• Import bibliographic information directly from the web or online databases
• User-created organizational schemes using folders, tagging and note fields
• Integrate into word processors to create in-text notes and bibliographies
• Share citations with other researchers

Most of these managers are developed by publishers (EndNote Web, RefWorks) or academics (Mendeley, Zotero), with a wide variety of cost-models available. The CUL librarians are here to help you select and use many of these managers.

Information Literacy – what it is
Today accessing information is simple.  Turn on your phone, tablet, PC or any device hooked up to a network and you have instant access to petabytes of information. But information about fixing a sink doesn’t make one a plumber, so the need for learning critical thinking skills remains essential. Learning a discipline’s research methods, how questions are constructed, how data is collected, and how knowledge is disseminated and valued, is a goal of information literacy.

“(A)n information literate student should be able to conceptualize a research problem, state it clearly, identify the nature and scope of information needed, find that information efficiently and effectively, evaluate it well, organize it, and apply it competently and ethically to the problem at hand.” (Badke 23)

While these steps are most often explored in a research paper project, information literacy skills are used within disciplines in other ways. Scientists and social scientists write literature reviews to track the directions new research is heading. Engineers identify patents to understand how technology is evolving. Business managers seek out best practices to improve marketing cloud-based services to enterprise clients. In each case, information literacy skills help professionals understand where relevant data is found, how it’s organized, and how to apply it to the problem. Information literacy can be a framework to approach discipline inquiry.

Information literacy broadens students’ views of a discipline by working first hand with its literature. Students in upper level history and English classes work with primary texts to hone their analytical skills. Teaching students to critically read research papers help them to analyze experimental methodologies and interpret conclusions.  Tracking a citation over time demonstrates the impact of research. Analyzing web information for credibility improves bias-detection skills.  These are a few creative ways to engage students through information literacy instruction.

In the next blog entry in this series I’ll discuss threshold concepts, a way to approach information literacy that transforms student perceptions about information.

The new site contains tens of thousands of books to read and download.  Creating a personal account opens up more features and soft copies of books can be purchased for $24.95.

A new mini-site Springer Realtime was also launched that displays info-graphics like real-time user locations on a world map, a tag cloud of top search words and Twitter-like feed showing top title downloads. For coolness factor, check out the Icons page as it drop covers Matrix-style.

This guide is important for off-campus users as database links are proxy-enabled, which means by using them you’ll be authenticated as an SMU user before going onto IEEE Xplore and other private databases.

The guide features a new search on the home page.  Called “Engineering Search Widget”, it uses the same Discover SMU search engine with a focus on our subscribed engineering resources.

Check it out!

HarnessingDatabases_Fall2012

Next semester we’re planning more seminars for graduate students.  Stay tuned!

One gruesome side effect of the rise of large drug cartels in Mexico is personal safety of engineers. The Zeta cartel, one of the largest criminal organizations, built and maintains a radio network through kidnapping and enslaving computer and network engineers. Engineers and technicians from IBM and ICA Fluor Daniel have gone missing over the past four years, never to be heard from again. Despite efforts from the Mexican military to locate and dismantle radio towers, cartels continue to add new ones in even more remote areas.

Narco Radio Tower Seized in Veracruz

North Korea has nothing on the nature of secrets when compared to Google’s data centers. For years reporters, competitors and network nerds have tried to find out how Google works their magic of delivering greater amounts of data faster every day.  Did you know they are the masters of server farm cooling? Or they’ve built much of their own equipment since 1999? If your future direction is to work or operate a data center, check this out!

Explore a Google Data Center