LibrOLibrary: information

Showing posts with label information. Show all posts

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Reliable ResOurce

What is a Reliable Resource?

A way to know if your source of information is reliable is to check it for the following:

ACCURACY

AUTHORITY

BIAS

CURRANCY

RELEVANCE

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ACCURACY
Currently no web standards exist to ensure accuracy.

Are there mistakes in spelling or word usage?
Is the info reliable and error-free?
Is there an editor or someone who verifies/checks the info?

AUTHORITY
Anyone can publish anything on the internet.

Who is the author? Is she an expert on the topic?
Does a reputable organization back this website?
Is there a link to more information about the author or sponsor?
What is the URL domain? The URL domain can provide information about the producer of the web site, and its purpose:

.gov = Government Agency
.net = Internet Service Provider
.com = Commercial Site
.edu = Higher education
.mil = Military Site
~ ("tilde") = Personal Site
.org = Organization; may be charitable, religious, or a lobbying group.
Other domains include: .museum, .info, .biz

BIAS
View any web page as you would an infomercial on T.V. and ask yourself why it was written and for whom.

What is the purpose of the web site? Selling you something, informative, educational, entertaining, persuasive, personal, a joke/hoax?
Is the information factual or opinion?
Is the content bias? Is the bias hidden or clear? How does the bias impact the usefulness of the info?
Is there advertising on the page?

CURRENCY
If information is outdated it may not be accurate.

When was the page last updated?
How current are the links? Do they work?
Is the info up-to-date or outdated?

RELEVANCE
You want to make sure a web site you find covers the information you are seeking.

How in-depth is the material? Does it cover enough for your topic?
Does the site contain original info or just links?
Is the material at this site useful and accurate, or is it doubtful and repetitious?

Created by Rosalyn Obando on March 27, 2012.

Resources used to create this document:
Beck, S. E. (2009). The Good, the bad, & the ugly: Why it’s a good idea to evaluation web sources. New Mexico State University Library. Retrieved from http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/ evalcrit.html.
Johns Hopkins University. (2010). Evaluating information found on the internet. Retrieved from http://www.library.jhu.edu/researchhelp/general/evaluating/ index.html.
Kapoun, J. (1998). Five criteria for evaluating web pages. Cornell University Library. Retrieved from http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/ webcrit.html.
Kupersmith, J. (2010). Evaluating web pages: Techniques to apply & questions to ask. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved from http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html.
Lesley University Library. (2007). Evaluating web sites: Criteria for the classroom. Lesley University. Retrieved from http://www.lesley.edu/library/guides/research/evaluating_web.html.
Piper, P. S. (2000). Better read that again: web hoaxes and misinformation. Searcher 8(8). Information Today. Retrieved from http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/sep00/piper.htm.
Schrock, K. (2010). Classroom resources. Discovery Education. Retrieved from http://school.discoveryeducation.com/ schrockguide/eval.html.
University of Southern Maine. (2004). Checklist for Evaluating web resources. Retrieved from http://library.usm.maine.edu/research/researchguides/ webeval.php?ID=0.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Why Not Just Google It?

Video: "Why Use Library Databases."

Why not just "google" to get information for my research paper?

Top 10 Reasons Why not to Google for School Research*:

1) Google is an adult search engine, created for adult like searches
2) Google is geared towards commerece, not education.
3) Google automatically combines keywords and may give results with unrelated information.
4) Google does not consider authority (who posts info).
5) Google does not consider reliability (accuracy) of information gathered.
6) Google does not consider bias of information.
7) Google likely finds an overwhelming amount of results which is very inefficient for students to weed out unrelated information.
8) Google does not consider readability for students' reading levels.
9) Google has a page ranking system where likely, the best educationally sound result is not in the top 10 hits.
And . . .
10) Google functions based upon a quick parallel processing algorithm that groups results based upon likeness with the keywords.

* Found at www.merton.k12.wi.us/faculty/wieczorekS/nogoogle.cfm on Mar. 26, 2012.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Plagiarism & Intellectual Freedom

Plagiarism & Intellectual Freedom

What is Plagiarism?

What are the consequences of Plagiarism?

Failing an assignment.
Not graduating.
Not being admitted into a college or university or expelled.
Losing a job.
Jail time.
VIDEO: Plagiarism case threatens graduation: wishtv.com

Definition: Plagiarism

pla·gia·rism [pley-juh-riz-uhm]

Literary theft. Plagiarism occurs when a writer duplicates another writer's language or ideas and then calls the work his or her own. Copyright laws protect writers' words as their legal property. To avoid the charge of plagiarism, writers take care to credit those from whom they borrow and quote.
"plagiarism." The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. 26 Mar. 2012. .

Examples
Solutions
1. Copying word for word from a source to your own paper without giving proper citation.
Use quotation marks around the exact words caputred and cite the source.
2. Paraphrasing and claiming the idea or words as your own.
Write down the source of the idea or words on your bibliography.
3. You have written a paper and are not sure if you have properly cited all of your sources.
Talk to your teacher or library media specialist to be sure you have cited your sources properly.