Updating Your Digital Toolkit

1. Updating Your Digital Toolkit Michael Hunter Reference Librarian Hobart and William Smith Colleges for Western New York Library Resources Council Member Libraries’ Staff Sponsored by the Western New York Library Resources Council

2. For today….. • Perspectives on search: Making the implicit explicit • Sharpening our skills: • Deep web niche engines • The social web • Search literacy lesson plans • Search derby • Raising the bar in web evaluation • Free digital collections • Future directions

3. Linklist:http://people.hws.edu/hunter/toolkitlinks.htm

6. How it reallyworks…….

7. USER

8. Making the implicit explicit • Most searches are…. • Done by a unique searcher • Done in a unique context • Done for an information need unique to the user

9. Strategies and TacticsDan Russell – searchresearch1.blogspot.com • Search Strategy • Overall plan to achieve your goal • Search Tactics • Specific actions taken as you follow the strategy

10. Metatactics • Know (or learn) the parameters and capabilities of the resource. • What? Type of information or format • Who? Creator(s) • When? Recency or coverage dates • How? Can it be searched? • Why? Key factors for its credibility • Know (or discover) the most effective search term(s) for the resource you are using • Know (or learn) the user’s specific needs

11. Sources for the Hard-To-Find Deep Web Niche Engines (aka Verticals) Social Web Resources

12. Martindale Centerwww.martindalecenter.com • The Reference Desk • www.martindalecenter.com • Health Sciences Guide • www.martindalecenter.com/HSGuide.html • Calculators On-Line • www.martindalecenter.com/Calculators.html

13. Martindale Centerwww.martindalecenter.com • Extensive collection of deep web resources of high quality • 37 broad categories • Frequent updates • Maintained by Jim Martindale • Began in 1994 as project at UC-Irvine

14. Freealityfreeality.com • Gateway to over 500 niche engines and directories • 18 broad categories • New listings in most categories • Created and maintained by Internet Oracle of Littletown, New Hampshire, an enterprise search company

15. Freealityfreeality.com • E-mail & Reverse Look-up (17) • Video & Image (13) • Women’s Resources (19) • Reference & Research • Biographies (30) • Dictionaries & Encyclopedias (60) • Glossaries & Acronyms (24) • Homework Helpers (25) • Thesauri & Quotations (28)

16. Mining Today’s Social Web:The trust factors • People you don’t know • Wikipedia • Human-created databases, directories “I need a few good sites on solar energy” • Mahalo, Ipl2.org • Q&A Services “How do I repair my garage door opener?” • Yahoo Answers, Answers.com, Mahalo Answers

17. Mining Today’s Social Web:The trust factors • People you follow • Twitter-human created Tweets “What’s the buzz on Beyonce?” • People you know • Post a question to friends and family “What type of Mac should I buy?” • Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Bing (login via Facebook)

18. TwitterminingSome tweets are more “authoritative” than others… • Access to unfiltered, real-time perspective on what people are thinking and doing • Authority (and usefulness) of a tweet depends on • Who sent it • The number and “authority” of their followers • When it was sent • Documents/sites it refers to

19. Twittermining • Public responses/attitudes • Trending topics and people • Political candidates and issues • Companies and products • Colleges and universities • Locate individuals and their networks • Who they follow • Who follows them • Monitor collaborations

20. Twittermining Tools • Twitter.com • Requires a (free) account • Only the latest 2 weeks available • Searchable by hashtag (#) Author-designated keyword or significant term or phrase • #rochester • #jobs • #marketing

21. Twittermining Tools • Search.twitter.com • No account required • Only the latest 2 weeks available • Advanced search features • Booleans • Hashtag • Language limit • Author search (tweets from or to) • “Near this place” • Attitude – positive, negative, question

22. Twittermining Tools • Twitter Venn www.neoformix.com/Projects/TwitterVenn/view.php Venn diagrams illustrating the rate of tweets containing specific terms • Twitter StreamGraph www.neoformix.com/Projects/TwitterStreamGraphs/view.php Words most highly associated with a specified term Limited to the latest 1,000 tweets containing that term

23. Google’s Search Lesson Plans and Common Core Standards

24. Search Lesson Plans and Common Core Standards • google.com/insidesearch/searcheducation/lessons.html • Part of Google’s search education initiative • 5 main topics with beginner, intermediate and advanced levels • Picking the right search terms • Understanding search results • Narrowing a search to get the best results • Searching for evidence for research tasks • Evaluating credibility of sources

25. Search Lesson Plans • Focus is using Google, but adaptable to other sources • Each plan lists Common Core Standards addressed • Include illustrative slides and suggested assessments of student work • “A Google-a-day challenge” questions with answers • Good strategies for deep web searching in Advanced Level of Lesson #1

26. Web Evaluation Today:Raising the Bar

27. Web Evaluation • Where we are and how we got here • Checklists: what they do and don’t do • Raising the bar beyond the basics • Using the Social Web in evaluation • Active learning applications

28. One of the basics….What’s in a web address? Transfer protocol/Domain name/Directory & subdirectory/File name • TP- hpertext https-(http secure) Encrypts all traffic to and from that site • Domain name Name unique to the server where the site is located. Includes domain type and country if outside the US.

29. Transfer protocol/Domain name/Directory & subdirectory/File name • Directory Specific “folder” on the server where this file is found • File name Actual name and information about the file • Markup language used: html, htm, php • Dynamic content: shtml, asp • Format: pdf, docx, jpg, mpeg, mp3

30. Evaluative Checklists:Pro and Con • Pro • Structured approach to a complex process • Useful reminders of what to look for • Con • Many focus on potential flaws of a site rather than its strengths • One checklist does not “fit all” types of sites • No substitute for critical investigation geared to the specific site • Time-consuming and impractical

31. Raising the bar beyond the basicsBerkman, Robert The Skeptical Business Searcher Medford, NJ: Information Today, 2004 • Pushing past superficial generalizations to think critically and deeply about the web site • Domain type is just the beginning of critical evaluation and analysis • Effective evaluation may call for an approach unique to that site

32. Degrees of confidence among all domain types • .com Very high • Articles from trusted magazines and other news sources • Archives of public media sites (BBC, NPR, etc.) High • Public-service organizations (many are .org) • Academic scholarly articles

33. Degrees of confidence • .com Medium • Advocacy groups/special interest sites • News wires • Company-issued white papers • Company home pages Low • Personal pages • Marketing/sales pages • Bloggers I don’t know

34. Degrees of confidence • .gov Very high • Federal statistics sites • Recognized international organizations High • Federal government information clearinghouses • Governmental public service pages

35. Degrees of confidence • .gov Medium • State/local public records information • Departmental/agency home pages (may be subject to political pressure) • Embassies/consulates

36. Degrees of confidence • .edu High • University administration pages • Faculty home pages (publication links, syllabi) • Library guides • Research center findings and reports Medium • Graduate papers Low • Undergraduate papers

37. Domain Registration • Currently unrestricted: • .com • .info • .net • .org • Currently require proof of eligibility • .edu .coop .mil • .gov .int .museum • .xxx .aero .asia

38. Using the Social Web in EvaluationInfluence Metrics • Many social media services offer data on the sites and topics their users are citing • Mining this data can be a measure of a site’s influence and popularity • Wheeler, Emily and Samara Ormundson “Evolution In Source Evaluation: Using Social Media Data” FUMSI Jan. 5, 2010

39. Influence Attributes within a website • Check for • Self-reported web traffic data • Number of comments (blog) • Intended audience • Audience profile • Incoming links (link:URL in Google)

40. A Site’s Influence Ranking Attributes

41. Sources for Influence Metrics • Alexa • Alexa traffic rank • Sites linking in • Time spent on site • Quantcast • Traffic frequency • Est. monthly US visitors • Audience demographics • Technorati • Authority • YouTube • Views • Star ratings • Comments • Twitter • Followers • Following • TwitterCounter • Twitter rank • Predicted followers in 30 days

42. Team-based Web Evaluation • Learning Goals • Discern 4 key indicators of a website’s credibility • Understand the complexity of these indicators by analyzing a given website and responding to questions using a 5-point scale • As a team, agree to a common answer for each question • As a team, articulate the rationales for these answers to the entire class

43. Subject-focused literature review workspace • http://tinyurl.com/refwhs2 • Students work as individuals • Everyone sees responses and progress • Serves as springboard for discussion • Encourages participation throughout the class • Adaptable to web evaluation assignments

44. Free Digital Collections Hunter’s Picks: http://hwshunter.weebly.com

45. Directory of Open Access Bookswww.doabooks.org • Currently 1097 free, peer-reviewed books • 27 international publishers • Companion site to Directory of Open Access Journals (www.doaj.org) with over 1231 scholarly and scientific journals worldwide

46. MITxhttp://mitx.mit.edu/ • Portfolio of free MIT courses offered through an online learning platform • Features online laboratories and student-to-student communication • Certificate of completion awarded by MIT “for a modest fee” • MIT’s OpenCourseWare will continue • “Circuits and Electronics” March-June 2012 • More courses in Fall of 2012

47. Future Directions in Searching

48. Is a universal notion of relevancy possible for today’s web searchers?What are searchers looking for and how do engines enable (or hinder) them?

49. Modalities of Search“Three Mindsets of Search” - About.com 2011http://www.advertiseonabout.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/3-Mindsets-of-Search-PR.pdf • “Answer me” 48% • Give me exactly what I ask for… • “Educate me” 26% • Broad, contextual understanding, with multiple perspectives • “Inspire me” 28% • Fun, “browsy” search; Looking for surprises, travel, etc.

50. Can any single search service based on full-text retrieval satisfy all these modalities, regardless of how many ranking algorithms come into play?