How do we find, evaluate, share, and use on-line resources/data? In this morning’s Daily Report from The Chronicle of Higher Education, I came across the post Thinking About Truth, Lies, and the Power of Google. The flow of comments focused upon librarians, the vetting of information, and the current election (what article doesn’t relate to McCain/Palin and now I’m even doing it!).
Out of curiosity, I followed the link to the original post on the ACRLog (i.e., Association of College and Research Libraries: Blogging by and for academic and research librarians): Information is Power – Even When it’s Wrong. Then I took some time to ruminate over the piece, particularly the concern Sometimes aggregators are misleading. … Anyone have thoughts and/or tips on how to find, evaluate, share, and use on-line resources?
By-the-way, the last time I followed the Daily Report to the ACRLog, I read about the rise of the blog among academic and research librarians in What Happened To The Personal Web Site. Next time I visit the ACRLog, I’m going to look to see whether someone wrote about the question of accessing material received from a blog (or how about a Facebook post) versus a personal web site, an organizational web site, or an on-line journal article. Fascinating questions, maybe I should consider a degree in information science.
Tom enjoys daily conversations regarding living out the Biblical Story with his wife Theresa and their four girls, around the block, at Elizabethtown Brethren in Christ Church (where he teaches adult electives and co-leads a small group), among healthcare professionals as the Northeast Regional Director for the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA), and in higher ed as a volunteer with the Emerging Scholars Network (ESN). For a number of years, the Christian Medical Society / CMDA at Penn State College of Medicine was the hub of his ministry with CMDA. Note: Tom served with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA for 20+ years, including 6+ years as the Associate Director of ESN. He has written for the ESN blog from its launch in August 2008. He has studied Biology (B.S.), Higher Education (M.A.), Spiritual Direction (Certificate), Spiritual Formation (M.A.R.), Ministry to Emerging Generations (D.Min.). To God be the glory!
I find it very tough to keep track of online information, even for my personal research. I’ve taken to saving nearly anything I want to keep as a PDF file. Bookmarking URLs too often results in dead links, even after just a year or two.