15 interesting facts about Wikipedia

I'm a fan myself, within reason. If it's important, it always a good idea to have multiple sources - that goes for any starting resource. Also, I think it's an amazing goal, and they/we have come an amazing distance towards attaining it.


[Source: OnlineMBA.com]

http://www.onlinemba.com/blog/15-interesting-facts-about-wikipedia/

Libraries, museums and archives

I now need to think/talk about the difference between these three information outlets, using the following prompts:

What information is each dealing with?
Libraries predominantly print texts, though other things too; Museums predominantly 3D objects, though they "theoretically have no limit"; Archives predominantly records. There are objects which could be found in all three, but usually the purpose of your search would take you to one in particular.

How different is it?
These types of information are different in that the metatdata they have varies - they cannot necessarily be entered into the system the same way. Where print resources generally have things such as an author, title and year of publication to describe them, items in a museum or archive generally have less concrete descriptors.

How does it change what information we might want to organise and retrieve?
As stated above, there is some crossover between objects found in each institution, but usually you would go to the one which will primarily deal with the type of information you are after, for example if you are looking for family history, you are more likely to go to an archive than a library. Whilst libraries can still have information on family history, they are likely to allow archives to concentrate on organising records. This makes it easier for the cataloguers/archivers, as well as for the consumers.

Hider's main points

I believe Hider's main points to be:
-that information should be easy to use for everyone involved; rules/guidelines/agreements should be followed to make this so.
- we now get information from all over the world, and it is constantly changing, so it is important that we have high standards and work together to organise it.
- we need to ensure that our systems are user friendly, responsive and readily available and that data is easy to understand, so that users are not restricted from accessing information.


Reference: Hider, P (with Harvey, R) 2008, ‘What makes information retrieval systems effective?’, in Organising knowledge in a global society, rev. edn. Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW, pp. 21-23.

The final subject: Bibliographic Standards in Education

And back into the reflections on learning I go. Now, other than working on my portfolio, I will only have one subject to reflect upon. I am immediately getting the impression however that this subject will involve quite a heavy workload. Mix that with my current teaching load, and the planning that is coming with that... I had better get stuck into it!

With time restrictions in mind, I am going to attempt to keep my reflections brief.

Why is it necessary for information agencies such as libraries to organise information effectively?

My thoughts on the matter:
- In order to be able to easily access resources
- In order for customers to be able to easily access resources
- For ease of stocktake
- So that finding one resource can lead to finding others on the same topic/by the same author
- So the space is attractive

Those were my instant thoughts, without too much effort. Let's see if I get any more ideas from my further reading.

Hey Jude, thanks again...

My lecturer for ETL523, Judy O'Connell (Blog: http://heyjude.wordpress.com/), just keeps providing us with interesting information and cool videos. This time I started looking at her LiveBinders folder (a new Web 2.0 tool to me!), and immediately came across some interesting videos (including the one below) and some fantastic resources all round.

The provision of a cool video... well I can't help myself can I! I feel the need to show off my embedding skills again.

This one addresses the information overload we have today with the huge amount of information that is available online, and it encourages us to think about what this means for education.



What it means for me:

I need to be able to support my future students, and to encourage the rest of the school community to help provide that support, to gain the skills to get what they need from the Internet, and to not get lost in it. This is something that I will need to continually work on myself as well - there are so many ways to get lost.

It also means that I have yet another online tool to investigate: LiveBinders