Your Public Library has an App!

As we prepare ourselves for Christmas break, I'd like to share a little gift with you: the Hawaii State Public Library System has an app! It's been out for a few months, but I'm not sure if everyone knows about it (and everyone who's anyone needs to know!)

In your app store, search for HSPLS. The app is called "Hawaii Mobile", and it's by ChiliFresh.com (see? I'm citing my sources).

With this app, you can do so many things! Login with your library card number and pin, and you can see your account (books on hold, fines, etc.), renew books you currently have checked out, and use the app itself as a library card. You can also search for books in the HSPLS catalog, scope out upcoming library events, and generally have an amazing time being so smart because YOU HAVE THE LIBRARY APP!

Enjoy, and have a very wonderful Christmas.

Site Evaluation

What is a Filter Bubble and Could This be Why Your Aunty Shares Crazy Stuff on Facebook...?

As a librarian, I love Google.

Google is amazing.

I find and learn amazing stuff via Google...

Have you ever wondered, though, in a Google ubiquitous world, how it is that your Aunties and old high school classmates can end up sharing such bizarre, crazy stuff on Facebook?

It actually probably has a lot to do with the personalization of search. Did you know there is no such thing as a "standard" Google search? Beginning back in about 2009, Google began using your personal search history and approximately 57 other "click indicators" to personalize the results lists you see when you run a search. That means that when you search for "Egypt" from your house in Manoa, you probably see a very different set of results than your Aunty Lulu sees when she searches for "Egypt" from her house in rural Maine.

The web is a big place. The idea that we aren't all seeing the same parts of the web even when we search for the same terms on the same tools is the main concept behind what Eli Pariser has termed a "filter bubble."

It's not just Google either. Facebook, Instagram, Yahoo, Bing... Social media and much of search has become personalized through the use of software algorithms.

Though Eli Pariser presented this Ted Talk back in 2011, the ideas and caveats behind algorithmic filter bubbles are more relevant than ever.



Next post: How we begin to help students venture beyond their filter bubbles...

Information Literacy Playbook: Taking Research Notes, Add Method to the Madness...

When it comes to taking research notes there is a lot more to think about than one might realize. While there is no one right way to take notes, note taking that supports good scholarship have some common characteristics.

Whatever the method, good research notes:

• Allow the researcher to connect a specific fact or quote to a specific source
• Allow the researcher to manipulate his/her content to support analysis and organization

Research notes we are seeing at Mid-Pacific fall into two main forms: note cards and document-style notes.

Note Cards:

Some students love note cards. They are easily manipulated and for a student with the ability to keep track of numerous loose pieces of paper, the paper note card is a wonderful option.

Document-Style Notes:

Note cards don't work for some students for a variety of reasons. Many students find document-style notes more agreeable. Document-style notes mean fewer pieces of paper to lose.

Notes on things we have learned since the publication of these two videos:

• Have students create an Easysbib project at THE BEGINNING of the research process. They will use the author/title information in the note taking process.
• Require students to use parenthetical citation with the author's last name or title information next to each item, skip spaces between each fact/quote, and ONLY WRITE ON ONE SIDE OF THE PAPER. 
• Should you need to physically manipulate facts/quotes in the analysis/organizational step of the research process these guidelines will allow students to cut their note pages up into strips and glue/tape like facts together.
• Use of the parenthetical citation format with (Name pg#) also reinforces the format for in-text citation in the final paper.

Here's document-style note taking work flow presented another way.

Online note cards or note taking?

Because of the nature of the iPad in it's current form, most students find online note taking quite challenging. The inability to have windows open side-by-side means the researchers must navigate from tab-to-tab. It's hard. Given the technological constraints at this time, most students find it more efficient to use their iPad as their reading screen while they take notes on paper or on note cards.

Info Literacy Coaching Playbook: Use Wikipedia, Just Don't Cut Your Arm Off...

Knives can be dangerous, but we use knives because they're incredibly useful tools. Giving a sharp knife to a pre-K child is probably less than wise, but the benefits of knife use by those trained in the safe use of knives so outweigh the potential harms that parents all over the planet hand sharp bladed objects to children. Because parents care, most don't hand over a cleaver and scream, "CHOP AWAY, CHILD! CHOP AWAY!" Moms and dads take deep breaths, and go about the sometimes terrifying task of teaching their children to fillet, dice, and pare.

Used well, Wikipedia, is truly one of the transformative information tools of our time. Students, though, need to be taught how to use Wikipedia in ways that won't leave them heading home at the end of a school day with missing cognitive limbs. This fantastic Cooperative Library Instruction Project tutorial: Using Wikipedia for Academic Research explains it all extremely well!

Information Literacy Coaching Playbook: Evaluating Web Sources

In a Google world, becoming a good user of information is HARD!

We hope that our students graduate as good searchers and good "consumers" of information, but this is difficult if instruction is limited to 2 or 3 library visits every semester. Learning to search effectively and developing healthy evaluation instincts comes from hundreds of lessons, hints, tips, tricks, and "micro-lessons" delivered in your daily lessons and interactions that happen in the course of the amazing work that each of you does day in and day out.

As students are searching for sources with content needed for your work in class, challenge them not only on the content itself, but on the source. For example:

• Do you know if this author is qualified to write about this? 
• How do you know? 
• He's a professor at Columbia, but he teaches history. Why would we want to use his information about diabetes?

Roll over or click on the Thinglink points below for more information on things we should ask students to consider as they evaluate web sources.


Beyond the information included in a citation students should consider:

• Does the page look authoritative? (While it isn't everything, appearance matters, right?)
• Is the text well written and well edited?
• Is the site/source well organized?
• Does the page include links OUT to authoritative sites/sources on the content being covered?
• Does the language indicate a bias or specific orientation?
• Does the content seem/feel plausible based on the information learned from authoritative sources consulted earlier? (Does it pass the smell test?)
• Does the post/infographic/map/etc. include a works cited list?
• Does the works cited list include sources you have found to be reputable?
• Does the works cited list include the work of important people in the area of study?

This isn't intended to be an evaluation checklists. Our experience has shown that website evaluation checklists tend not to hold up particularly well in real world use. Our goal is simply to give you a few more tools as you help students use real-world information.

For us to create searching and source evaluation coaching opportunities, and to get the most out of those interactions:

• Require students to cite
• Consider requiring them to cite "at least X print or database sources" 

Instructionally, teaching kids to cite "because otherwise it's plagiarism" while technically correct, isn't exactly motivating to kids. Developing a habit of citation in many cases is primarily helpful because it reminds us to look for the kinds of information that helps us to know whether a source is worth using, serves as a pathway for your audience to locate sources you used for further study of their own, and helps to build YOUR credibility with your audience.

Resources for Personal and Professional Growth...

Teachers, are you working on an advanced degree or building curriculum? We have recently added access to resources that could well be worth your time!

Note: If you are accessing these links off campus, you will need to enter your Mid-Pacific username and password at the prompt screen.

EBSCO Explora: Educator's Edition is a new landing page intended to make it easier to find and access information relevant to teachers.

Click here to try it out!

EBSCO Professional Development Collection allows you to search the following resources from one interface: Teacher Reference Center, ERIC, Academic Search Premier, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts, Book Collection: Nonfiction

Click here to try it out!

Academic Search Complete is a database primarily designed for academic institutions. This database provides complete coverage of multidisciplinary academic journals. It supports high-level research in the key areas of academic study by providing peer-reviewed journals, full-text periodicals, reports, books, and more.

Click here to try it out!

There's more! A complete list of databases to which we have access is available at the link below.