Presentation of useful resources and apps

Phil Bradley just gave a presentation at Internet Librarian International 2012 on "new resources and interesting things that I've found recently." Definitely worth flicking through.

Things Phil has found 2012 from Phil Bradley

Power Searching with Google, free online course

There is an online training course Power Searching with Google running from 24 September to 5 October. It is run by Google themselves, and you can sign up for free. You get "Access to community discussion forum; The opportunity to put your new skills to test with mid and post class assessments; Support from Google course staff; An official Power Searching with Google certificate upon completion" Out of curiosity, I registered, but the dates coincide with the start of the semester, so I may not be able to give it full attention (will be embarrassing if I fail to get my completion certificate ;-) http://www.powersearchingwithgoogle.com/

I found some detailed reflections on the last running of the course on a blog http://sylviamoessinger.wordpress.com/: the author is in Germany but writes in English, and she also has some interesting reflections on a MOOC about e-learning she took, and other aspects of teaching with technology. Her Google-course posts are here: http://sylviamoessinger.wordpress.com/category/google-powersearching/

I discovered the Google course because I was following links to information about Google's "course builder" online educational software https://code.google.com/p/course-builder/ You have to install it on your own server. There is some advice about designing online modules that I would describe as "cheap and cheerful" though it does recommend that you start by spending at least 30 minutes planning the teaching!
Photo by Sheila webber: Poppy, Sheffield Botanic Gardens, September 2012.

IFLA #wlic2012 Privatization of cyberspace - case Google

Siva Vaidhyanathan was the first speaker in a session from IFLA's Free Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (FAIFE) group, which is taking place at the IFLA World Library and Information Conference in Helsinki, Finland. He spoke on Privatization of cyberspace - case Google. He is the author of:
Vaidhyanathan, S. (2011) The Googlization of Everything: (And Why We Should Worry). Updated Edition. University of California Press.
This whole FAIFE session is livestreamed and I think it will be available here from tomorrow: http://express.ifla.org/videos
Siva Vaidhyanathan (pictured speaking at the session) started by identifying the ways in which Google search has changed, to have more localisation and personalisation, to smooth out some more offensive sites and to screen out what they term "low quality" news: in other words making editorial decisions. I've blogged presentations from Karen Blakeman, that detail this kind of thing.
Most recently (last week) Google has yielded to pressure, and will give more prominence to "legitimate" sites for films, music and television (so bit torrent sites and fan sites will slide down the rankings). Thus it has moved towards consumerism and he saw further movement in that direction in the future.

IFLA #wlic people: Google search educator

Today at the IFLA World Library and Information Conference in Helsinki, Finland I met Tascha Bergson Michelson (pictured right), Search Educator with Google, and had some interesting discussion about the importance of information literacy. Google's Search Education site is at: http://www.google.com/insidesearch/searcheducation/. It has lesson plans and activities(e.g. "Evaluating credibility of sources"); Live Training (forthcoming events and recordings of past one); and A Google a Day Challenges.

relationship between Internet user type and user performance when carrying out simple vs. complex search tasks

New-ish article: Singer, G. et al. (2012)'The relationship between Internet user type and user performance when carrying out simple vs. complex search tasks' First Monday, 17 (6).
"It is widely known that people become better at an activity if they perform this activity long and often. Yet, the question is whether being active in related areas like communicating online, writing blog articles or commenting on community forums have an impact on a person’s ability to perform Web searches, is still unanswered. Web searching has become a key task conducted online; in this paper we present our findings on whether the user type, which categorises a person’s online activities, has an impact on her or his search capabilities. We show (1) the characteristics of different user types when carrying out simple search tasks; (2) their characteristics when carrying out complex search tasks; and, (3) the significantly different user type characteristics between simple and complex search tasks. The results are based on an experiment with 56 ordinary Web users in a laboratory environment. The Search–Logger study framework was used to analyze and measure user behavior when carrying out a set of 12 predefined search tasks. Our findings include the fact that depending on task type (simple or complex) significant differences can be observed between users of different types."
http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/3960/3245
Photo by Sheila Webber: cherry blossm, March 2012

Children searchers; First year students

Articles in the latest issue of the priced journal, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology:
- Foss, E. et al. (2012) "Children's search roles at home: Implications for designers, researchers, educators, and parents. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 63 (3), 558–573. "This paper presents the results of a large-scale, qualitative study conducted in the homes of children aged 7, 9, and 11 investigating internet searching processes on Google. Seven search roles, representing distinct behavior patterns displayed by children when interacting with the Google search engine, are described, including Developing Searchers, Domain-specific Searchers, Power Searchers, Nonmotivated Searchers, Distracted Searchers, Rule-bound Searchers, and Visual Searchers. Other trends are described and selected to present a view of the whole child searcher. These roles and trends are used to make recommendations to designers, researchers, educators, and parents about the directions to take when considering how to best aid children to become search literate."
- Gross, M. and Latham, D. (2012) "What's skill got to do with it?: Information literacy skills and self-views of ability among first-year college students."Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 63 (3), 574–583. "This study replicates a previous study based on work in psychology, which demonstrates that students who score as below proficient in information literacy (IL) skills have a miscalibrated self-view of their ability. Simply stated, these students tend to believe that they have above-average IL skills, when, in fact, an objective test of their ability indicates that they are below-proficient in terms of their actual skills. This investigation was part of an Institute of Museum and Library Services-funded project and includes demographic data about participants, their scores on an objective test of their information literacy skills, and self-estimates of their ability. Findings support previous research that indicates many students come to college without proficient IL skills, that students with below-proficient IL skills have inflated views of their ability, and that this miscalibration can also be expressed by students who test as proficient. Implications for research and practice are discussed."
Photo by Sheila Webber: Forsythia, March 2012

Report: Search Search Engine Use 2012

A new report from the Pew Internet project is:
Purcell, K., Brenner, J. and Rainie, L. (2012) Search Engine Use 2012. Washington: Pew Research Center.
The sample of Americans consisted of 2,253 adults, who were surveyed via telephone interview in Jan/Feb 2012. Apart from the fact that use of search engines has increased and the dominance of Google has increased, a few findings are:
"65% say… It’s a BAD thing if a search engine collected information about your searches and then used it to rank your future search results, because it may limit the information you get online and what search results you see. 29% say… It’s a GOOD thing if a search engine collected information about your searches and then used it to rank your future search results, because it gives you results that are more relevant to you"
"91% of search engine users say they always or most of the time find the information they are seeking when they use search engines. 73% of search engine users say that most or all the information they find as they use search engines is accurate and trustworthy. 66% of search engine users say search engines are a fair and unbiased source of information."
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Search-Engine-Use-2012.aspx

Photo by Sheila Webber: Nigel's room, photoshopped, March 2012.

How to make Google behave

Excellent new powerpoint from Karen Blakeman, as presented at a seminar for UKeig seminar yesterday, with lots of up-to-date information and tips. http://www.slideshare.net/KarenBlakeman/how-to-make-google-behave

How to make Google Behave

View more PowerPoint from Karen Blakeman