Lecture slides:
Video podcasts:
Video podcasts:
Week IX: Finding Information ("Info
Retrieval")
Major Topics:
Major Topics:
- Can we have information without a location? From libraries to databases.
- Search algorithms, nomenclatures, authorities, and search terms
- Trees of knowledge vs. "rational" classification schemes
- The semantic Web--can we search for meanings rather than simple character strings? Do "ontologies" help?
- Psychological and economic implications of purchasing information
- Information overload and methods of filtering
- A practical session on using the online resources Google doesn't see
Assigned Readings:
- Here's a fascinating research report on how information users pay more attention to purchased information than they do to free stuff, regardless of its actual usefulness.
- As a very useful primer on the need for students to get a better sense of searching on the Web, here's a piece by Geoff Nunburg, "Teaching Students to Swim the Online Sea," New York Times, 2005-02-13.
- Marcia J. Bates, "After the Dot-Bomb: Getting Web Information Retrieval Right This Time," First Monday VII:7 (July 2002).
- Carol Tenopir, "Online Databases-The Web: Searchable, Hidden, and Deceitful," LibraryJournal (July 15, 2002) (electronic).
- Finally, lest you believe that reference librarians' role as the gold standard for answering questions of fact has been obviated by the Web, think again: reference librarians still have a vital role in the info world.
Recommended Readings:
- Many of us wonder about the reliability of Wikipedia (evidently some HS teachers forbid students to reference to it); here's a piece from Nature magazine on it.
- We'd require this, but it's lengthy—an article by Thomas Mann of the Library of Congress on the reference needs of real scholars, "…The Future of Reference."
- As an FYI, from the mouth of the company itself, here's how Google indexes and ranks Web pages.
- This is what you got from Google in late 2003 if you'd searched for WMD (aka, "Weapons of Mass Destruction")
- Peter Morville, a graduate of the School of Information's previous incarnation, has done quite a bit to help shift the Web to a "Web of things," rather than just "The Web." Here's his lead-in to it, about "Ambient Findability."
- A very handy "how-to" from the Johns Hopkins University Library, this on evaluating information on the Web.
- Educom Staff, "Networked Information: Finding What's Out There—Clifford A. Lynch Interview," Educom Review XXXII:6 (electronic source document).
- anon., "In Search of Serendipity…," Managing Technology @ Wharton (website URL embedded in content)—a nice piece that shows how finding info buried within corporations can help bring new products to market.
- Here's one that compares the searching capabilities of Cornell University librarians and the famed Google search engine, by the always-interesting Anne Kenney, as published in dlib magazine, June, 2003.
- A pair of New York Times articles on how search engines can be manipulated (somewhat dated), yet how important they are to e-merchants. Google claims to be immune from this.
- Here's a valuable resource for Web-based research--a tutorial on Web searching