Research Journal Part 10

Research Journal, Part 10: Creating a Web Page

    This was a fun unit. I really enjoy HTML and unit 10 has been a good review of basic HTML. I am not new to HTML, I do have some experience using HTML for a few weeks as I am also taking HTML fundamentals. I find that keeping the HTML code is simple and fun. Things can get very complicated and HTML code can get jumbled when you try to get to elaborate writing the HTML code yourself and not using a program that does the coding for you such as Dreamweaver. I would like to apply some more of the elements I have learned in the past few weeks to this assignment, however I will keep it simple as I could get sidetracked messing with the code for days and find myself falling behind in my other class. CTEC 115 has taught me great research techniques and adding unit 10 working with basic HTML is a nice touch to the class. It is a fun way to introduce other students to HTML and some of the students may get hooked and decide that they will want to pursue other classes such as HTML Fundamentals (CTEC 122). 

CTEC 115 Final Exam essay

CTEC 115 Final Exam essay

•  To locate Merrill Distad's article " The Future of Print: The Book" I used the Cannell library database.   I started with the "find" drop down menu and selected articles and databases link. I chose to look in the Ebsco host database. In Ebsco I entered the title in the keywords box then selected the search by title to the right of it. I also entered Distad, Merrill in the AND box below then selected search by author to the right of it. 

• Finding Ewan Morrison's article was a little easier on the open web with my favorite search engine Google and simply typed the title "are books dead, and can authors survive?". When my search results came up it was right on the top of the list. 

Evaluating:

•   Using the elements of ASPECT to evaluate the articles I first like to look at purpose. Ewan Morrison's purpose seems to be to convince readers that books are dying out to e-books and that authors are suffering. Distad's purpose seems to be to convince readers that there is room for both and that the book will not become obsolete. There seems to be more EVENNESS is Distad's article. Both authors use statistics in there articles about book sales and state where they are from but I did not find any sources that were properly cited or a bibliography. I did find statistics that were similar to the ones used in both articles in a New York Times article published may 19, 2011 and found that by using Google. I used the open web to find out information about both authors using a Google search of their names. Ewan Morrison is the author of three novels and a collection of short stories. Distad is the associate University Librarian for research & special collections services at the university of Alberta.  (this is also stated at the end of his article). Info about Morrison was found on Wikipedia and the info I found to confirm Distad is found on www.alibris.com     . In looking  for information on the publisher of Morrison's article I found the guardian web site with a google search  http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk I also found an interesting article in the Cannell database in Proquest http://0-search.proquest.com.oswald.clark.edu/docview/421706507/1384B6B7F1F652FC472/14?accountid=1157. This article states that the Guardian newspaper is notorious for typos and seems to run a daily correction column. I used the open web again to find the publisher of Distad's article. Using a Google search I found that Feliciter looks legitimate and that they are the only national magazine dedicated to serving the Canadian Library and information services community.  http://www.cla.ca/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Feliciter1.  Both seem to have authority, both use statistics and state sources, although I did not find a bibliography of sources from either. Their purposes are both to convince their readers of their opinion. They both seem to have a good level of trustworthiness for their purpose they are serving which is their opinions. If I had to grade them on the trustworthiness scale of 1 to 10 I would give Distad a 10 and Morrison an 8.5.  Morrison seems a little more biased and does not offer as much opposition.  He seems to be very much opposed to the revolution of new technology and the way people are getting their information and why not, after all he is an author and he feels threatened by this new technology.  What I find very ironic though is the fact that the very newspaper that publishes his article has joined the revolution by going digital.  

 Review of Distad's The Future of Print: The Book

           "The Future of Print: The Book" is an article written by Merrill Distad who is the associate University librarian for research & special collections services at the university of Alberta, where he has been employed since 1987.  In Distad's article he is attempting to convince readers that there is room for both books and e-books. Distad writes a good article about the rising trend of e-books and how they are being chosen over books today. 

        Merrill Distad gives statistics and writes with evenness to convince you as a reader that the book will not become obsolete. I like the fact that he lists the advantages and disadvantages of e-books. Distad makes very good points in the disadvantages stating that "E-books cannot be shared with a friend without also sharing the e-reader and "e-books are also vulnerable to censorship, whether by subtle alteration of their texts or, less subtly, by outright confiscation". He points out the benefits that e-books could serve in large reference books like encyclopedias  and/or anything that is regularly revised and updated.  Distad closes by raising some very good points of how the book will not become obsolete. He states that students prefer books for later resale value and that "purchasers building institutional or personal subject collections will not succumb to e-books" and finally the importance of keeping printed books in the presence of children's homes. 

         I really enjoyed reading Distad's article and especially how he shows both sides. The advantages and disadvantages of the e-books and does make some very valid points of why he believes that the book will not die. There is no doubt that e-books are taking over. I for one think that the book will not fade out. They are here to stay for a long time. books may be what vinyl records are to compact CD's. Hey vinyl records are still around. In fact they are making a bit of a comeback. 

          

Research Journal, Part 9

Research Journal, Part 9: Finding Information on the Open Web

    for any readers other than my CTEC 115 instructor that do not know what the elements of ASPECT are. 

   Finding information on the open web is one of my favorite things to do. I look up some kind of information daily and on some days looking up multiple subjects for both personal and academic purposes. 

half of everything I learned about fixing cars is from the web, the other half I learned from my father. When ever I fix my cars and if there is something I don't know how to do I usually visit the same site now. Before I found that site I did a little research so that I could find the site that gives the best information and suites my needs. Other personal research I frequently use the web for is recipes, building and fixing things around home  and finding new places to take my kids hiking.  I am always looking for new and exciting places to take them hiking.  How do you trust the sites you use for personal and/or academic reasons? Use the ASPECT system to evaluate them. ASPECT is an acronym for Authority, Sources, Purpose, Evenness, Coverage, and Timeliness. This system is especially important to keep in mind when conducting searches for academic research and sources. 

      I recently conducted four searches through the Alta Vista search engine where I could make four separate searches filtering the search by domain. They are .com, .org.,.edu, and .gov.

  .org search:

   while conducting the .org search two sites that show up frequently and near the top of the list searching the keywords artificial intelligence and robotics are Wikipedia and spectrum.ieee.org. They are not one's I looked at for this search since I have seen them before. The one site I looked into was Swissnex.

swissnexsanfrancisco.org  

 swissnex is a group of scientists from switzerland and the United states dedicated to Science, education, art, and innovation. They have some interesting links to artificial intelligence. To evaluate they have an "about us"

link and a contacts link. There they have pics of some of the members with info about them. What there education, experience, background and other credentials are as well as a mission statement link stating their purpose. This covers both the Authority and the purpose elements of ASPECT. 

.edu search:

   While conducting the .edu search on artificial intelligence and robotics I found the Stanford school of Engineering site.  http://see.stanford.edu/see/courseinfo.aspx?coll=86cc8662-f6e4-43c3-a1be-b30d1d179743. This site is one for the introduction to robotics course at Stanford. The main page states its purpose with "The purpose of this course is to introduce you to basics of modeling, design, planning, and control of robot systems". The main page also shows a pic and info of the professor with background information on experience and education. Again this info covers both Authority and Purpose. 

.com search:

  my .com search brought me to the robotics technology center - robotics for developers site. 

This site seems to be aimed at educating and informing with news on the subject. It is also used as a discussion forum. Although it is a very large and interesting site I would not use it for academic research in sources. It would be a good place to start research though to find subtopics and possibly other sources. The main page has news articles on the subjects of artificial intelligence and robotics and the author of them is John. ????? John What?

Thats the author just John with no contact information, sources or no about us page with members showing any credentials on the subject. In using ASPECT there are no sources and no authority here. 

.gov search: (the easiest)

 My .gov search brought me to nasa.gov. Who hasn't heard of NASA? I think that when conducting searches .gov sites are usually a safe bet for information especially since there are more strict web standards today that companies must follow when launching web sites. The authority element is in the domain itself  .gov (which is the domain for government organizations.)  

Research Journal, Part 8

 Research Journal, Part 8: Types of Information: Focus on Search Engines and Web Sites


Search tool : Alta Vista
 I have heard of Alta Vista before and I know it is very popular that is why I chose to use this search tool for this project. Alta Vista has many advanced searching features. It allows Boolean searching, and sorting by keywords or date. Other search options available are site/domain searching, file format searching and a search filter which allows you the options to include or filter out adult content search results. With Alta Vista you can also search for a web site by country origin or by language. You can select one or more languages or use the search with all languages option. This would come in particularly useful to people here that speak a different language or research with a class in a foreign language. I played around with this search tool using different keywords from my previous subject of artificial intelligence. A search using artificial intelligence and projects to search for past, current, and future projects retrieved 33,100,000 results. 


Meta Search Tool: Monster Crawler 
    I have never heard of monster crawler before this project. The main page has categorized subject links with links to images, video, weather, stocks, maps and more. Monster does not support as many advance features as Alta vista however, it does support Boolean,truncating, and  keyword searching. You can also search by language here also and use the option to include or exclude domain searching. Using the keywords artificial intelligence and ethic* gave 11,700,000 results.

Subject Directories: Digital Librarian
    The Digital librarian subject directory main page has categorized subjects. It seems to support Boolean searching but I did not find any other advanced search features. Digital librarian did accept using the ~ tilde before words when searching also.  Using the same keywords artificial intelligence and ethic* gave 332 search results.

Research Journal, Part 7: Finding Articles in Periodical Indexes

Research Journal, Part 7: Finding Articles in Periodical Indexes

question research with ProQuest data base:
What ethics are involved in using artificial intelligence?

 My first search was conducted by using my original keywords Artificial intelligence and ethics which gave me 4530 results. My second was by using AI instead. keywords AI and ethics gave me15,116 results.
 using my instructors suggested keywords and tips: Artificial intelligence and ethic* gave me  6,800 results.

I found three articles which look good for research on the subject.
scholarly journal: Vickery, Bob. "Social Implications of Artificial Intelligence." Search 28.10 (1997): 316-. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 25 July 2012.


newspaper article: 
REVIEWED BY, HOWARD,RHEINGOLD. "The Confused State of Artificial Intelligence." 
San Francisco Chronicle (pre-1997 Fulltext): 8. Western Newsstand. Nov 23 1986. Web. 25 July 2012 .

 magazine article:

Caton, Hiram. "The Future of Humanity." Issues 2009: 4-7. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 25 July 2012 .

 Although this whole article is not just about artificial intelligence I chose it because the end of the article raises some other questions that I had not thought of for the topic. The article describes IBM's deep blue self thinking computer and its abilities. The article also gives another suggested piece of reading material in an essay for further research. 

research journal, part 6: Database feature and searching techniques

 Research journal, part 6: Database Feature and Searching Techniques

   1) How much more can a college graduate expect to earn over someone with a high school diploma?

      search: "college graduate" and "high school diploma" and earnings

  2) What breeds of dogs make good therapy pets?

   search: breeds and dogs and "therapy pets"

  3) Debate the pros and cons of fish farming

      search: pros and cons and "fish farming"

  4) Is a vegetarian diet healthier than a meat-based diet?

     search:  "vegetarian diet" and "meat-based diet" and health*

  5) What are the similarities between the great depression of the 1930's and the current economic problems?

     search: "Great Depression" and "current economic problems" and similar*

my research question on my topic

What ethics are involved in using artificial intelligence?

 search: "artificial intelligence and ethics 

research journal 5 summary

 Research journal 5 summary: using IT pro, Google books, Summit catalog, Clark College Canell library catalog. 
The IT pro, Google books, summit catalog, and the Clark Canell library catalog are all pretty similar to use when conducting searches. The search tips given in our tutorials work on all databases the same way. You can achieve different results by adding "and" in your search with other keywords. The main difference in using these tools is the screens and how the information is presented. I think that out of the four the Google books gives the most aesthetically pleasing screen to use. If the interfaces of the tools changes I think that it would be easy to adjust having previously used them. The tutorial give a good start in using these tools but there is no substitute for practice. I think the more you use certain search tools and databases the better you will get at conducting searches on them and finding more relevant information to your subject.