Category Archives: LIB1201

Wrapping up LIB 1201

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It’s been a great semester – thanks for all of your questions, attention, patience, enthusiasm, and hard work this semester. Group documentation project presentations take place today and Wednesday. Be sure that each group posts the link to their project to this site by 10 a.m. on Wednesday, May 20. Each student should submit a self and group evaluation to me by the end of the day Wednesday:

Evaluate your work on this project and the work of the other students in your group.

Each student in your group is responsible for writing an evaluation of her/his own work on this project and the work of others in her/his group. Please answer all of the following questions in your evaluations:

  • Self evaluation (minimum 200 words):

What project tasks did you complete on your own? How would you describe the amount of effort you put into your work on this project? What do you think your strengths were in your work on this project? How could you improve your work on this project?

  • Group evaluation (minimum 200 words):

What project tasks did you complete as a group? Was the work shared evenly between group members? How effectively did your group work together? What do you think the strengths were of the group’s work on this project? How could the group improve its work on this project?

Best of luck with finals, everyone! Enjoy the summer.

~Prof. Leonard

Next week – presentations!

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Next Monday, May 18 and Wednesday, May 20 are the final days we meet. Two groups will present on Monday, May 18 and three will present on Wednesday, May 20. Groups will have about 20-30 minutes for group work at the beginning of class on Monday.

Presenting on Monday, May 18:

  1. Elfatih & Steeve
  2. Alessandra, Kelly, Jay

Presenting on Wednesday, May 20:

  1. Adonas, Jonathan, Daniel
  2. Wil & Orany
  3. Pavel, Crystal, Kendrick

Each group should assign one member to get to our classroom, A543, at least 10 minutes early to set up the presentation in advance.

Good luck, everyone! As always, get in touch with your questions about the project & presentation.

~Prof. Leonard

Looking ahead to May 11 – 13

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Next week groups will work on their documentation projects in A540, the library’s eclassroom. On Monday, May 11 all groups will submit a short progress report, and on Wednesday, May 13 we will determine the order of group presentations, which will take place on May 18 and May 20. The final research paper is due on Monday, May 11 by the beginning of class – good luck, everyone, and don’t wait until Sunday night to contact me with any questions.

~Prof. L.

Review of today, and reading/blogging for Wednesday, April 29

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Today we discussed styles and standards for documentation & citation. You created your own citation styles by identifying the most important parts of a citation. Several elements were common to most: author, title, date, and source. On Wednesday we’ll return to process documentation. Please read Badke Ch. 9 and browse Purdue OWL’s APA and MLA Style sections. Write one process documentation blog post in response to this prompt:

 Irene Edge describes process documentation as “a thorough conveyance of thoughts and processes.” Select one example of process documentation in any format, read it, and write one 100-word blog post in which you describe, summarize and critique it. Does it document thoroughly and completely the process that it claims to document? If you choose a video, please embed the video into your blog post so that we can all view it easily.

Be prepared to discuss your example in class. Instructions for embedding a video into a blog post on the OpenLab are here. You may find it helpful to review the Edge and Robinson articles to guide your selection of a good quality example of process documentation. Questions about this final blogging assignment? Get in touch.

On Wednesday I’ll distribute final research paper guidelines.

~Prof. Leonard

Summary of today, and assignment for Monday, April 27

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Today we discussed practical applications of documentation, including process documentation.  We quickly reviewed the Edge and Robinson articles, and we’ll return to them next week for the process documentation blogging assignment (details next week)

The draft of your research paper is due on Monday, April 27, emailed to me as a draft by the beginning of class. I’ll distribute guidelines for the final paper on Monday and post them to the OpenLab.

Good luck, everyone!

~Prof. Leonard

Mapping Brooklyn wrap-up, and spring break bonus blogging

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Today we visited the Mapping Brooklyn exhibit at BRIC. For one bonus blog post point (due by 10 a.m. on 4/13/15), write a 100-word blog post in response to the following questions:

What map was the most interesting to you and why? How did viewing this exhibit change how you perceive maps in daily life? What information or data in your daily life would you like to visualize on a map? Why would it be helpful or interesting?

I distributed guidelines for the next research-paper-related assignment: the outline, due April 15. I’ll post guidelines for the research paper draft over spring break and distribute them in class on April 13.

Enjoy spring break, and remember, the City Tech library is open Monday-Friday 9-5 if you need a quiet place to study, use a computer, or print.

~Prof. Leonard

 

Evaluating information, new due dates, and preparing for the off-campus activity Wednesday

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Today we crowdsourced evaluation criteria and came up with currency, relevance, and accuracy as 3 important criteria we’ll use in the evaluation activity in class on April 13. We also reviewed the annotaeval_criteria20150330ted bibliography assignment. Thanks to Steeve for showing us how the References feature in MS Word.

The blog post that would normally be due today (Monday, March 30) at 10 a.m. is due by Tuesday, March 31 at 10 a.m. Please write one research journal blog post in response to this prompt:

Do a search on your research topic in at least one internet search engine and one library database. What words or phrases did you use to search? What are the similarities and differences between the results of your two searches?

On Wednesday, we’ll visit the Mapping Brooklyn exhibition at BRIC at 647 Fulton Street, about a 10 minute walk from here. We will meet at 9:55 at the Jay Street entrance of the college and walk over together. Please let me know if you will be coming on your own so I know not to wait. We will finish by 11 a.m. so you’ll be on time for your 11:30 classes. I will distribute guidelines for the research paper outline and draft on Wednesday.

Tomorrow you’ll get an email from me with your midterm grade.

Please note there is a NEW DUE DATE for the annotated bibliography: you may hand it in as an email attachment to me by 5 p.m. on Thursday, April 2.

Questions about upcoming assigments, our schedule, or anything else? Please ask…

~Prof. Leonard

Wrapping up searching, and moving into evaluation

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Greetings from Portland, OR, where I’m participating in the Criblib Unconference and the Association for College & Research Libraries Conference. Today you discussed – and searched in – library catalogs and databases. I hope everyone made good progress on finding useful resources for the annotated bibliography and research paper.  On Monday, March 30 we’ll discuss techniques and strategies for evaluating information. Steeve has volunteered to show us all how to use the citation management feature in MS Word. For Monday, please review the following 2 websites in advance of class:

UC Berkeley Library, Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask
Cornell University Libraries, Critically analyzing information sources.

Your blog post builds on your in-class searching exercise; since you already have an assignment due on Monday 3/30 — the final version of the research topic proposal — this blog post is due by Tuesday, March 31 at 10 a.m. Please write one research journal blog post in response to this prompt:

Do a search on your research topic in at least one internet search engine and one library database. What words or phrases did you use to search? What are the similarities and differences between the results of your two searches?

The final version of your research topic proposal is due on Monday, March 30. 

 

~Prof. Leonard

Wrapping up internet searching & reading/blogging for Wednesday, March 25

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Today we spent time searching scholarly resources on the internet and making use of the advanced search strategies we discussed a few weeks ago. On Wednesday, my colleague Prof. Nora Almeida will guest lecture on searching library catalogs and databases. Please read Badke Chapter 5 and review the Library of Congress Classification Outline.

Your research journal blog post prompt is based on today’s class activity. Please write one 100-word research journal blog post in response to this prompt:

In class today you tried out advanced search strategies and scholarly internet resources from the Badke reading to search for sources on your research topic. Describe one advanced strategy or scholarly resource you used. Did you find different information sources than you found doing a regular internet search (just using Google, Bing, etc.), and if so, how are they different? Did you encounter any difficulties that you haven’t encountered in a regular internet search?

Remember that the FINAL version of your topic proposal is due on Monday, March 30 and the Annotated Bibliography is due on Wednesday, April 1. Please get in touch with your questions…

~Prof. Leonard

Wrapping up research topic development, and looking ahead to searching and finding

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Today we spent a good bit of time in class developing research questions and using bubbl.us or regular old pen and paper to draw concept maps. Feel free to scan & post your concept map to our blog.

The draft of your research topic proposal is due on Monday, March 23 by the beginning of class. Please email it to me as a MS Word attachment; that way I can grade, it offer comments, and return it to you by email, even if I’m out of town.

On Monday, we’ll talk about — and do some — advanced internet searching. I hope that by the end of class, everyone will have found at least a few potential sources for their annotated bibliographies (due April 1). Please read Badke chapter 6 (all) and chapter 7, pp. 163-172.

~Prof. Leonard