs, online library card catalogs, articles, and directories of  researchers. It uses quotation marks to direct specific phrases, and it uses +/- symbols to indicate adding to or excluding from the subject.

Unit 7 - Types of Information: Focus on Periodicals

Search Statement:
storage AND (locat* OR place) AND internet AND (person* OR business) NOT (shop* OR purchas*)

Scholarly Journal:
Citation:
 Daenen, Koen, Bart Theeten, David Vanderfeesten, and Bart Vrancken. "The Personal Internet." Bell Labs Technical Journal 15.1 (2010): 3-21. EBSCO Host. EBSCO Industries, June 2010. Web. 5 Nov. 2012.
Credibility:
There are many authors which show that it is something that scholars have wrote together all agreeing and confirming the ideas with each other. It isn't based on popular culture and there is no bias, it is strictly fact based. There are also many references to the authors affiliations.

Popular Magazine:
Citation:

Jacobi, Jon L. "Easy, Low-Cost Network Storage for Everyday Use." PC World June 2007: 126-28. EBSCO Host. EBSCO Industries, June 2007. Web. 5 Nov. 2012.

Value:

This article is pretty great for my search question because it directs a consumer to different places that they can store all of the history for their Internet usage. It gives the reader an understanding of what is involved in storing data so it is also informative.

 

Newspaper:

Citation:

Delany, Kevin J. "Dumber PCs That Use The Net for Processing, Storage Get Hot Ndash; Again." Wall Street Journal 27 Dec. 2004, Eastern ed.: B1. Print.

Value:

This article is about the growing world of technology. It is making statements about how to create a system for Internet storage that is larger in storage but more compact. It is informative about how to stay ahead in technology.

 

Summary:

The main takeaway from the last couple of weeks is that there is so much information out there, and when you have a specific topic, not all of that information applies. Boolean strategies help you sift through all of the big rocks and find the fine small things that really relate to your topic. However, there is still work to be done, you can't rely on the idea that your Boolean techniques will give you exactly what you want, but it is just more efficient and more productive.