Workshop: Twelve

You will first be taken to a central page listing the categories of Bulletin Boards currently active at pvspade.com. These will always include the "Mediaeval Logic and Philosophy" category, and may from time to time include others as well (for instance, a category of Course Bulletin Boards for courses I am teaching). Unless otherwise noted, all Bulletin Boards are open to public viewing by anyone. Click on a category to view Bulletin Boards falling under that category.
All visitors to the Bulletin Boards will now be either "Registered" users or "Unregistered" ones. When you first visit a Bulletin Board, you will be "unregistered." Unregistered users can freely view all messages and replies to messages.
Users who wish to post a new message or reply to a message already posted must "register" before they are able to do so. Registration is easy and painless. But it does involve some steps designed to prevent abuse of the system. Please note that registration is valid only for the particular Bulletin Board you are visiting; if you wish to have "Registered user" status on other Bulletin Boards at pvspade.com, you will have to register for each one separately.
On various pages throughout the Bulletin Boards, usually near the top right-hand side of the page, you will find a link inviting you to "register." When you click on such a link, you will be taken to a page containing legal disclaimers and rules for proper use of the Bulletin Board. These rules are not meant not intimidate legitimate users, as you will see. If you can live with them and want to continue (and I hope you will), click on the "Agree" button at the bottom of the page.
You will next be taken to a registration page that asks you to fill in appropriate information and allows you to configure certain optional features the way you want them. The only information required is a username and a valid e-mail address.
Usernames can be up to twenty-five characters long, including spaces. Unless your name is very long, why not just use your real name, so that others on the Bulletin Boards will know immediately who you are? Please do not use "special characters" that are not part of the standard ASCII character-set for the Roman alphabet. (In other words, avoid accents, diacritical marks, and punctuation in your username.)
The valid e-mail address is essential. After registration, you will not immediately be able to post or reply to messages. Instead, the system will generate a random password and send it to the e-mail address you enter. (Thus, it won't do you any good to enter an e-mail address to which you do not have access, whether it is an otherwise valid address or not.)
After retrieving the new e-mail message with your password, you can use that password (along with the username you entered) to log into the Bulletin Board you registered for. After that, you can change your password to anything you want. You can also reconfigure other options by clicking on the "Preferences" link near the upper right-hand corner of the page (although you cannot change your username without reregistering under a new name). For instance, you can elect to be automatically notified when someone replies to a message you post. Please note: Although other users of the Bulletin Board cannot see your password, I can.

Lecture Ten Workshop

One of the most difficult things about college is the endless stream of research papers that must be written, each semester, perhaps three or more 10 to 15 page research papers a month, each requiring five to ten authoritative sources. To find authoritative sources, such as peer reviewed journals and books, students once spent countless hours in the school’s library conducting a physical search of hundreds of books and publications. While a physical search of a university or public library may help you locate good information, it is not the best way to tackle the problem.
In the past several years, Internet-based libraries have dramatically improved the ease of user access to information, they have increased their research features, and they have increased the number of publications that are available to view online. With these advancements, conducting research for school, work, or for fun now can be done by utilizing one or more of the vast number of online libraries that are now available to the general public. To understand how valuable these online libraries are, and how they can help you with your research needs, this article will examine two types of online libraries: free public access online libraries and fee-based access online libraries. The online libraries featured in this article are not your only options, but they have been presented to give you an idea of what is available, and where you can start your search for reference materials.

Lecture Twelve: Reading (URL) - The Problem with SPAM

There are the personal problems of checking your email. The more spam you recieve the harder it gets to find the valid email amongst the rubbish. In addition to this the faster you try to delete the spam the greater the risk of deleting a real email by mistake.
On another level spam stresses the infrastructure of the internet. It requires large amounts of disk space to store all the spam until it is collected and requires large amounts of data to be transmitted along the internet's many connections. Guess who ends up paying for all of this.
Spam has become a problem because of the economics. A spammer can send out millions of emails for a tiny amount of money. The number of people who respond is tiny but even a tiny fraction responding can be enough to make it profitable. It is difficult, if not impossible, to exert any sort of commercial pressure on spammers currently because the internet and email grew up in a trusted academic world. Let loose in the real world there are too many ways for a spammer to hide who they really are. There are several proposals to change this but none of them are here now.
In addition as more and more people get clued up as to how to avoid spam the spammers respond by pumping out more and more emails to try and catch those few people who don't know how to avoid spam.

Lecture Twelve: Reading (URL) - Guide to using Email

Electronic mail is a unique medium of communication. Messages can be replied to or forwarded with speed and ease, and email has the potential to reach a wide audience. These features can also be misused. There are a few basic guidelines for the responsible use of email that can help you avoid common mistakes while you enjoy the full benefits of this technology.
The privacy of an email message cannot be guaranteed. An email message may be forwarded, printed, or permanently stored by any recipient. Email can be misdirected, even when you are careful. Do not put something in an email message that you would not want read by everybody. And if you receive a message intended for someone else, let the sender know.
Email does not show the subtleties of voice or body language. Avoid attempts at irony or sarcasm. The most effective email is short, clear, and relevant. If you receive a message that makes you upset, do not respond immediately, and in any case, avoid "flaming," that is, sending an angry or rude message.
Email TipsAs you use email, keep the following tips in mind:
Email is easily forwarded to someone else. Although this is convenient it is not always appropriate. If you are unsure, ask the sender before you forward a message.
Email replies may go to more people than you realize. When replying to a message be sure to look at the list of recipients, especially addresses of mailing lists, which may redistribute your message to dozens or hundreds of individuals.
Email can be junk mail, so avoid unnecessary proliferation of messages.
Email takes up computer space, so delete messages you no longer need.
The integrity of an email message cannot be guaranteed. If a received message seems out of character for the sender, double-check before taking it seriously.
Email is meant for informal correspondence as well as scholarly, scientific, and clinical communications. You should not use email for official record purposes where a memo would be required (e.g., personnel actions, organization changes, contracts, and policy statements).
Email should not be considered private. Confidential information should not be sent by email.

Lecture Eleven: Reading (URL) - Ethics in Computing - Social Justic Issues: Electronic Monitoring

Employers want to be sure their employees are doing a good job, but employees don't want their every sneeze or trip to the water cooler logged. That's the essential conflict of workplace monitoring.
New technologies make it possible for employers to monitor many aspects of their employees' jobs, especially on telephones, computer terminals, through electronic and voice mail, and when employees are using the Internet. Such monitoring is virtually unregulated. Therefore, unless company policy specifically states otherwise (and even this is not assured), your employer may listen, watch and read most of your workplace communications.
Recent surveys have found that a majority of employers monitor their employees. They are motivated by concern over litigation and the increasing role that electronic evidence plays in lawsuits and government agency investigations. A 2005 survey by the American Management Association found that three-fourths of employers monitor their employees' web site visits in order to prevent inappropriate surfing. And 65% use software to block connections to web sites deemed off limits for employees. About a third track keystrokes and time spent at the keyboard. Just over half of employers review and retain electronic mail messages.

Computer Monitoring
If you have a computer terminal at your job, it may be your employer's window into your workspace. There are several types of computer monitoring.
Employers can use computer software that enables them to see what is on the screen or stored in the employees' computer terminals and hard disks. Employers can monitor Internet usage such as web-surfing and electronic mail.People involved in intensive word-processing and data entry jobs may be subject to keystroke monitoring. Such systems tells the manager how many keystrokes per hour each employee is performing. It also may inform employees if they are above or below the standard number of keystrokes expected. Keystroke monitoring has been linked with health problems including stress disabilities and physical problems like carpal tunnel syndrome.
Another computer monitoring technique allows employers to keep track of the amount of time an employee spends away from the computer or idle time at the terminal.

Lecture Eight: Reading (URL) - Search Engine Watch

Within Search Engine Watch
Search Engine MathThis teaches you the basic commands that are all most people need to improve their searches.
Power Searching For AnyoneThis teaches you advanced commands to help you better control your searches.
Search Assistance FeaturesSeveral search engines offer special search assistance features that many users overlook. This page explains the ones that are particularly useful.
Online Resources
Search Engine Showdownhttp://www.searchengineshowdown.com/
Search Engine Showdown is produced by writer and Montana State University Reference Librarian Greg R. Notess. In it, you'll find good content, ranging from organized comparison charts, reviews, strategies to searching and more. In particular, Notess does long-standing surveys on search engine sizes and dead links, as well as providing tutorials and noting search "inconsistencies" for some search engines -- when they don't operate the way they are supposed to. The site is updated on a regular basis.
ResearchBuzzhttp://www.researchbuzz.com/
Produced by writer Tara Calishain, this site provides great coverage of news and opinion on search and research tools.
Pandia Search Centralhttp://www.pandia.com/
Here you'll find an extensive search tutorial, a guide to search engines and search resources, "Q-cards" with searching tips for major search engines, plus the ability to search Pandia's version of the Open Directory or to meta search.
Free Pinthttp://www.freepint.com//
A free newsletter that comes out twice per month, Free Pint always seems to be something useful here relating to searching or doing research on the web.
Google Webloghttp://google.blogspace.com/
Are you Google-obsessive? Then Aaron Swartz's site with posts about all things Google might be for you.
Finding It Online: Web Search Strategieshttp://home.sprintmail.com/~debflanagan/main.html
Tutorial on using search engines, subject directories, and specialty databases to find information on the Internet fast and effectively.
Searching The World Wide Webhttp://www.tilburguniversity.nl/services/library/instruction/www/onlinecourse/
Comprehensive guide to searching the web.
The Spider's Apprenticehttp://www.monash.com/spidap.html
Up-to-date information and tips on how to search the web effectively.
LLRXhttp://www.llrx.com
LLRX.com is a unique, free Web journal dedicated to providing legal and library professionals with the most up-to-date information on a wide range of Internet research and technology-related issues, applications, resources and tools. Don't let the focus on legal issues fool you -- it's an excellent resource for searchers in all fields.
TVC Alerthttp://www.virtualchase.com/tvcalert/
TVC Alert, a free weekday research news bulletin published by legal librarian and search expert Genie Tyburski, features information industry news affecting library and legal professionals who conduct research on the Internet. Genie also offers tested research strategies for finding information of potential interest to library and legal professionals, and regularly reviews quality Web sites. TVC Alert is a companion to Genie's The Virtual Chase web site, which is loaded with useful information for searchers.
Abondancehttp://www.abondance.com/
This is a Search Engine Watch-like site for France and French-speakers. There are search tips, guides to major search engines, comparison testing and more. An outstanding resource that makes me wish I'd had more than a year of French.

Lecture Eight: Reading (URL) - The Spider's Apprentice

The Web is potentially a terrific place to get information on almost any topic. Doing research without leaving your desk sounds like a great idea, but all too often you end up wasting precious time chasing down useless URLs. Almost everyone agrees that there's gotta be a better way! But for now we're stuck with making the best use of the search tools that already exist on the Web.
It's important to give some thought to your search strategy. Are you just beginning to amass knowledge on a fairly broad subject? Or do you have a specific objective in mind--like finding out everything you can about carpal tunnel syndrome, or the e-mail address of your old college roommate?
If you're more interested in broad, general information, the first place to go is to a Web Directory. If you're after narrow, specific information, a Web search engine is probably a better choice.
Interesting in finding information about people (friends, classmates, public figures) on the Web?

Refining Your Search
Most sites offer two different types of searches--"basic" and "refined" or "advanced." In a "basic" search, you just enter a keyword without sifting through any pulldown menus of additional options. Depending on the engine, though, "basic" searches can be quite complex.
Advanced search refining options differ from one search engine to another, but some of the possibilities include the ability to search on more than one word, to give more weight to one search term than you give to another, and to exclude words that might be likely to muddy the results. You might also be able to search on proper names, on phrases, and on words that are found within a certain proximity to other search terms.
Some search engines also allow you to specify what form you'd like your results to appear in, and whether you wish to restrict your search to certain fields on the internet (i.e., usenet or the Web) or to specific parts of Web documents (i.e., the title or URL).
Many, but not all search engines allow you to use so-called Boolean operators to refine your search. These are the logical terms AND, OR, NOT, and the so-called proximal locators, NEAR and FOLLOWED BY.
Boolean AND means that all the terms you specify must appear in the documents, i.e., "heart" AND "attack." You might use this if you wanted to exclude common hits that would be irrelevant to your query.
Boolean OR means that at least one of the terms you specify must appear in the documents, i.e., bronchitis, acute OR chronic. You might use this if you didn't want to rule out too much.
Boolean NOT means that at least one of the terms you specify must not appear in the documents. You might use this if you anticipated results that would be totally off-base, i.e., nirvana AND Buddhism, NOT Cobain.
Not quite Boolean + and - Some search engines use the characters + and - instead of Boolean operators to include and exclude terms.
NEAR means that the terms you enter should be within a certain number of words of each other. FOLLOWED BY means that one term must directly follow the other. ADJ, for adjacent, serves the same function. A search engine that will allow you to search on phrases uses, essentially, the same method (i.e., determining adjacency of keywords).
Phrases: The ability to query on phrases is very important in a search engine. Those that allow it usually require that you enclose the phrase in quotation marks, i.e., "space the final frontier."
Capitalization: This is essential for searching on proper names of people, companies or products. Unfortunately, many words in English are used both as proper and common nouns--Bill, bill, Gates, gates, Oracle, oracle, Lotus, lotus, Digital, digital--the list is endless.
All the search engines have different methods of refining queries. The best way to learn them is to read the help files on the search engine sites and practice!
Relevancy Rankings
Most of the search engines return results with confidence or relevancy rankings. In other words, they list the hits according to how closely they think the results match the query. However, these lists often leave users shaking their heads on confusion, since, to the user, the results may seem completely irrelevant.
Why does this happen? Basically it's because search engine technology has not yet reached the point where humans and computers understand each other well enough to communicate clearly.
Most search engines use search term frequency as a primary way of determining whether a document is relevant. If you're researching diabetes and the word "diabetes" appears multiple times in a Web document, it's reasonable to assume that the document will contain useful information. Therefore, a document that repeats the word "diabetes" over and over is likely to turn up near the top of your list.
If your keyword is a common one, or if it has multiple other meanings, you could end up with a lot of irrelevant hits. And if your keyword is a subject about which you desire information, you don't need to see it repeated over and over--it's the information about that word that you're interested in, not the word itself.
Some search engines consider both the frequency and the positioning of keywords to determine relevancy, reasoning that if the keywords appear early in the document, or in the headers, this increases the likelihood that the document is on target. For example, one method is to rank hits according to how many times your keywords appear and in which fields they appear (i.e., in headers, titles or plain text). Another method is to determine which documents are most frequently linked to other documents on the Web. The reasoning here is that if other folks consider certain pages important, you should, too.
If you use the advanced query form on AltaVista, you can assign relevance weights to your query terms before conducting a search. Although this takes some practice, it essentially allows you to have a stronger say in what results you will get back.
As far as the user is concerned, relevancy ranking is critical, and becomes more so as the sheer volume of information on the Web grows. Most of us don't have the time to sift through scores of hits to determine which hyperlinks we should actually explore. The more clearly relevant the results are, the more we're likely to value the search engine.

Lecture Eight: Reading (URL) - Robert Harris: "Web Search Strategies"

• Search Engines. A search engine consists of the interface you use to type in a query, an index of Web sites that the query is matched with, and a software program (called a spider or bot) that goes out on the Web and gets new sites for the index. The bot crawls the Web at certain intervals, in order to index new material. When you use a search engine, you are asking it to look in its index to find matches with the words you have typed in. Some search engines index not only the World Wide Web, but also Usenet newsgroups. Many search engines are now becoming reference sites which contain much more than just search capability. They may also have news, weather, free software, picture indexes, ratings of web sites, and other features. There are several hundred search engines, but they fall into a handful of types:
  Global. This type of engine, typified by Google, Fast Search, Northern Light, HotBot, AltaVista, and others, reads pages from all over the world in many languages. These engines may index more than a billion pages.
  Regional. Some search engines are limited geographically. For example, only information on Web sites in Australia may be indexed.
  Targeted. These search engines limit themselves to one subject, like biography, medicine, graphics, art, fishing, and so forth.
  Reference. These provide information from a set of reference works, such as an encyclopedia. Britannica, Bartleby and xrefer are examples.

• Directories. Directories are categorized lists of sites picked out by human editors. Directory databases are therefore much smaller than those of search engines. However, the fact that the sites are hand picked often means that you will find very high quality sites or articles in the results. Example directories are Yahoo, Look Smart, and Snap.

• FOREST LOG. Here is a scheme, called FOREST LOG, to help generate search terms. Suppose, for example, you wish to research the validity of testing. Here is how you might use the Forest Log scheme to generate terms.
  FO Forms
  Forms or variants of the words you are thinking of. For example, if you search on validity of testing, you may miss a page that discusses validity of tests. So you should include the forms: test, testing, tests. Many search engines allow wild cards to cover most forms by using a wild card, often an asterisk, as in test*.
  RE Related Terms
  Related to testing is measurement, assessment, performance, criteria, judgment, evaluation, and so forth. A search only on validity of test* will miss validity of performance measures.
  ST Synonymous Terms
  What other words are synonymous or used in place of the word test? What about exam, examination, assessment, quiz, midterm? As another example, suppose you search under apple growing, and find a few items but not what you want. What other possible phrases might be used in an article that would cover this topic? You might search on fruit tree farming, fruit orchards, Washington Red Delicious, etc.
  LOG Ladder of Generalization
  The higher on the ladder, the more general or comprehensive the term, while the lower on the ladder, the more specific the term. Thus, for example, a list of terms related to testing, from most general to most specific, might include measurement, assessment, testing, performance test, weightlifting performance test. When you are developing a set of search terms and searching with them, if you do not get the results you want, move up or down the ladder of generalization and generate some more terms.

Lecture Seven: Workshop

Utility Patents cover "inventions" -- a machine, an article of manufacture, a method of doing something, a chemical or DNA sequence or the method of its use, products of genetic engineering, or improvements to any of these things.Plant Patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers, and asexually reproduces, a new variety of certain kinds of plants. (Note that other kinds of plants, especially those altered by genetic engineering, may be protectable under utility patents).Design Patents cover the ornamental appearance of a useful device but not its function. For example, the body shape of a Porsche "Targa" automobile and the case of the IBM Selectric® typewriter were the subject of design patents.Trademarks cover the name or some other symbol (logo) which represent the source of a product or service. eg. The name, logo or the shape of the product.Copyrights protect works of authorship, composition, or artistry.Trade secret is the privacy of not reviling the contents of a product. eg. Coke-Cola and the ingredients that go into it.Domain names can be registered as TRADEMARKS.
Authority: Who made this site and do they have the authority to do so?Accuracy: Is the content of this site accurate and is there evidence to support it?Objectivity: What wasd the reason the author made this site? For personal, acidemic or finatual reasons?Details: The organisation of the site. Editing and how up to date it is.Value: Does the site offer the informationfor the topic that you are researching? Was the visit to this site worth it?

Looking at the two sites, www.theonion.com and www.martinlutherking.org it is clear that these sites are not ment to be taken seriously because they don't successfully cover the relivent topic that ensure true data.

Week Three: Reading - PowerPoint Tutorial

Creating a slide from scratch

In the next step you will create a Title Slide for your presentation using the Blank Presentation option. You will be working in Slide View.

1. Open the PowerPoint program. The PowerPoint dialog box appears.

2. In the PowerPoint dialog box, click the Blank Presentation option button. The New Slide dialog box appears. It asks you to choose an AutoLayout format.

3. Click the Title Slide layout. It's the first in the list. The name Title Slide appears in the preview box.

4. Click OK. A Title Slide appears, ready for you to work with.

Note: The PowerPoint dialog box appears only when you first launch the program. If you are already working in PowerPoint and want to create a new blank presentation, click the New button on the Standard Toolbar or follow these steps:

1. Click the File menu, then Click New.

2. In the New Presentation dialog box, click Blank Presentation, and then click OK.

Adding text to a slide
The Title Slide layout contains text boxes for a title and a subtitle. Try typing text into these boxes.

1. Click in the Title text box. A thick gray border appears around the text box indicating that it is selected.

2. Type a title.


3. Click the Subtitle text box and type a subtitle.
Congratulations! You've just created your first slide in PowerPoint 97.



Adding another slide

1. Click the New Slide button on the Common Tasks toolbar.

2. The AutoLayout dialog box will appear. Choose a layout for your next slide.


It's as easy as the click of a button. Literally. Just click and you've moved to a new slide.


Moving from slide to slide

Let's say you've created several slides for your presentation. You've finished working on the last slide, and now you want to take a look at your other slides. Here's how you move from slide to slide in Slide View.

1. Click the upper double-arrow button on the lower right corner of the PowerPoint window. The previous slide will appear.

1. Click the lower double-arrow button on the lower right corner of the PowerPoint window.

Information Management & Electronic Environments

The transition from paper to electronic recordkeeping has drastically affected the records we maintain personally in our offices and cubicles. We correspond via e-mail, often with reports, schedules, meeting notices, and policies as electronic attachments, all of which are filed electronically. Hard drives with multiple-gigabyte capacity, recordable CDs, and 100 MB zip diskettes have replaced our personal file cabinets and the physical filing space for which we once fought. We may still print the documents we need to review, but we toss the paper in the trash once the matter is closed.
Yet, even with such extensive changes, the records management rules for handling the paper-based files in our desks and cubicles now apply to files electronically created and stored. Three of these principles have proved especially applicable:
1. An organization owns all records, individual as well as shared, that are created or maintained through its resources.
2. Abstain from filing records needlessly and purge or archive the ones we do file as soon as they become obsolete or inactive.
3. Logically organize the records that we do keep so that the same record cannot be in two places.
Organizational Ownership
That an organization owns all records created or maintained through its resources is the concept that legitimizes the fundamental component of any records management program - the organization's determination of how, where, and for how long each records series is retained. Organizational ownership is what precludes storing company records in employees' garages or automobile trunks, and prohibits employees from assuming that the records they have created or filed are their own personal property, to purge, save indefinitely, or take with them when they retire.
In an electronic environment, ownership rules do not really change, but, for several reasons, they are less clear-cut and more difficult to enforce.
Electronic records are easier to copy and transport than paper. Also, many employees do much of their work at home either via modem or through a synchronized copy made using Microsoft Windows' Briefcase feature. Some employees take copies of applications they have developed or used when they transfer to new companies. So long as such copied data contains no trade secrets and gives the new company no unwarranted competitive advantage, no one is really concerned.
Finally, there is a sense that office PCs are exactly what the name implies: personal computers. They contain records that their owners alone have created, selected, and organized without collaboration or assistance. If someone decides to keep files longer than a retention schedule specifies, or to take a copy home for personal use, who is to say they are wrong?
However, the reasons behind the organization's ownership do not disappear if records migrate from file cabinets to PCs. The company is liable for the release of any incriminating, sensitive, or confidential information that these records may contain. It will still suffer - perhaps disastrously - if the records are not properly preserved or disposed of in accordance with the organization's records retention schedule. The company still has a right - and sometimes a real need - to freely access those records.
To satisfy all these needs for the company to assert its ownership requires numerous technical modifications to currently independent PC hard drives, and PCs must be networked into an enterprisewide, comprehensive, electronic document management system. Even more important is the need to change our mind-set.
Information managers in the past had to campaign to convince coworkers that the content of desk files and two-drawer lateral files were truly company property, which they could not deal with as they pleased. The equally important - but more difficult - challenge is to persuade colleagues to take a similar view of the files in their PCs.
Saying "No" to Document Accumulation
The primary role of 20th century records management has been to control the growth of business records, reduce the expense of storage space, and reduce the burden of excessive or obsolete records on office productivity. Today, lack of storage space for departmental and/or personal files is no longer a significant problem: standard PC hard drives are commonly 4 GB-6 GB.
But the link between office productivity and the control of record growth is as valid in the electronic era as it was in the paper age. A clerk requires much less time to find a document in a file with only one year of relevant information than in one containing 10 years' worth especially if the larger file includes junk along with what is valuable. Anyone who has spent long minutes staring at a blinking hourglass or "searching" message has verified this lesson: a PC's search time, no matter how fast its processing chip, is proportional to the number of records through which it must search.
In some respects, the problem of uncontrolled records accumulation is even more critical with the PC than it was with stored paper files. As users continue to save and duplicate files, they do not have the visual cue of a geometrically expanding heap of paper to remind them of the need to control accumulation. Indeed, many electronic records are "hidden," temporary files generated by the operating system in order to accommodate the system's limited random access memory, or by other applications that generate additional files as a necessary part of their operation.

Information Literacy Tutorial.

This Tutorial is a self-paced instructional resource designed to assist Spring Hill College students master information literacy skills. The Pre-Test will help you assess your knowledge before you begin the Tutorial. The Lessons provide detailed instruction and are the core of the Tutorial. There is a Quiz for each lesson to test your understanding of the information presented. To take full advantage of the Tutorial you should read each lesson before you take the quizzes. Apply what you have learned by doing the Assignments. Each is an actual research task. Learning how to do the individual parts of the whole research process will prepare you for the kinds of projects your professors will expect.
What is a Scholarly Journal? Chart
Evaluation of Web AND Print Resources
Library of Congress Classification
Read the Lessons and take the quizzes before you attempt these assignments.
Developing a Research Strategy
Library Catalog
Evaluating WWW Sites
Subject Encyclopedias 4.1. Write Your Own Subject Encyclopedia Entry
Incorporating Statistical Sources
Using Companions and Handbooks

Lecture Twelve: Reading (URL) - Chat Room Primer

How does IRC work?
Internet relay chat is where people can communicate at the same time with people all over the world. Seperate networks of IRC servers. Once connected to an IRC server on an IRC network, you will usually join one or more "channels" and converse with others there.

Some details
Channel names usually begin with a #, as in #irchelp . The same channels are shared among all IRC servers on the same net, so you do not have to be on the same IRC server as your friends. (There are also channels with names beginning with a & instead of a #. These channels are not shared by all servers on the net but exist locally on that server only.) Others can view your 'nick' eg. Wallydog. To avoid conflict among others use a less common name eg. Ben is a bad choise. Channels are run by channel operators, or just "ops" for short, who can control the channel by choosing who may join (by "banning" some users), who must leave (by "kicking" them out), and even who may speak (by making the channel "moderated")! Channel ops have complete control over their channel, and their decisions are final. If you are banned from a channel, send a /msg to a channel op and ask nicely to be let in (see the /who command in the next section to learn how to find ops). If they ignore you or /who gives no response because the channel is in secret mode (+s), just go somewhere else where you are more welcome.

Talking and entering commands
Commands and text are typed in the same place. By default, commands begin with the character / .

What you type
What happens
/join #coolness: You join the channel #coolness.
/who #coolness: Gives some info on users in the channel.@ = channel op, while * means IRC op.
hello everyone: Everyone on #coolness sees hello everyone. (You need not type in your own nick.)
/me is a pink bunny: Everyone in #coolness sees * yournick is a pink bunny
/leave #coolness: You leave the channel.
/whois Tomm: You get some info about Tomm or whatever nickname you entered.
/whois yournick: This is some info others see about you.
/nick newnick: Changes your nick to "newnick"
/msg Tomm hi there.: Only Tomm sees your message (you don't need to be on the same channel for this to work).
/ping #coolness: Gives information on the delay (round-trip) between you and everybody on #coolness.
/ping Tomm: Gives information on the delay (round-trip) between you and just Tomm.

Where to go
You can learn a lot by joining a channel and just listening and talking for a while. For starters, try these channels: #new2irc, #newuser, #newbies, or #chatback. Busier alternatives include: #chat, and #ircbar.

Smileys and jargon
:-) is a smiley face, tilt your head to the left to see it. Likewise, :-( is a frown. ;-) is a wink. :~~( is crying, while :-P is someone sticking their tongue out. :-P ~~ is drooling. (-: a lefty's smile, etc. There are hundreds of these faces.
Here are some common acronyms used in IRC: brb = be right back bbiaf = be back in a flash
bbl = be back later ttfn = ta ta for now
np = no problem imho = in my humble opinion
lol = laughing out loud j/k = just kidding
re = hi again, as in 're hi' wb = welcome back
wtf = what the f--k rtfm = read the f--king manual
rotfl = rolling on the floor laughing

IRC server problems, and choosing a server
At this point, you are ready to "chat" on IRC. For the most part, the commands above should suffice for beginners, but things can go wrong in IRC.
Net splits
Networks can become divided (called a "net split"), thus separating you from users you had been speaking with. These splits are often relatively short, though common some days.
Lag
A more frequent problem is "lag", where there is a noticeable delay between the time you type something in and someone else reads it. Choosing a server near you is one way to try to lessen lag. Lag can be measured by using the /ping command (see the commands section above). Once you find a better server, the command for changing servers is /server server.name.here.
Server Lists
On most clients, typing /links gives a list of servers on your current net. Use this command sparingly, no more than a couple times in a row, or you may mistaken for a "link looking" troublemaker.
Ping? Pong!
mIRC users: Ping? Pong! in the status window just means your server pinged you to make sure you were still connected, and your client automatically replied with a pong. Don't worry about these.
Reminder about DCC chat
The /dcc chat command can be used to establish a one-on-one connection that avoids lag and will not be broken by a net split! Check your docs for usage info. In most clients, you can set up a DCC chat connection by both typing /dcc chat nick_of_other_person. To talk through that connection, type /msg =nick whatever (note the = sign). In mIRC, you can also start a DCC chat session by selecting DCC and then Chat from the menu and then entering the nick of the user with whom you wish to chat. A window opens for that dcc chat session.

A word of warning
IRC scripts are sets of commands that your client will run. Many otherwise good scripts have been hacked so that if you load them, you can seriously compromise your security (someone can get into your account, delete all of your files, read your mail, etc.). There are also evildoers who try to send people viruses and other bad things. Just like in real life, don't accept anything from a stranger. There have been many incidents of this type, not just a few. Do not ever run a script unless you know what each line does, not even if it is given to you by a friend, as your friend may not have the expertise to detect well-hidden "trojans".

Music, Copyright & The Internet

"Like it or not (I'm guessing not), music is intellectual property that gets licensed, not sold. When you buy a CD, you're only buying the hard media that comes with a license to listen to the music that is recorded on that media. The fair use exception to copyright gives you some wiggle room about what you can do with that disc, such as make an archive recording, play the disc on your PC (an act which probably causes the PC to make a few different extra copies of the music as it plays the disc), etc.The owner of a copyright has the freedom to license some, all, or none of the rights that come bundled with the over-arching copyright to a protected work. The owner can license only the right to listent to the music on that disk, or he can license a right to perform the song, or to play it in public, or to incorporate that song into a movie or television commercial. This is not evil (or even greedy)... it is merely the nature of a copyright."

Emails and Attached Viruses

NEVER OPEN EMAIL MESSAGES WITH FILE ATTACHMENTS.
An executable file. NEVER OPEN an attachment with this icon. Viruses are usually spread via *.exe and *.com files (program files), this is the icon that represents program files. High risk of viruses.
This icon is just as dangerous as the *.exe icon above. The icon indicates that the file type is unknown. High risk of viruses.
Always scan a Word document, *.doc, for viruses prior to opening it. Word documents can contain Macro viruses which can be potentially harmful to your system. High risk of viruses.
Excel files can also contain Macro viruses which can be potentially harmful to your system. Always scan a Excel document, *.xls, for viruses prior to opening it. High risk of viruses.
Zip files, *.zip, are compressed files (they can contain Word, Excel, Jpeg, Gif, html, or any other file type including viruses). High risk of viruses.
A forwarded message. The message contains an attached email message, *.eml (usually a joke or information that someone is forwarding to you). The messages typically have Fw: in the subject line (the message was forwarded from someone else). It is possible for the attached email message to contain a virus.

A jpeg or a gif image. (These icons may look different on your system.) In Outlook Express jpeg and gif images are automatically inserted as a part of the body of the message. Beware, some viruses have jpg in the filename to try and fool you into thinking that the virus is just a picture. If the attachment has jpeg in the name, but has a program or unknown icon (above) it is probably a virus.
Someone is sending you a web page link to view. Notice the little arrow on the icon, it indicates a shortcut to a web site and they are usually safe.
This indicates that an entire web page has been included in the email. Notice that this icon does not have the little arrow. Because web pages can contain potentially harmful code be sure you are familiar with the site before you open the attachment. Tip: When you want to share a web site with someone, it is better to forward the link rather than the entire web page. In Internet Explorer click File > Send > Link by E-mail.

Norton Antivirus - Click Start > Programs > Norton Antivirus > Live Update - Norton Antivirus. You do not need to change any settings, click the Next button until you get a pop-up box asking you to click OK, click OK and click Finish. Reboot your machine if prompted to.
McAfee Antivirus - Click Start > Programs > Network Associates > Virus Scan Console. At the Virus Scan Console dialog box right click Auto Update and then click Start.Scheduling virus protection - It's a good idea to schedule the virus protection software to automatically update the "dat" files:
Norton Antivirus - Start > Programs > Norton Antivirus > Norton Antivirus (2001). Click Scheduling > Add Event. The Scheduling Wizard will appear, click Next. Click Schedule LiveUpdate to update your virus protection and click Next. Type Update Virus Scan in the Event Name box and click Next. Select the frequency of the update (I update Daily) and click Next. Set the time of day that you want the update to run (The machine must be turned and connected to the Internet in order for the update to be performed, so try and schedule a time that you know you will be on-line. If the machine is not on at the scheduled time, the update will run as soon as the machine is turned on.) and click Next and click Finish.
McAfee - Start > Programs > Network Associates > VirusScan Console. Right click the AutoUpdate item in the VirusScan Console window and click Properties. Click the Schedule tab. I schedule my virus protection to Run Daily, Start at 16:00 (4:00 p.m.). Schedule your protection to run whenever it's convenient for you. (The machine must be turned and connected to the Internet in order for the update to be performed, so try and schedule a time that you know you will be on-line. If the machine is not on at the scheduled time, the update will run as soon as the machine is turned on.). After deciding your schedule, click OK and Close the VirusScan Console Window.

Intellectual Property Rights Overview

Does the nature of the technology require us to change the legal understanding or status of copyright as it stands now? What rights should be associated with Web content? How should the rights be expressed, and should the expression of the rights be used for notification, enforcement, or payment negotiation? We expect the answer to these questions does not lie solely in technology nor policy, but the rational combination of both.

Utility Patents cover "inventions" -- a machine, an article of manufacture, a method of doing something, a chemical or DNA sequence or the method of its use, products of genetic engineering, or improvements to any of these things.
Plant Patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers, and asexually reproduces, a new variety of certain kinds of plants. (Note that other kinds of plants, especially those altered by genetic engineering, may be protectable under utility patents).
Design Patents cover the ornamental appearance of a useful device but not its function. For example, the body shape of a Porsche "Targa" automobile and the case of the IBM Selectric® typewriter were the subject of design patents.
Trademarks cover the name or some other symbol (logo) which represent the source of a product or service. eg. The name, logo or the shape of the product.
Copyrights protect works of authorship, composition, or artistry.
Trade secret is the privacy of not reviling the contents of a product. eg. Coke-Cola and the ingredients that go into it.
Domain names can be registered as TRADEMARKS.

Viruses and how to avoid them

The fact is, virus coders are becoming more sophisticated every day. As computer users become more educated and anti virus software gets more effective, virus coders are always looking for ways to get past both internet users and anti virus software.
This means that users need to remain ever vigilant to avoid becoming the victim of a potentially very harmful computer virus. It is important for every computer owner to know that not all viruses are the same. Some computer viruses are just annoying, generating popup ads as you browse the web, or increasing the amount of SPAM you receive.
Other types of computer virus, however, can be more dangerous. Some computer viruses can wipe out a hard drive, or steal your personal information and files. To make matters worse, some computer viruses are able to hide in a computer for some time, activating at a future date and doing their damage when triggered by certain events or dates.
Fortunately, computer owners do not have to be at the mercy of computer virus coders. There are a number of measures computer users can take to protect themselves from viruses, Trojan horses, adware, spyware and other malicious code on the internet.
For starters, it is essential that all computer users install a good quality anti virus software program BEFORE their computer is connected to the internet. This is because there are programs that constantly search the internet, looking for computers that are unprotected by virus scanning software. A recent survey by a security organisation found that it takes only minutes for a computer to become infected with viruses and spyware. Installing an anti virus software program is vital to protecting yourself from these malicious programs.
It is also important to update that anti virus software program on a regular basis. In the past, many computer security experts recommended doing updates on a weekly basis, but most agree that weekly updates are no longer sufficient. It is generally best to update the anti virus software you install daily, and to schedule those updates to run automatically. Running the updates automatically will ensure you do not forget to update the software, and running the updates daily will ensure that you are protected against the latest threats.
Most users will want to schedule the updates to their virus scanning software to occur during the night, when they are asleep. Running these updates when the computer is not in use is a good idea for a number of reasons. For one thing, updating the anti virus software when the computer is not in use will ensure that there are no conflicts, and that the program is able to update itself to detect the latest computer virus. Running the updates after hours will also prevent the updates from interfering with web surfing or any other activity. Running a computer virus protection update can sometimes interfere with other software, so it is best to run it automatically, when you do not need the computer for other things.

12 Ways to Protect Yourself Online

1. Don't reveal your persobnal details online. This is because people can track your from your personal details and get into your bank account or credit card. If you publish your hiome details then anhyone can have access to know where you live.
2. Using cookies. When using cookies the computwer wilol save your searches, usernames and passwiords for you. This is handy because it saves you time. The downfall of this tool is that if someone else uses the computer then they too can access you account saved passwords and usernames in your cookies.
3. Using several email accounts. This helps the user by allowing an email account for important emails from people like bosses, friends and family and anouther account for applying to mailing lists, chatrooms, newsgroups ect.. or other groups that you expect of recieve alot of junkmail from. The 'side' account allows you to keep your 'clean' email not filled up with lots of emails that your not going to read and leaving space for the important emails.
4. Don't give out you details to people that you have just meet. As trustworthy as theyh m,ay seem these people could turn out tmo be a peterfile at a face to face meeting or they might be some other figure that may be harmful to you or anyone else close to you.
5. Monitoring at work. Watch out and avoid of the use of personal information because many empolyers monitor the use of the web of their employees. Also make sure that you send your email to the right person and not to a wholegroup of people... Check the heading before you send.
6. Sites giving out prizes. You probably won't win but the markets can use your imformation and pass it on to other marketers.
7. Don't reply to spammers. Even the reply that you don't want anymore of their emails should be avoided because they won't stop sending them to you. If you are getting alot of 'spam' then use a filter such as:

Pam Hater ( http://www.cix.co.uk/~net-services/spam/spam_hater.htm ) for Windows users

TAG ( http://alcor.concordia.ca/topics/email/auto/procmail/spam ) for experienced Unix users

SpamBouncer ( http://www.spambouncer.org ) for experienced Unix users (works well with TAG)

BrightMail ( http://www.brightmail.com/ ) for ISPs

SpamCop ( http://spamcop.net/ ) for anyone

More information on fighting spam is available at:Elsop's Anti-Spam Page ( http://www.elsop.com/wrc/nospam.htm );MaximumDownforce's Info-n-Links Page( http://www.maximumdownforce.com/hotlinks.html );Whew's Anti-Spam Campaign ( http://www.whew.com/Spammers/ ).

8. Internet security.

9. Home computer security.

10. Take note of privacy policies and seals

11. It's YOUR choice to do what YOU want with your personal details.

12. Use encryption!

Evaluating 2 sites

American Cultural History: 1960-1969

Authority: Susan Goodwin and she wrote this because she reasearched this topic and had a good understanding of it.
Accuracy: There is no real evidence that the information on this site is accurate but the author doesa provide references.
Objectivity: Goodwin made this page to share her understanding of Americam cultural history.
Details: There doesn't appear to be any grammar and spelling errors on this site and all the links work. The site was last updated July 2005.
Value: This site's topic has no intrest to me.

The Sixties Project

Authority: Kali Tal, who is a lecturer in Comparative Cultural and Literary Studies at the University of Arizona.
Accuracy: Well they said that the information at this site is writen by the person opinionand experiences of the people that experienced this time.
Objectivity: The reson that they made this site is to not only let people know about the time of the sixties but to allow people that have had experience during this time to share their throughts, feelings and opinions.
Details: The site was last updated on the 28th of January 1999... not resently updated. There is no ovious spelling or punchuation mistakes.
Value: This site has no appeal to me at all.