Category Archives: Class Notes

Notes from today, and reading and blogging homework for Wednesday, November 9

Posted on November 7, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Please note that the new due date for the research paper outline is Friday, November 11 by 10 am as an email attachment to me. Send either .doc, .docx, or .rtf formats, please!

On Wednesday, we’ll be discussing evaluation of sources in any format: how to evaluate. We’ll play the evaluation game with some of the criteria we came up with today in class.
You have two short reading assignments and a research blog post for Wednesday. Please read through the following two websites: Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask from UC Berkeley, and Critically Analyzing Information Sources from Cornell University.

Please write one research journal blog post addressing this prompt:

You’ve now written your research proposal and annotated bibliography – the next major step will be to write the first draft of your research paper. What strategies will you use when writing your first draft? What’s worked well for you when you’ve written other research papers? Do you feel uncertain or have any questions about writing the research paper?

Slides for today are available here.

Any questions about the upcoming research paper and related assignments? Feel free to ask by email or bring your questions to class.

~Prof. Leonard

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Notes from today, and readings and homework for Monday, November 7

Posted on November 2, 2011 by | Leave a comment

On Monday 11/7 we’ll move into a discussion of the evaluation of sources in any format and why to evaluate. We’ll also play an evaluation game.
Please read the following two articles:

Fister, B. (2003). The devil in the details: Media representation of ritual abuse and evaluation of sources. SIMILE: Studies in Media and Information Literacy Education, 3(2), 1-14.
Grimmelman, J. (2008/2009). The Google dilemma. New York Law School Law Review, 53, 939-950.

DUE: Annotated bibliography

Please follow the guidelines for the annotated bibliography, and include a more focused research question at the top of the document. I prefer to receive your assignments as email attachments in .doc, .docx, or .rtf format, though you can turn a paper copy in at the beginning of class.

As you search for (and find!) sources for the bibliography and research paper, don’t forget about all of your options via the A-Z list on the library’s website. When you are in any EBSCO database, you can cross-search across several at once by clicking the Choose Databases link at the top of the advanced search screen. Try some other databases, including Science Direct, JSTOR or Project Muse for scholarly articles, and Lexis-Nexis for newspapers. For background information on your topic, try Gale Virtual Reference Library or Oxford Reference Online Premium.

Slides from today are available here.

Have a good weekend!

~Prof. L.

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Words of Wisdom from William Badke

Posted on November 1, 2011 by | Leave a comment

I am a regular reader of ILI-L, an email list for librarians interested in information literacy and library instruction, and just came across our textbook author Bill Badke’s recent post offering advice to college faculty on teaching students how to research:

The Top 10 Things we All Should Know about Today’s Research Environment.

1.       Sources of information are changing
2.       Search in today’s databases is complex
3.       Students don’t understand the research process
4.       Students don’t know they don’t understand the research process
5.       Faculty are increasingly baffled by research technology, and that can be corrected
6.       Librarians hold the key to the information kingdom
7.       You need librarians, and so do your students
8.       Today’s academic databases offer so much more than keyword searching
9.       Electronic full text is winning the day
10.   Wikipedia is not Public Enemy Number One

Badke, William B. (2011, October 31). RE: faculty instruction. [Msg 9]. Message posted to http://lists.ala.org/sympa/arc/ili-l/2011-10/msg00266.html

Any comments? You know what to do.
~Prof. L.

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Notes from today, and reading & blogging homework for Wednesday, November 2

Posted on October 31, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Today we discussed library catalogs, struggled to use CUNY+ and had a bit more success with WorldCat. I hear that the CUNY+ technical difficulties are well on their way to resolution, so try searching from home and report your success in the comments below.
On Wednesday, we’ll continue our discussion on searching (and finding) sources for the annotated bibliography and research paper, moving into a discussion on using library databases to find articles. For Wednesday, please read Badke Ch. 5 (pp. 76-95) and write one research journal blog post. Below is the prompt for the research journal blog post for Wednesday:

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

Don’t forget that next week you have two written assignments due: the annotated bibliography on Monday 11/7 and the research paper outline on Wednesday 11/9.

Slides for today are available here.

~Prof. Leonard

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Notes from today, and reading & blogging for Monday, October 31

Posted on October 26, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Today we discussed advanced internet searching and tried out some of the techniques and strategies from class discussion and from Badke, chapter 6. Don’t forget to set up your google scholar preferences on computers you use off-campus so that you can connect to City Tech library resources through the Find It! button.

On Monday we’ll discuss library catalogs and how to search (and find!) books and other media in them. Please read Badke chapter 5 pp. 71-76 and review the Library of Congress Classification Outline. Your second research journal  blog post is also due on Monday; prompt is below:

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 1 advanced strategy or scholarly resource you used.
Did you find different information sources than you found doing a regular internet search (just using Google, Yahoo, etc.), and if so, how are they different?
Did you encounter any difficulties that you haven’t encountered in a regular internet search?

Slides for today are available here.

~Prof. L

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Notes from today, and assignment for Wednesday October 26

Posted on October 24, 2011 by | Leave a comment

On Wednesday we’ll discuss advanced internet searching. Please read
Reading: Badke Ch. 6 (all) and Ch. 7 pp. 122-124 and watch the Common Craft video on web search strategies.

Your research paper topic proposal is due on Wednesday at the beginning of class. I’ll accept either a word document attached to an email or a printed copy.  Please refer to the guidelines (also distributed in class), and do not hesitate to get in touch by email if you have any questions about the assignment.

Slides from today are available here.
~Prof. Leonard

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Notes from today, and reading & blogging for Monday, October 24

Posted on October 19, 2011 by | Leave a comment

I hope the bubbl.us activity helped you begin to organize your thoughts and see relationships among your ideas for the research paper topic.If you want to share your mind map or get feedback, you can post your bubbl in a new post on the blog (see my post below). If you are still generating an idea for the research paper and wish to review class notes, visit the Slides page of the course site.

On Monday, we’ll continue our discussion about the process of research: refining a topic and creating search strategies. Please read Badke, appendix 1 pp. 177-195 and review Badke Ch. 3 pp. 34-41. Your first research journal blog post is due Monday as well. Here is prompt for that post:

You are working on choosing a topic and developing a research question for your paper. What difficulties (if any) have you encountered as you work on your research proposal?
What strategies (if any) have you used successfully during this work?
What questions (if any) do you have about the assignment?

Slides from today are available here.

~Prof. L.

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bubbl.us – brainstorming and mind mapping in class

Posted on October 19, 2011 by | Leave a comment

using bubbl.us to brainstorm and map ideas for the research project

Feel free to post your own mind maps from today’s class. If you have any questions about how bubbl.us works, ask in the comments. If you have answers to those questions, feel free to answer in the comments! ~Prof. L.

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Notes from today, and reading/blogging assignments for Wednesday, October 12

Posted on October 5, 2011 by | 2 comments

Thanks for a robust and animated discussion about information ethics today.
Copyright and fair use is in the news today: a copyright case involving a university’s right to stream videos on its website was recently thrown out of court in California; read more here. I encourage you all to finish watching the videos we started to view in class and explore Creative Commons and the Digital Copyright slider. Links to the videos are in the slides.

For Wednesday, October 12, please read the following chapter from Badke and two articles:

Badke, chapter 4 (there is still time to obtain your own copy; if you do not yet have a copy of the required textbook for this class and cannot find it in a convenient bookstore, you can download the e-book for less than $10 here, or use the library’s copy on reserve; the call number is Z710 .B23 2008.)

Dye, J. (2006). Folksonomy: A game of high-tech (and high-stakes) tag. EContent, 29(3), 38-43.

Harrod, H. (2009, March 28). It’s the playground of narcissistic teenagers and amateur photographers, but 3 billion images (and counting) on flickr could be the greatest social document of the century. The Sunday Telegraph, pp.22.

Your blogging assignment is one reading response blog post and one comment on a classmate’s blog post.

Enjoy the long weekend! ~Prof. Leonard

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Notes from today, and reading/viewing/blogging for Wednesday, October 5

Posted on October 3, 2011 by | Leave a comment

I hope our privacy discussion got you thinking about your relationship to all of the information “out there” that is about you, and what rights you have to controlling that personal or private information. I found an interesting New York Times article about privacy on college campuses in the wake of the 2008 Virginia Tech shooting: “After Campus Shootings, U.S. to Ease Privacy Rules.”

On Wednesday, we’ll be discussing ethics in information and media, including copyright and fair use, open access, and plagiarism. For Wednesday, please read the following 2 articles:

Isserman, “Plagiarism: a lie of the mind.” Chronicle of Higher Education, 49(34), B12.

Center for Social Media. 2008. The code of best practices in fair use for media literacy education. “Code” and “Principles” sections only.

and watch these videos:

Lawrence L. 2007. “The Law is Strangling Creativity”

Faden, E. 2007. “A Fair(y) Use Tale.”

Your blogging homework is one reading response blog post; one comment on another’s post. Please make the blog post a substantial reflection on the readings and viewing; the comment should be shorter, but try to make it relevant and pithy. Not simply “I agree with your point!”

Slides from today are available here.

~Prof. Leonard

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