Entries from September 2006
There is a link being passed around the library community with Michael Colbert’s report on Wikipedia. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7W42aE9kao&mode=related&search. This video critiques the credibility of wikipedia, an online encyclopedia where anyone could add or change entries.
For the good or bad, I believe wikipedia is here to stay. I admit that I have used it as a resource for certain types of questions, especially those which require recent/current information, that is not yet available in books; that said, I would not personally resort to wikipedia as an authoritative resource. Instead, I would look to more authoritative sources to confirm what is said in wikipedia. Still, much like with the Internet, books and journal articles can not always be trusted, that is why it is crucial to confirm what is said in more than one resource.
Categories: wikipedia
As an alternative to Health Watch, a librarian friend has recommended checking out Quackwatch. It is a site run by Stephen Barrett MD and apparently there are no ties to government or the AMA. According to the site, there are 152 volunteers who write reviews and are on the lookout for scams, fraud, and investigating questionable claims.
Categories: Health · Medical
Thank you to everyone who replied to my post on tags! I have now successfully switched this blog over to Blogger in Beta and have tags (or as they call them… labels). It is surprising easy and there is a helpful feature so once you have entered a label Blogger remembers it and autopopulates the field when you begin typing a label that looks similar.
Categories: Blogger · Tags
September 26, 2006 · 1 Comment
The latest issue of YORKU magazine recommends Media Doctor a website devoted to getting the real information out there about medical treatments which the media is unable to provide. The site covers drugs and treatments and reviews and assesses stories in the media. There are 13 reviewers that are part of the MD project, five of them are Canadian physicians. The Media Doctor site is funded by Industry Canada.
Categories: Health · Medical
September 24, 2006 · 4 Comments
If anyone knows how to create tags in their blog and wouldn’t mind explaining to me or sending me a link on where I could go to learn more I’d really appreciate it! I think it is a useful addition and would like to learn how to do that.
On another note, I have noticed that the Blogger template says comments (in the plural form) for every post made – no matter how many comments are posted. I know it is a minor issue, but I wish I knew how to change this since it doesn’t look very professional to have grammatical errors filling the page…
If I ever learn html then I will attempt to resolve these issues, but until then, comments in the plural will have to suffice.
~K.
Categories: Blogger · Tags
I just started reading John Battelle’s book “The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture” and am finding it fascinating to note how search has changed over the years. Battelle comments about how the Dewey system would not be able to handle the amount of material on the Internet and it makes me wonder if there is a better way since although I find search engines helpful, I also find that I waste a lot of time using them since I have to do multiple searches tweaking the terminology to find what I really want. Also, it worries me that Google now has this database (Battelle calls it the “database of intentions”) that shows everythingsearched on their site and they use that to their benefit by targeting searchers with advertisements related to their searches.
What makes the book interesting is that it is not only about the success of Google, but about the history of searching the Internet and how it has developed over the years and its effect on culture too. It talks about some of the problems and benefits of search and gets into some ideas of what Battelle thinks search may look like in the future – and I was so glad to see and hear that he does not discredit the role of reference librarians ~phew! Some of the book does talk over my head a bit as I am not completely up on all the terminology and don’t have a computer science degree, however I am understanding the base concepts and ideas and am finding it truly fascinating, so I thought I’d recommend this one to anyone interested.
Work cited:
Battelle, J. (2005). The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture. New York: Portfolio.
Categories: Book Review · Google · search engine
September 21, 2006 · 1 Comment
Believe it or not, many local libraries have high quality, valuable electronic databases which their clientele may access from home! These are great resources which enable users to access free and (usually) legitimate information. The trouble is that many people don’t even realize that they have access to this service, or that it even exists. Dotto Tech will be airing an episode on CityTV about how to use your public library’s electronic databases on October 7, 2006.
For more information, please check the website: http://www.citytv.com/ and don’t worry… if you miss the episode (it is a long weekend here in Canada after all) it will be available at http://www.dottotech.com/.
Categories: databases · public libraries
The reference to being “locked in the library” is in part a reference to Virginia Woolf who writes in her essay “A Room of One’s Own” about being forbidden from entry to an academic library:
[…] here I was actually at the door which leads into the library itself. I must have opened it, for instantly there issued, like a guardian angel barring the way with a flutter of black gwn instead of white wings, a deprecating, silvery, kindly gentlemen, who regretted in a low voice as he waved me back that ladies are only admitted to the library if accompanied by a Fellow of the College or furnished with a letter of introduction. (1993, p. 7)
Woolf is so angered that she curses the library and vows never to return. (Fortunately, this experience did not stop Woolf from writing and helping to pave the way for women.)
Although being locked out of a library is hardly a problem for me, I take heed from Woolf’s words and am careful not to be locked in the library in both the literal and figurative sense. Since libraries are for the most part filled with media, it could be argued that they contain a record of the recent and historical past. When Woolf was locked out of the library she had the opportunity to come up with her own ideas and her own style of writing. Academic communities share and build upon one another’s work in order to create new ideas, but at the same time, some academics may feel limited to pursuing only academic work for fear of ridicule by colleagues. Thus, although libraries open up many doors to knowledge, they are not the only place where answers can be found; thus, it is increasingly important for me as a librarian not to be locked in the library.
Work cited:
Woolf, V. (1993). A room of one’s own. In V. Woolf, A Room of One’s Own/Three Guineas (pp. 3-103). Toronto, ON: Penguin Books.
Categories: academic libraries · access
September 21, 2006 · 3 Comments
cybrarian
A cybrarian is a library and information specialist who also specializes in using the Internet as a reference and resource tool. (Knowles, 2005)
Work Cited:
Knowles, G. (2005). Cybrarian. In Whatis?com: The leading IT encyclopedia and learning centre. Retrieved September 20, 2005, from: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci213634,00.html
Categories: IT Encyclopedia
