Requirements of LOR 101

As far as this course is concerned, I have enjoyed all of the assignments and in-class activities. Having us blog for our final project was a very creative idea, and I have learned a lot from this task. Before this class, I wasn’t familiar with “blogging”, and now I am a regular! The response papers are a great way to let us further explain our thoughts and feelings on a certain topic we have discussed in class. The reading material in class was usually pretty interesting until the last few pages of each packet where I lost concentration. Overall, LOR 101 has been a very helpful and successful course for me, and I am so glad that I chose to take this class in my first semester of college. I would recommend it to anyone! To check out another school offering the same class follow this link!http://hslibrary.ucdenver.edu/education/library-orientation-tutorials.php

Information Seeking Behavior

I have always been a strong believer in using Wikipedia for most of my papers up until high school. It was then that I realized that information you find on the internet is not always reliable. This is where my researching became very difficult. Not only did I not understand where I was supposed to look to find this valuable information, but I had no idea how to use it or cite it once it was found. Having this library class in the first semester of my college career has been a great opportunity to get familiar with the library and all of the resources available. We have learned how to tell a reliable source from a useless one, and how to use the information we obtain. As I move on in my college career, I will remember back to this class for all of my research needs, and I know college will be a lot easier now that I have had this course. To get a better idea of information seeking behavior, visit this website. http://www.librarysupportstaff.com/infoseek.html

Copyright Laws Class Discussion

Before the discussion in class, I had never realized how many copyright laws there were concerning books, movies, dances, songs, and ideas. Just a simple song like “Happy Birthday” has copyright laws! So yes, you may think that you don’t, but all of us have broken a copyright law sometime during our lifetime. Copyright is a very good thing to protect authors and artists, but it makes a student’s job a lot harder if they are writing a research paper. One way you can follow copyright laws, is to cite all of the sources you use in a paper as in text citations as well as on a bibliography page. This helps give credit to the main source of your research, and shows that it wasn’t your idea. There are many grey areas within copyright laws, which make it hard to determine when they are being broken. Government is the main source of regulation, but it is easier to be familiar with them yourself. Here is a website that will help you cite your sources where you do not break copyright.

http://library.duke.edu/research/citing/

Copyright Laws

Copyright laws are very controversial issues. It is hard for the government to regulate these laws without being too strict or too lenient. After reading the article in class, I began to think about how easy it would be to break a “copyright” law and not even realize it. A copyright will last your entire lifetime, as well as 70+ years after your gone. People value information differently. Some may think copyright laws should be tightened on books, but not as strict on music...or the other way around. But government has found that it is easier to draw a strict line than assign different types of information certain copyright laws.  I believe there is too much of a grey area to determine when someone is “stealing “someone’s idea. Copyright should be determined by morals and your own judgment for most cases, and others you may have to turn to the law. Visit this link to refresh your knowledge of copyright laws. http://copyright.gov/title17/

What causes bad breath?

Yes I know that if you eat a whole onion on your cheeseburger, or if you douse your cheesy bread with garlic, you are going to have bad breath and others will suffer. But what causes other types of bad breath…like morning breath? After researching this topic, I found that while you are sleeping your mouth becomes very dry which is called xerostomia. Your salivary glands are much less active while asleep and the bacteria flourish causing gross morning breath. Other causes of bad breath besides food of course, are bad oral hygiene, things such as tobacco and cigarettes, and also other health conditions. For information on foods that help fight bad breath visit this website. http://ezinearticles.com/?5-Important-Foods-To-Avoid-Bad-Breath&id=5270506

Why is the sky blue?

Why is the sky blue? I know this is a question everyone has asked sometime in their life. I just now decided to research to find the real answer.
When sunlight reaches the atmosphere, all of the light is spread apart by particles in the atmosphere. The blue light is scattered more because of the shorter wavelengths it possesses. On the other hand, when the sky is a reddish orange color during the sunset, the blue light is spreading apart further to allow the red and yellow wavelengths through.
Also, when you are watching a sunset from the beach, it is way more vibrant because the light from the sun reflects off of the water vapor in the air making it bigger. I guess my next question will be…Why is the grass green? Visit this website for more information on sunlight. http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/blue-sky/

Evaluating Internet Resources

How many times have you heard a teacher or professor say, "Wikipedia is NOT a source!!!!"? This is partially a true statement because anyone can get on the website and write anything they want whether it be true or false. This is why it is important to know how to evaluate your resources before using them. You need to make sure your resources are reliable, relevant, and have authority. For a resource to be reliable, it needs to have cited sources of where the information came from. Also, be sure and check to see if the resource has a bias. When looking for relevance, you need to check the date the article was published, and also when it was last revised. Lastly, when checking for authority, you need to know who wrote the article. Are they experts in that certain area? Are there ways to contact them that give their area of expertise? These are the three most important things to look for when researching, and they will all help you have a better paper over your certain topic. Here's another teacher's thoughts on reliable sources. http://imet.csus.edu/imet5/koreen/284/index.htm

Information Cocoon

Have you ever been on a YouTube and noticed all of the comments at the bottom of a video? They are way more interesting to read than actually watching the video. People tend to stay in their own information cocoon. Once someone says something out of the box online or during a meeting, and then everyone has the courage to say how they feel. Sometimes this can get out of hand on certain websites such as YouTube or Facebook. I am very bad about staying in my cocoon and sticking to my own beliefs. In reality, we all need to be familiar with how everyone feels and their beliefs. This will help us become better well-rounded and allow us to expand our knowledge. Most people surround themselves by similar people to be comfortable. Sometimes you need to speak up and give your opinion. Visit this link to find how some people feel about sharing comments.   http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-41705

Chemical Free

Did you know all physical objects consist of matter? Matter can be objects you can hold, or things you can't even see such as air. Did you also know that all matter is made of chemicals? Yep..it's true. All of those products you have been using on your face and in your house that are supposedly “chemical free” have chemicals in them. Not only that, but the companies that sold these products to you were lying when they said they are chemical free. Now what gives them the right to claim this of their products? Most of them probably aren’t chemists and have no degree in the chemistry field to be able to prove this statement. You as a consumer need to know that ALL things in the entire world are made of chemicals or chemical groups, unless it is a air tight vacuum made of nothingness. So next time you visit a website or see a infomercial on T.V. about a new chemical free face wash, you will know they are lying. Here is a perfect example of a website that says their products are chemical free. Look at the ingredients and you will find citric acid etc.     http://www.organicexcellence.com/

Endless Information

The World Wide Web has no filter. This makes it very easy for us to find any information we could ever want.  It is limitless! There are many different endings which help categorize websites. Most commonly used is .com, but others are .org, .edu, .net, and .gov. For research purposes, you would probably find more scholarly reviewed information on a edu or gov website. Other information can easily be found on all of the others. Some people have even mentioned that a triple x website (.xxx) is being formed for uncensored websites such as pornography. How surprising! Knowing the different endings to certain websites, is one way you can self-filter all your searches. Here are some reliable websites to find research information. http://www.usa.gov/ http://www.murraystate.edu/

World Wide Web of Change

As our country is expanding technologically, the world is changing around us. Technology is

changing the way we communicate, and allows us to talk to others in a different country within seconds. Internet has changed, and also parts of computers. It seems like just yesterday we were listening to the dial up tone for our internet to connect.  The desire for community is what the internet feeds off of. Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites are vital to communication between countries. For more information on how the web has changed visit this website. http://thenextweb.com/insider/2011/08/06/20-years-ago-today-the-world-wide-web-opened-to-the-public/

Databases

As most of you may know, researching is a major part of college. Knowing how to navigate through a database to find vital peer-reviewed research material is very important to formulate a reliable paper. Being a student at Murray State University, we are all allowed to use hundreds of databases that the university pays for.

When using a database, you first want to know which one to use for your topic. There are a variety of databases. Some may be general, or some may be arranged by topic. Depending on what you are researching, that is one way to narrow your search automatically. Also, once you choose a database, you will need to enter multiple search terms for better results. You can also change different options. For example, you can check a box if you want only peer-reviewed articles, or you can check PDF only. Understanding how to navigate around a database is vital for surviving college. For a look at a database visit this website! http://plants.usda.gov/java/

Copyright Issues Addressed

In a recent article in The Chronicle, there has been a lawsuit against the HathiTrust digital repository and also many other universities. As a student, I understand how beneficial it is to have online documents for research that are provided by the college or university you are attending.

The lawsuit was filed by the Authors Guild, in attempt to revoke all online materials that had a copyright. They do have a good point because many of these authors' works are being put online without permission. But it also says in the article, that these digitalized works have very strict procedures to be able to access the material. Also, the University of Michigan has an Orphan Works Project which recognizes books that have unidentified authors, or were written anonymously, and they make them available for use. If one of the Orphan’s authors is found, they will remove it from the collection and the author will have copyright. The Orphan program seems very fair and useful for researchers, and I disagree with the lawsuit against this program. I do understand the complaints about the other online sites though, and I believe they do break copyright laws. For more information of copyright laws view this website.   



http://www.copyright.gov/

What is planking?

I am a frequent user of Facebook, and a lot of my friends have been making comments and statuses on “planking”. Apparently this is the new trend, but I am completely lost and have no idea what planking means. According to the San Francisco International Business Times, planking is defined as a game where people, known as plankers, lie down on the ground and post a picture of it on an online community such as Facebook.  To plank you must lay down face down in an unusual place with your palms attached to your side.

From the little research I have done on this topic, I find that it is very simple and not as important as I once thought it was. Also, while doing research I found that some people actually view this game as dangerous because people have fallen off a balcony and died because of it. Some have even been caught at work planking, and have been suspended. For further details on planking visit this website.
http://sanfrancisco.ibtimes.com/articles/153492/20110527/planking-what-is-it-and-why-it-is-popular-facebook.htm