I liked this week's guided tour through the different kinds of sources of information available to economists (and probably most social scientists). Economics is something I am painfully clueless about so it was interesting to read about what economists study (much more than money) and how they are studying it.
I am always interested in free sources of data. I took classes on GIS in my undergrad, and while it was sometimes tedious, the possibilities of what you could do with just a collection of numbers was pretty amazing to me. I think a lot of people conceive of libraries as places where you go to get books and maybe access journals, but especially undergrads probably never consider having to search for data sets. At least at KSU, I think this is probably because we never really had to. We are given data sets to work with in our classes, probably with the assumption that we will develop the skills needed to collect or find our own when we get to that point in our academic or professional careers. Anyway, lists like these http://rfe.org/showCat.php?cat_id=3 could open up possibilities for students and researchers alike to pursue interests of theirs. Our jobs as librarians will be just as much to be able connect patrons to data as it will be to connect them to information...
... and showing them how to use it. http://rfe.org/showCat.php?cat_id=86. More and more we are expected to know how to use computers and computer programs and troubleshoot problems, but working in the sciences or around scientists, we should have some understanding of the kind of programs they use. We should be versed in basic database usage and statistical analysis. It might even benefit us in our own projects.
On the other end of the spectrum from data are Reddit and podcasts, I would say. Both of these sources are great for keeping up to date on new developments and ideas in the field without having to get in to anything too technical. Especially in the case of Reddit, a lot of the articles are relatively short and digestible. Many of the topics on Econtalk sounded fascinating. Something like that would be a great substitute to your normal radio or podcast show in the morning. Here are some more: http://www.learnoutloud.com/subcategory_podcast.php?cat=0&catid=31&level=1&id=51&.
http://guides.lib.purdue.edu/content.php?pid=129114 This was a great LibGuide from Purdue which highlights the different government sources from which we can get economic information. One benefit of these sources is that they are usually free. They are also detailed and extremely relevant. I have seen links to stories and research published by Federal Reserve Banks before. They are available both here http://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/default.htm and from the individual banks at :http://www.federalreserve.gov/otherfrb.htm.
Economics is often the topic of either the regular posts or the news story posting over at the Internet Scout. I've posted this before but couldn't resist because it was so topical. With all of the available sources online, I wonder how much of these accounted for the numbers which showed both faculty and students preferring online resources. While those numbers might look alarming at first glance, there are a lot of really great resources out there. It is not such a bad thing when the quality of information and data is so high.
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Economics Module Reference Book -- 2013 State Profile Ohio
State Profile 2013, published by Woods & Poole Economics, is a resource which has compiled well over 100 pieces of economic data for the years 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, 2011, and 2015, with additional projections for the years 2015, 2020, 2030, and 2040 for the nation, states, metropolitan areas, smaller urban agglomerations, and counties. Included in Kent State's reference collection is only the publication with pages for Ohio, but data for all states can be purchased. The data ranges from purely demographic (population by age and race) to education, employment, income, industry, and sales information.
I could see this information forming the basis of a variety of geographically focused economic studies. The data itself comes from various sources: the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Census and American Community Survey, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Woods & Poole Economics itself. The paper version is a three ring binder with loose leaf pages contained inside; I assume that each year new data and new projections are released (though I could not determine the frequency from Woods & Poole's website). In paper form, the data is displayed in tables. Each geographic area takes up two full pages. Thankfully for researchers, a CD form of the publication exists as well, with datasets available as CSV (comma separated values) files. In this form, the data can be displayed and manipulated using spreadsheet and database software, such as Excel, SPSS, ArcGIS, SAS, and others.
The scope of the data is within the realms of political science and economics, but it could all be related to other data to perform new analyses of economic phenomena. From the website, data from any state can be purchased either in print, on CD, or downloaded. The nature of the way data is collected can impart bias, and the publisher makes sure to note that the accuracy is not guaranteed. However, the publication itself has only compiled data and performed projections and calculations; presumably very little bias went into this process. At the start of the volume there are descriptions of each indicator to explain exactly what is contained in the data. The most current year in the data set is 2011, but changes have been made in the 2013 version to include more information. Projections extend to 2040.
I chose to review the State Profile because I was intrigued at how the nature of data (and more importantly accessing it) has changed. I couldn't imagine having to manually tabulate the extensive calculations that went into releasing this data set. Nor can I imagine manually performing the analysis it is intended for. Economists of today have the blessing of statistical software and quick, immediate access to data that researchers of former generations would have never dreamed of. This publication seems o be relatively accessible with clearly labeled data fields. However, often times when dealing with raw data things are not so clear, which makes me think back to the first week, reading about data repositories. I foresee less and less of printed data sets of this type; but with slew of data being stored digitally, I hope it is curated in a way that it will be discoverable and accessible to researchers.
Woods & Poole Economics, Inc. (2013). 2013 State Profile Ohio. Washington, DC: Author.
I could see this information forming the basis of a variety of geographically focused economic studies. The data itself comes from various sources: the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Census and American Community Survey, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Woods & Poole Economics itself. The paper version is a three ring binder with loose leaf pages contained inside; I assume that each year new data and new projections are released (though I could not determine the frequency from Woods & Poole's website). In paper form, the data is displayed in tables. Each geographic area takes up two full pages. Thankfully for researchers, a CD form of the publication exists as well, with datasets available as CSV (comma separated values) files. In this form, the data can be displayed and manipulated using spreadsheet and database software, such as Excel, SPSS, ArcGIS, SAS, and others.
The scope of the data is within the realms of political science and economics, but it could all be related to other data to perform new analyses of economic phenomena. From the website, data from any state can be purchased either in print, on CD, or downloaded. The nature of the way data is collected can impart bias, and the publisher makes sure to note that the accuracy is not guaranteed. However, the publication itself has only compiled data and performed projections and calculations; presumably very little bias went into this process. At the start of the volume there are descriptions of each indicator to explain exactly what is contained in the data. The most current year in the data set is 2011, but changes have been made in the 2013 version to include more information. Projections extend to 2040.
I chose to review the State Profile because I was intrigued at how the nature of data (and more importantly accessing it) has changed. I couldn't imagine having to manually tabulate the extensive calculations that went into releasing this data set. Nor can I imagine manually performing the analysis it is intended for. Economists of today have the blessing of statistical software and quick, immediate access to data that researchers of former generations would have never dreamed of. This publication seems o be relatively accessible with clearly labeled data fields. However, often times when dealing with raw data things are not so clear, which makes me think back to the first week, reading about data repositories. I foresee less and less of printed data sets of this type; but with slew of data being stored digitally, I hope it is curated in a way that it will be discoverable and accessible to researchers.
Woods & Poole Economics, Inc. (2013). 2013 State Profile Ohio. Washington, DC: Author.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
History Module
I will absolutely be modeling any future LibGuides I create after the ones found at Temple University's library webpage. The depth and care taken for annotating each resource specifically for that guide is very different than others I have seen (where there is one annotation that appears in every guide that a resource appears in). David C. Murray's guide http://guides.temple.edu/content.php?pid=1264&sid=15632 for history is up to par with what I have seen from Temple. He includes three separate pages for Primary Sources for the U.S., Europe, and Latin America, and demos for finding articles. There are several well though out sections, including one that contains resources for finding theses and dissertations specifically in the area of history. He also includes links to other guides to specific courses. For the class Hollywood and American History, Murray includes resources for film and popular culture in addition to more typical history resources. This is a great example of making sure to provide relevant instruction; it is good to appeal universally, but it is also good to appeal specifically. Contextualize your information to your target audience. Historians, especially, might approach differently from other students and faculty, and so explaining how each resource is relevant to them is an important part of the process.
Something I had never considered when thinking of different subject areas of study are how diverse different researchers needs and interest could be in one discipline. There are a large number of nursing and public health students who frequently contact the reference desk for help. Between the two groups, they primarily use PubMed, CINAHL, and Medline. Dalton and Charnigo's study finds that of a wide variety of history electronic databases, only four are used by more than 10% of the study population. Perhaps both because history is such a spread out discipline, over time and place, and the nature of historical resources, in that digitizing them is expensive and time consuming, it is difficult to present these resources in universally appealing databases. Historical societies, archives, and museums take on a much larger role in historical research, I think, than in other disciplines, and maybe for similar reasons are the sources used by historians more varied.
It is interesting to me how wide reaching historians' study can be. The Royal Society's library is a portal to the history of science and medicine. Most college freshman would probably not include the study of medicine and science in their description of history. I probably would not have either! But anybody is likely to be a historian on something. And any museum or collection is preserving some history. It is just up to people themselves to make these connections and discover new meanings from the record we have preserved.
The list of history resources offered by the Digital Librarian reminds me of the Internet Scout, a weekly compilation of multidisciplinary resources organized by the Computer Sciences department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I think that the list has some great resources but there also dead links. There is no organization either! We are left to scroll the extremely large page to find what we are looking for. The Internet Scout similarly compiles links to interesting websites; many of which are digital libraries themselves or digitized collections. The links can be viewed by week published going back into the 1990s (yikes!) or they can be searched or browsed by subject . I check it weekly as the distractions it provides might end up being useful to a patron some day. Equally interesting are the free software posts that usually appear (though not this week).
Looking through Kent's LibGuide, I'm actually surprised that I don't get more questions about these resources. I do not know if it is because people generally know how to use them, but anytime I get questions about research related to history, the patrons usually seem to be more interested in books (as reported by Dalton and Charnigo). I do not believe I have ever fielded a question by a history faculty member (of which 2% in the study said they consult librarians for help). A resource I have enjoyed in my own time is Chronicling America, which I'm assuming was down throughout the shutdown. It is weird to think how this discipline's access to information can be regulated by government; if the government controls access to the past through its archives, it can, if it wishes, withhold information which will change historians' understanding of the past (and present).
Something I had never considered when thinking of different subject areas of study are how diverse different researchers needs and interest could be in one discipline. There are a large number of nursing and public health students who frequently contact the reference desk for help. Between the two groups, they primarily use PubMed, CINAHL, and Medline. Dalton and Charnigo's study finds that of a wide variety of history electronic databases, only four are used by more than 10% of the study population. Perhaps both because history is such a spread out discipline, over time and place, and the nature of historical resources, in that digitizing them is expensive and time consuming, it is difficult to present these resources in universally appealing databases. Historical societies, archives, and museums take on a much larger role in historical research, I think, than in other disciplines, and maybe for similar reasons are the sources used by historians more varied.
It is interesting to me how wide reaching historians' study can be. The Royal Society's library is a portal to the history of science and medicine. Most college freshman would probably not include the study of medicine and science in their description of history. I probably would not have either! But anybody is likely to be a historian on something. And any museum or collection is preserving some history. It is just up to people themselves to make these connections and discover new meanings from the record we have preserved.
Looking through Kent's LibGuide, I'm actually surprised that I don't get more questions about these resources. I do not know if it is because people generally know how to use them, but anytime I get questions about research related to history, the patrons usually seem to be more interested in books (as reported by Dalton and Charnigo). I do not believe I have ever fielded a question by a history faculty member (of which 2% in the study said they consult librarians for help). A resource I have enjoyed in my own time is Chronicling America, which I'm assuming was down throughout the shutdown. It is weird to think how this discipline's access to information can be regulated by government; if the government controls access to the past through its archives, it can, if it wishes, withhold information which will change historians' understanding of the past (and present).
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artificats to Cyberspace -- History Module
As we have no doubt seen, historians pull from a large variety of source types, many of them outside the normal scope of popular citation styles, like APA and even Chicago. How do you cite a gravestone? What about the records of an insurance company? The multitude of unconventional and unpublished source types can make historical and genealogical research difficult to document properly. For that purpose, Evidence Explained exists.
In its pages are example upon example of historical source citations, for virtually any kind of resource. There is definitely an emphasis on primary resources, for which other style guides often provide vague instructions for citations.The source types are organized in a relatively easy to navigate structure: archives and artifacts, records for businesses and institutions, cemeteries, censuses, churches, local & state governments, national governments, and publications of all types. In each section, there is a contents list, a "quickcheck model," and more detailed explanations of the citations. The quick check models are extremely helpful in that they breakdown each part of the citation into individual units. The detailed instructions are also very thorough, typically describing procedures for online access to resources of that nature and the various nuances of the source type. For example, the differences between films and fiches made for preservation purposes only and those made for commercial distribution are covered in the archives section.
There is also a chapter related not to the citation of sources but to their analysis. Here the author covers primary and secondary sources, legal terms, criticisms to consider when analyzing sources, and a "process map for evidence analysis," all in significant detail. This section is valuable for understanding how arguments can be made and proven soundly in research.
The author, Elizabeth Shown Mills, is a well known historian and genealogist. She was a former president of the American Society of Genealogists. he book itself is published by the Genealogical Publishing Company. Because of this, perhaps, the book does seem to be geared towards genealogists and local historians (or maybe this is my own projection/bias for having taken a class on local history and genealogical research methods). Either way, the list of source types is extensive; it is hard to imagine a source that would not be covered here. I do not think this bias matters much as there seem relatively few sources a historical researcher would use that a local historian would not.
The book does a good job of considering both the multitude of sources that one might cite, and also the format that these sources might be viewed (in person or electronically, etc.). The 2nd edition has apparently added much in the way of content due to consideration by the author, suggestions by readers, and the changing nature that researches access their sources.
Many of the explanations include instructions that do not necessarily come from any documented style. For example, for citing a photocopied material received from another individual, Mills notes that you should indicate who supplied the photocopy. These comments seem to be made at the discretion of Mills, but lean to the side of reason and care.
Overall, this book is an extremely helpful source for those utilizing sources not covered in APA, MLA, and Chicago. History faculty and students alike would benefit from its availability; few things are more frustrating to me then trying to cite a source when there isn't a clear format for that type. Evidence Explained takes the guess work out of bibliographies and notes and allows the researcher to focus on their research.
Mills, E.S. (2007). Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company.
In its pages are example upon example of historical source citations, for virtually any kind of resource. There is definitely an emphasis on primary resources, for which other style guides often provide vague instructions for citations.The source types are organized in a relatively easy to navigate structure: archives and artifacts, records for businesses and institutions, cemeteries, censuses, churches, local & state governments, national governments, and publications of all types. In each section, there is a contents list, a "quickcheck model," and more detailed explanations of the citations. The quick check models are extremely helpful in that they breakdown each part of the citation into individual units. The detailed instructions are also very thorough, typically describing procedures for online access to resources of that nature and the various nuances of the source type. For example, the differences between films and fiches made for preservation purposes only and those made for commercial distribution are covered in the archives section.
There is also a chapter related not to the citation of sources but to their analysis. Here the author covers primary and secondary sources, legal terms, criticisms to consider when analyzing sources, and a "process map for evidence analysis," all in significant detail. This section is valuable for understanding how arguments can be made and proven soundly in research.
The author, Elizabeth Shown Mills, is a well known historian and genealogist. She was a former president of the American Society of Genealogists. he book itself is published by the Genealogical Publishing Company. Because of this, perhaps, the book does seem to be geared towards genealogists and local historians (or maybe this is my own projection/bias for having taken a class on local history and genealogical research methods). Either way, the list of source types is extensive; it is hard to imagine a source that would not be covered here. I do not think this bias matters much as there seem relatively few sources a historical researcher would use that a local historian would not.
The book does a good job of considering both the multitude of sources that one might cite, and also the format that these sources might be viewed (in person or electronically, etc.). The 2nd edition has apparently added much in the way of content due to consideration by the author, suggestions by readers, and the changing nature that researches access their sources.
Many of the explanations include instructions that do not necessarily come from any documented style. For example, for citing a photocopied material received from another individual, Mills notes that you should indicate who supplied the photocopy. These comments seem to be made at the discretion of Mills, but lean to the side of reason and care.
Overall, this book is an extremely helpful source for those utilizing sources not covered in APA, MLA, and Chicago. History faculty and students alike would benefit from its availability; few things are more frustrating to me then trying to cite a source when there isn't a clear format for that type. Evidence Explained takes the guess work out of bibliographies and notes and allows the researcher to focus on their research.
Mills, E.S. (2007). Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company.
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Political Science Module
I thought it was a really valuable exercise reading through the research competencies outlined by the ACRL. These competency lists can be immensely important not only for measuring your own competency, but for how much of your own research skills and methods you impart on your patron. Part of being a reference librarian means teaching your patrons how to do better research. Being mindful of these skills and values and how you communicate them to patrons while assisting them in research will make each reference transaction more meaningful and valuable.
One of the core competencies for any sort of information literacy is knowing which kind of source to use at what time. Very often, students assume that they absolutely must use a scholarly journal for their research, even when it is not appropriate. For instance, I had a student today ask if several different journals she wanted to use were considered professional web sites. It turned out that several of those journals did have professional websites accompanying them that she was able to use. In the case of current events and political science, I think CQ Researcher is a great resource that doesn't fit into the usual "scholarly journal" kind of resource that many students automatically assume they need. Especially for looking at issues, CQ Researcher offers valid arguments for and against many issues in the news today. Pointing out resources like this and others that do not fit the bill of scholarly journal is important for all disciplines because information comes in so many different forms.
I chose to read one of the more recent articles in our prompted search in the International Political Science Abstracts. Hammond, Jen, & Maeda (2007) studies the relationship between the organizational hierarchy of governments and library catalogs. The research is quite interesting, although it struck me as a bit abstract, or even "theoretical" (it was published in the Journal of Theoretical Politics). Interestingly enough does give some insight into how political science researchers (or at least the three authors) approach research at the library. The entire basis of the article is to explore the overlap of "books on the shelf" next to a target book in two libraries using different classification systems. The findings show that there is very little overlap between two universities using Library of Congress and Dewey Decimal. This is all well and good, but the authors make the assertion that because of this, researchers will not have access to the same materials. This would be true only if their research method only involved one catalog search and shelf browsing. The authors go further to compare this phenomena to intelligence gathering in our government being spread out among different offices and jurisdictions. While I cannot say that I consider the authors' findings particularly applicable to political science, it is interesting to see this kind of abstraction in a scholarly journal. My only political science class was almost all abstraction, although it was an introductory course on political thought.
My undergraduate background was in social geography, and some of my professors employed a fair amount of abstraction as well. This is a far cry from the type of research done by other researchers which is hard, fact or evidence based research. Clearly, political scientists also use scientific and statistical evidence. I am just interested how the scientific research differs from political scientists more interested in the broad abstract concepts, which are obviously still important and relevant. I think if I had some free time I would consider taking an MIT course (or some other MOOC) that discusses political science research methods. These few looked promising:
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/political-science/17-869-political-science-scope-and-methods-fall-2010/index.htm
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/political-science/17-878-qualitative-research-design-and-methods-fall-2007/
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/political-science/17-960-foundations-of-political-science-spring-2005/
I had never thought of taking a free online class in order to make myself more helpful to potential clientele. If I were working for an institution that would pay for furthering my education, I would love to take classes in areas that would give myself a better understanding of the subjects I served as a liaison to. MOOCs offer an easy alternative.
I was happy to stumble across this LibGuide by Rick Lazenby at Temple University (http://guides.temple.edu/political_science). I will definitely use this a model for any subject guides I create in the future. So many of the ones I see simply list a few sources and give a brief description of the materials found inside. This is appropriate for an overall list of the resources available at the library, but for a subject guide to really provide value, it should explain how to use the resources. Lazenby's guide succeeds in doing this. For instance, he walks the reader through the different kinds of sources (books, journals, magazines, etc.) and when each source would be appropriate. He also covers where to find poll results, government documents, and news sources, and discusses the nuances of each of these source types.
UCSanDiego provides this libguide with a variety of statistical and data sources (http://ucsd.libguides.com/content.php?pid=62534&sid=567117), many of which are available to the public. It is nice to see universities that indicate and promote the use of non-proprietary sources.
I have not used it at all, but have been seeing it mentioned in various places around the web, I think it might worth mentioning here: http://www.r-project.org/. The R-Project is an open source software and computer language written for statistical analysis. From what I can tell, it is quite powerful. There is also R Revolution Analytics, which is based on R and seems to provide more support. http://www.revolutionanalytics.com/downloads/. This software and many other open source options might be useful for political scientists, as well as many others in the social science world. I am a big fan of open source software and always try to plug for it when I can.
Hammond, T. H., Jen, K. I., & Maeda, K. (2007). "Learning in hierarchies: An empirical test using library catalogues." Journal of Theoretical Politics, 19(4), 425-463. doi:10.1177/0951629807080776.
One of the core competencies for any sort of information literacy is knowing which kind of source to use at what time. Very often, students assume that they absolutely must use a scholarly journal for their research, even when it is not appropriate. For instance, I had a student today ask if several different journals she wanted to use were considered professional web sites. It turned out that several of those journals did have professional websites accompanying them that she was able to use. In the case of current events and political science, I think CQ Researcher is a great resource that doesn't fit into the usual "scholarly journal" kind of resource that many students automatically assume they need. Especially for looking at issues, CQ Researcher offers valid arguments for and against many issues in the news today. Pointing out resources like this and others that do not fit the bill of scholarly journal is important for all disciplines because information comes in so many different forms.
I chose to read one of the more recent articles in our prompted search in the International Political Science Abstracts. Hammond, Jen, & Maeda (2007) studies the relationship between the organizational hierarchy of governments and library catalogs. The research is quite interesting, although it struck me as a bit abstract, or even "theoretical" (it was published in the Journal of Theoretical Politics). Interestingly enough does give some insight into how political science researchers (or at least the three authors) approach research at the library. The entire basis of the article is to explore the overlap of "books on the shelf" next to a target book in two libraries using different classification systems. The findings show that there is very little overlap between two universities using Library of Congress and Dewey Decimal. This is all well and good, but the authors make the assertion that because of this, researchers will not have access to the same materials. This would be true only if their research method only involved one catalog search and shelf browsing. The authors go further to compare this phenomena to intelligence gathering in our government being spread out among different offices and jurisdictions. While I cannot say that I consider the authors' findings particularly applicable to political science, it is interesting to see this kind of abstraction in a scholarly journal. My only political science class was almost all abstraction, although it was an introductory course on political thought.
My undergraduate background was in social geography, and some of my professors employed a fair amount of abstraction as well. This is a far cry from the type of research done by other researchers which is hard, fact or evidence based research. Clearly, political scientists also use scientific and statistical evidence. I am just interested how the scientific research differs from political scientists more interested in the broad abstract concepts, which are obviously still important and relevant. I think if I had some free time I would consider taking an MIT course (or some other MOOC) that discusses political science research methods. These few looked promising:
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/political-science/17-869-political-science-scope-and-methods-fall-2010/index.htm
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/political-science/17-878-qualitative-research-design-and-methods-fall-2007/
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/political-science/17-960-foundations-of-political-science-spring-2005/
I had never thought of taking a free online class in order to make myself more helpful to potential clientele. If I were working for an institution that would pay for furthering my education, I would love to take classes in areas that would give myself a better understanding of the subjects I served as a liaison to. MOOCs offer an easy alternative.
I was happy to stumble across this LibGuide by Rick Lazenby at Temple University (http://guides.temple.edu/political_science). I will definitely use this a model for any subject guides I create in the future. So many of the ones I see simply list a few sources and give a brief description of the materials found inside. This is appropriate for an overall list of the resources available at the library, but for a subject guide to really provide value, it should explain how to use the resources. Lazenby's guide succeeds in doing this. For instance, he walks the reader through the different kinds of sources (books, journals, magazines, etc.) and when each source would be appropriate. He also covers where to find poll results, government documents, and news sources, and discusses the nuances of each of these source types.
UCSanDiego provides this libguide with a variety of statistical and data sources (http://ucsd.libguides.com/content.php?pid=62534&sid=567117), many of which are available to the public. It is nice to see universities that indicate and promote the use of non-proprietary sources.
I have not used it at all, but have been seeing it mentioned in various places around the web, I think it might worth mentioning here: http://www.r-project.org/. The R-Project is an open source software and computer language written for statistical analysis. From what I can tell, it is quite powerful. There is also R Revolution Analytics, which is based on R and seems to provide more support. http://www.revolutionanalytics.com/downloads/. This software and many other open source options might be useful for political scientists, as well as many others in the social science world. I am a big fan of open source software and always try to plug for it when I can.
Hammond, T. H., Jen, K. I., & Maeda, K. (2007). "Learning in hierarchies: An empirical test using library catalogues." Journal of Theoretical Politics, 19(4), 425-463. doi:10.1177/0951629807080776.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Speeches of the American Presidents -- Political Science
Speeches of the American Presidents is a great resource for those interested in the public discourse of American presidents dating back to the first presidency. Containing over 200 of the most well-known and important speeches from every president from George Washington to George W. Bush (the current president at the time of publication), the reader is able to study the development of the presidency, as well as observe how the use of speeches by the presidency has changed. Readers are given a look into key events and issues of each presidency through the topics presented in speeches and public addresses. The book is both a resource for studying individual presidents, the presidency, and speeches as a means of political communication.
The book begins with a table of contents. The speeches are organized by president and in chronological order. In the preface to the book, Janet Powell comments that for the most part, speeches included were selected only from those made during the presidency. However, in some cases, important speeches were included that were given prior to the presidency. It is noted that a few of the speeches that exceeded a reasonable length to be fully included appear in excerpted form. Some "annual messages," now known as State of the Union address, were included from early presidents, even though these were read by an intermediary, not the president himself. The text of the speeches themselves were retrieved from the National Archives and Records Administration and the White House websites.
The introduction serves as a narrative of speech-makings place in the presidency. It outlines changes in technology that have impacted public addresses by the president, and the various capacities in which the presidency has used speech toward political goals.
The sections for each president begin with a brief one or two page description of the president and his presidency. Podell and Anzovin typically outline the president's prior political experience and cover the major events of the presidency. The editors also include commentary on the presidents' speaking style and political tone.
For each speech included in this text, there is a brief introduction to the context in which it was given. The number of speeches included average from 3-5 for the earlier presidents to 6-9 for later presidents. There is no commentary provided, save the contextual information given. The book concludes with an index with entries for people, events, and topics.
Speeches of the American Presidents is by no means a comprehensive source for scholars on the presidency, but I think it serves a great reference for students studying the art of speech in a political context, or who are interested in a particular president or time in American history. It includes speeches made by every president from all eras of our country's two-hundred plus years, and serves as a base for further interest in public addresses made by presidents.
However, I feel the book lacks in several ways. As a reference source, there is no bibliography section, or even reference to where an interested reader can find more speeches by presidents. It simply says that speeches were retrieved from www.whitehouse.gov and www.nara.gov. This would have been an easy and invaluable addition to the work as a whole. Readers are left to find other speeches on their own. There is also surprisingly little discussion of the speeches in the context of public discourse, although this adds to the authority of the book as foremost being a collection of primary resources. Again, I feel as though the editors could have provided a bibliography for the discourse surrounding these speeches, or at least a discussion of doing that sort of research.
Although there are some shortcomings, overall I do like this source. It accomplishes what the editors set out to do: compile some of the most important speeches in the history of the presidency. It can be used as a source for actual speeches, and, by consulting the indexes and introductions, to analyze the presidency and political history of the country in the context of speeches.
Podell, J., & Anzovin, S. (Eds.). (2001). Speeches of the American Presidents (2nd ed.). New York:
H.W. Wilson Company.
The book begins with a table of contents. The speeches are organized by president and in chronological order. In the preface to the book, Janet Powell comments that for the most part, speeches included were selected only from those made during the presidency. However, in some cases, important speeches were included that were given prior to the presidency. It is noted that a few of the speeches that exceeded a reasonable length to be fully included appear in excerpted form. Some "annual messages," now known as State of the Union address, were included from early presidents, even though these were read by an intermediary, not the president himself. The text of the speeches themselves were retrieved from the National Archives and Records Administration and the White House websites.
The introduction serves as a narrative of speech-makings place in the presidency. It outlines changes in technology that have impacted public addresses by the president, and the various capacities in which the presidency has used speech toward political goals.
The sections for each president begin with a brief one or two page description of the president and his presidency. Podell and Anzovin typically outline the president's prior political experience and cover the major events of the presidency. The editors also include commentary on the presidents' speaking style and political tone.
For each speech included in this text, there is a brief introduction to the context in which it was given. The number of speeches included average from 3-5 for the earlier presidents to 6-9 for later presidents. There is no commentary provided, save the contextual information given. The book concludes with an index with entries for people, events, and topics.
Speeches of the American Presidents is by no means a comprehensive source for scholars on the presidency, but I think it serves a great reference for students studying the art of speech in a political context, or who are interested in a particular president or time in American history. It includes speeches made by every president from all eras of our country's two-hundred plus years, and serves as a base for further interest in public addresses made by presidents.
However, I feel the book lacks in several ways. As a reference source, there is no bibliography section, or even reference to where an interested reader can find more speeches by presidents. It simply says that speeches were retrieved from www.whitehouse.gov and www.nara.gov. This would have been an easy and invaluable addition to the work as a whole. Readers are left to find other speeches on their own. There is also surprisingly little discussion of the speeches in the context of public discourse, although this adds to the authority of the book as foremost being a collection of primary resources. Again, I feel as though the editors could have provided a bibliography for the discourse surrounding these speeches, or at least a discussion of doing that sort of research.
Although there are some shortcomings, overall I do like this source. It accomplishes what the editors set out to do: compile some of the most important speeches in the history of the presidency. It can be used as a source for actual speeches, and, by consulting the indexes and introductions, to analyze the presidency and political history of the country in the context of speeches.
Podell, J., & Anzovin, S. (Eds.). (2001). Speeches of the American Presidents (2nd ed.). New York:
H.W. Wilson Company.
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Introduction module
Hello class members...
I think my perception of librarians and other information professionals is definitely centered around the day-to-day interactions I see and take part in at the reference desk. This is my own bias and I need to work past it. To start with, this is only the front end of reference services at Kent State University. The librarians here are all involved in their own projects that I normally don't hear about it. Some of them only have 4-8 hours of desk time a week. Going further, I have only really gotten to know reference services at KSU. Other universities and colleges, and other information repositories, all have their own cultures as well as unique programs and degrees that likely shape their libraries' services.
If I was basing my perception of libraries and reference librarians solely off of my own experiences as a student reference assistant, I would say that librarians generally help patrons find secondary sources of information. I very rarely get approached by patrons looking for data. In most instances when they are looking for data, it is in a historical context (documents, first-hand accounts, photographs, etc). This probably has something to do with the fact that most of the patrons who approach the reference desk in the traditional manner are undergraduates. Typically the kind of work undergraduates do does not involve producing knowledge in the way a researcher does, but rather seeking out and interpreting, maybe synthesizing, already established knowledge. This means the bulk of reference questions lead to book and journal sources.
Obviously, in an academic setting, knowledge IS being generated. Professional researchers collect data, whether qualitative or quantitative, and analyze that data to draw conclusions. The research process and conclusions get documented and published in academic journals. This is how knowledge gets advanced. Undergraduates do do this, but at a much lower capacity. Both of the articles we read this week focused on professional researchers, likely graduate students and PhDs. As a possible future academic librarian, I will probably spend a lot of time communicating with researchers. That is why it is a good idea to understand the environment and processes involved in social science research.
The model that Meho and Tibbo is similar but also very different from other models of information seeking behavior, like Carol Kuhlthau's. In classes like Access to Information, I think we focus on library patrons coming to the library to solve some information need assuming they will find it in the library. This might mean a book they want to read, or sources for a homework assignment, or learning how to do something they need to do. Social scientists (and any other scientist) cannot do this at a library in the traditional sense. They must make observations about their topic of study, and usually this means observing some phenomena in the real world. What I gathered from both of the articles we read was that there is now more than ever an opportunity to change this in some respects. By understanding how researchers go about their research, we can design repositories that facilitate the sharing of usable data. By having access to not only the published findings of researchers, but also their data, other researchers would be able to share, collaborate, innovate, and further their respective fields of study. We as librarians should be advocating for the development of these sort of data repositories.
Sadly, I was not even aware that these were already being used by institutions. There interfaces are somewhat foreign to me (I looked at the Odum Dataverse and Harvard Dataverse). I will make it a point to become more familiar with the repositories themselves and also the concepts that they employ.
I think my perception of librarians and other information professionals is definitely centered around the day-to-day interactions I see and take part in at the reference desk. This is my own bias and I need to work past it. To start with, this is only the front end of reference services at Kent State University. The librarians here are all involved in their own projects that I normally don't hear about it. Some of them only have 4-8 hours of desk time a week. Going further, I have only really gotten to know reference services at KSU. Other universities and colleges, and other information repositories, all have their own cultures as well as unique programs and degrees that likely shape their libraries' services.
If I was basing my perception of libraries and reference librarians solely off of my own experiences as a student reference assistant, I would say that librarians generally help patrons find secondary sources of information. I very rarely get approached by patrons looking for data. In most instances when they are looking for data, it is in a historical context (documents, first-hand accounts, photographs, etc). This probably has something to do with the fact that most of the patrons who approach the reference desk in the traditional manner are undergraduates. Typically the kind of work undergraduates do does not involve producing knowledge in the way a researcher does, but rather seeking out and interpreting, maybe synthesizing, already established knowledge. This means the bulk of reference questions lead to book and journal sources.
Obviously, in an academic setting, knowledge IS being generated. Professional researchers collect data, whether qualitative or quantitative, and analyze that data to draw conclusions. The research process and conclusions get documented and published in academic journals. This is how knowledge gets advanced. Undergraduates do do this, but at a much lower capacity. Both of the articles we read this week focused on professional researchers, likely graduate students and PhDs. As a possible future academic librarian, I will probably spend a lot of time communicating with researchers. That is why it is a good idea to understand the environment and processes involved in social science research.
The model that Meho and Tibbo is similar but also very different from other models of information seeking behavior, like Carol Kuhlthau's. In classes like Access to Information, I think we focus on library patrons coming to the library to solve some information need assuming they will find it in the library. This might mean a book they want to read, or sources for a homework assignment, or learning how to do something they need to do. Social scientists (and any other scientist) cannot do this at a library in the traditional sense. They must make observations about their topic of study, and usually this means observing some phenomena in the real world. What I gathered from both of the articles we read was that there is now more than ever an opportunity to change this in some respects. By understanding how researchers go about their research, we can design repositories that facilitate the sharing of usable data. By having access to not only the published findings of researchers, but also their data, other researchers would be able to share, collaborate, innovate, and further their respective fields of study. We as librarians should be advocating for the development of these sort of data repositories.
Sadly, I was not even aware that these were already being used by institutions. There interfaces are somewhat foreign to me (I looked at the Odum Dataverse and Harvard Dataverse). I will make it a point to become more familiar with the repositories themselves and also the concepts that they employ.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)