I usually check up on my posts, and I just noticed that I mistakenly attached the wrong file for my second library/archive report. Please pardon my mistake. Please click on the link to view my second library/archive report:
CopyofLearningPlacesLibraryArchiveReport-2
Please click on the link to view my second library/archive report:
CopyofLearningPlacesLibraryArchiveReport-2
Reading: Rothman, Joshua. “Why is Academic Writing so Academic?”
People benefit from various forms of literature, but primarily specialists in an academic field of study are the ones who benefit most from academic literature. The wording used in academic literature is not intended for the ordinary/public audience so it may use jargon particular to the specific filed and void of layman understanding. The context may even be written in less rhetoric and provocative words that the layman may find boring and uninteresting. Academic writing is not usually meant to strike an emotional response or connection to the general public that the vast majority of written materials are known for. I agree with the article that the subject matter in academic writing is supposed to be directed towards the most serious of readers, professors. They are not interested in “sidebar” conversations, and they are only interested in pure facts and details, not rhetoric or connections. Their is little time for distractions (everyone is busy these days), and focus and concentration is necessary for pure scientific and unbiased interpretation of the data, the academic writing.
Reading: Annotated Bibliography
Is an annotated bibliography another for of academic writing? I strongly believe it is, because it is supposed to be concise and to the point. There is only a brief description and analysis of the referenced material (sources) and that means that there is no room for “fun and play” in your writing. Again, this writing is meant for your professor. No matter how funny and charismatic they may seem, if they are given something outside the norm of their expectations for a final paper (academic writing), you will lose points. Think – would you write jokes or a story about your research topic in your annotated bibliography?
Please click on the link below to view my Library/Archive Report 1:
CopyofLearningPlacesLibraryArchiveReport
* How are the papers organized? The papers are organized by 16 series, some are categorized by chronological order and others by alphabetical order. I think that if the archival department were able to afford to pay someone to simply set hyperlinks from both chronological and alphabetical categories, searches would be much easier and simpler. Technology (scanners) today is already available and capable of reading, organizing, and categorizing documents. All someone would have to do is to load the feed tray with the documents. How difficult is this? After, someone can verify if the scanner had not made any mistake or faulty scans of the documents. Even if there were not enough funds available to pay for someone to check for mistakes, ordinary researchers who stumble on or discover mistakes could report their findings and have the necessary/appropriate corrections made.
* What kinds of materials are included? The kinds of materials that are included are “correspondence, related press releases, reports, speeches, magazine and clippings.” Someone/people had endured a lot of trouble or simply went out of his/her/their way to gather all of these documents. Is there anyone who could “step-in” to continue this work of contribution in the archival system/technology? What are the duties and responsibilities of the archival employees? Maybe someone who is working on a library project can contribute some time to this effort.
* How could you access these resources? Access to these resources could be accomplished by clicking on the link under the heading “ACCESS TO MATERIALS,” where a pop-up window will appear containing a form for the requester to fill-in. Advanced notice is advised for accessing this resource. It may be put away in archival storage and the time for the archivist to retrieve it may be overwhelmed by numbers of other requests, so prior notice may aid in simplifying his/her work load (and in relieving stress); or maybe the archivist may not be aware in time to coordinate his/her activities or efforts to coincide with your arrival to the library. So, acquiring access to the archives and its resources may not be as simple as checking a book out of the library. Good luck with your research involving the use of archival materials and resources. There may be an uphill battle ahead!
Application of the RECAP criteria to the Loingsigh reading:
RECAP
Mr. Eamon Loingsigh’s article “The power of family lore: uncovering Brooklyn’s “Auld Irishtown”,” is written on the official Brooklyn Daily Eagle’s newspaper website: http://www.brooklyneagle.com/articles/power-family-lore-uncovering-brooklyn%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cauld-irishtown%E2%80%9D-2013-04-08-193600 This makes Mr. Loingsigh article a reliable secondary source, which can be used and referred to in a research project.
Relevance: This information would be relevant to my needs if I were conducting research on Brooklyn’s Irishtown.
– The source helps me research my topic and/or answers my questions.
– The source meets the requirements of my assignment.
Expertise: The author is a direct relative of the primary sources in his article, and the publisher is an official newspaper.
– The author is qualified or an expert who knows about the topic.
– There is information about the author on the web page.
Currency: The information was written on April 8, 2013.
– The source is almost three years old.
– This website does get its information from up-to-date sources.
Accuracy: The source’s information is reliable but may have the potential for some falsification.
– The source states where the information comes from.
– I can verify any of the information by checking other sources.
Purpose: My information source was created for career and a sense of family duty.
– My source was designed to inform, educate, entertain, and/or to make money.
– I do not think that my source was designed to further a political, religious, or institutional cause; but it is biased towards the Irish perspective. Consider the point of view of “Whiskey Wars,” for instance.
I strongly believe that this is a “credible source,” because the author’s article was published in a credible newspaper; however, the information, though acquired from primary source interviews and secondary literature, was not purely taken from historical archives of governmental sources, such as libraries or historical documents. There is no official document claiming that Vinegar Hill was once called or known as “Irish-town.” I would use this source in the context of an unofficial historical research project.
Please click on the link to view my site report:
CopyofLearningPlacesSiteReport
After viewing the video and reading about the WikiGalaxy, along with the article about primary, secondary, and tertiary sources, I find that a visualization about the relevance of sources and their relationships indicated by a link, the yellow line, is “pretty” amazing. To be able to see and sense the closeness or distances of the relationships of sources can provide another means of gauging how well or important sources would be to my research. This would aid in keeping me “on-track” and in helping me to save time on gathering relevant information for my researches. I will no longer be swamped by, literally, millions of search results and be forced to rummage through seemingly infinite amounts of data that would cost me invaluable time, energy, resources, etc. I would not have to rely solely on trying to figure out “keywords,” appropriate databases, and ideal search engines. I could now see how closely articles would be related to my topics. I like this “new” feature!
When I reflect on the Whiskey Wars, the illustration of the soldiers in conflict with the mob of protesters and hostile people are affected and greatly influenced by my reading of chapters one and three from the Visual Notes text. I see that the newspaper served as a form of a descriptive sketch and journal that not only depicted the seemingly unbiased view of the reporter, but also the capacity of the accuracy of the scene of the event to be influenced by the reporter’s experiences and preconceived notions. I did not read the original newspaper article from the mid-to-late 1800s, but I tend to observe from the illustration that the protesters and hostile people were more enraged and confrontational than the soldiers were, even though there were seemingly equal amounts of people and soldiers on both sides. I saw that the expressions of the protesters and hostile people were more animated with intolerance, anger, and rage, while the soldiers’ faces were mostly not drawn towards the reader(s) perspective, and the ones who could be seen had neutral expressions that were left to the reader(s) to decide on the emotions in an abstract sense.
I think that the Whiskey Wars were indicative of much corruption on all levels with bribery and criminal activities of that era, but to get a true sense of the actual events would have to have been directly experienced by myself. Only then, my conclusions would have been unaffected by the direct reference of the newspaper illustration and the author’s description, and only by my own biases. Visual Notes prescribe looking through a “clear,” an “accurate,” and an “acute” perspective, in order to translate an unbiased representation of a scene or event.
Sketches and journals add to the quality of information and knowledge. There is more learning and creativity involved when there are sketches that show the indirect and unseen and when there are journal concepts, thoughts, interpretations, and reflections that assist in linking and associating concepts.
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