Use of Information Sources
ILS 244W Week 3
Spring 2008
March 4 - 10
NOTE: Please print a copy of this page and keep it nearby for ready reference.
WEEK 3 READING ASSIGNMENT
- LECTURE: Read the lecture notes below (then take a quiz on the material).
- READINGS IN TEXT: Read chapters 5-6 (pp 99-152) in List-Handley (then take a quiz on the material)
WEEK 3 RESOURCE GUIDE ASSIGNMENT
This week you are to identify and examine bibliographical dictionaries relevant to your area of study. Give an overview of what kind of information is available in these resources and list specific sources and their call numbers (if in print) or URL (if on the Web); where appropriate, give notes on coverage of and how to use each resource.
This week you are also to identify and examine atlases and gazetteers relevant to your area of study. Give an overview of what kind of information is available in these resources and list specific sources and their call numbers (if in print) or URL (if on the Web); where appropriate, give notes on coverage of and how to use each resource.
This week you are to also identify and examine yearbooks, handbooks and almanacs in your area of study. Give an overview of what kind of information is available in these resources and list specific sources and their call numbers (if in print) or URL (if on the Web); where appropriate, give notes on coverage of and how to use each resource.
WEEK 3 WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
REVISION OF DRAFT
Revise the paper on the relevance of Excellence in personal pursuits, Access to opportunities, Understanding and appreciation of diversity, Personal success, Life-long learning, and Community involvement in shaping a responsible, healthy and contented citizen to 3-5 pages. During the revision, focus on creating an opening that gives a clear statement of thesis of the paper and hints at its importance; creating an introduction that draws the reader into the work, and an ending that summarizes the discussion using a new example. Post this revision in the appropriate thread for feedback.
DAILY THEMES - [Point of View]
Write a one-page theme (250 words) for each day of this week.
Day 1: Consider some actual or imagined room. In one paragraph, describe the room's interior from a vantage point outside it, e.g., through an open door, a window, or a skylight. Then, in a second paragraph, describe what the viewer sees looking outward from within the room through the same aperture. Try to make each paragraph cohere and, if possible, to coordinate the ways in which each perspective characterizes the room.
Day 2: Take another room, real or imaginary. Again in two separate but connected paragraphs, describe the interior from the point of view (a) of someone intimately familiar with that room and (b) of a stranger, someone who is seeing it for the first time. You will need to decide about the implicit purpose of the account: for example, why does someone describe something he or she knows well, and to whom?
Day 3: Choose a pair of objects or phenomena you consider to be polar or antithetical (for example: sun-moon, night-day, mountain-valley, dog-cat, acid-base, land-sea, water-wine, body-soul, fish-fowl). Take the perspective of one of them and comment on the opposing member of the pair: i.e., write as sun about moon. Now vice-versa: i.e., wire as moon from the point of view of sun.
Day 4: Narrate an incident or event in which the "metaphorical" point of view of the speaker is connected to his/her "literal" point of view.
Day 5: Narrate the same incident that you chose for Thursday, but use a different point of view. (If you used first-person, change to third person; if you used third-person, change to first person). Think carefully about the details, the words, and possibly the tone that will need to change, too.
WEEK 3 LECTURE
Biographical dictionaries
There is a constant demand for biographical information in libraries. There are three factors concerning notable persons that are sought: time, place, and occupation. While biographical dictionaries can provide you with much of this information, there are other sources that you could use. Biographical information can also be found in encyclopedias, yearbooks, obituaries.
Biographical dictionaries available online (be sure to explore each source):
Gazetteers
The advantages of atlases are that the maps can be kept in sequence and can be more conveniently indeed than a collection of sheet maps. They can also be augmented more easilyh with explanatory texts.
The term gazetteer has two meanings. It can mean either the index to an atlas or a separately published reference work which provides information on places -- of the world, of a paricular country, or a region -- under their names in alphabetical order.
Examples of atlases and gazetteers available online:
Handbooks
The term 'yearbook' is used by publishers for a variety of reference works published annually, and even for some which are not. 'Handbooks are reference works that cover a broad subject in a brief manner.
A few online yearbooks and handbooks (be sure to explore each source):
WEEK 3 QUIZ
Test what you learned from this week's reading.
There is a short 20 question quiz covering each of the assigned readings for this week (lecture, chapter 5, chapter 6). Take a maximum of 40 minutes for each quiz. Some questions require you to apply what is learned from the readings. Other questions ask you to recall specific material. After you have taken the quiz, go back and check your answers in the text.
WEEK 3 JOURNAL ENTRY
In the appropriate thread, write a narrative describing what you expect to gain from this course, your feelings about online versus onground courses, and why you chose to study online during this term. Be sure to mark the entry with the title "REFLECTIONS FROM THE MIDDLE - Date".
On this class site, every effort has been made to acknowledge the work of others. Any omission is unintentional. If anyone finds an oversight, please contact me at brownm6@southernct.edu immediately so that any error can be corrected.
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