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Author Topic: The Librarian Is In: Research chat topic suggestions  (Read 5422 times)

Jenett

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The Librarian Is In: Research chat topic suggestions
« on: August 15, 2014, 06:16:42 pm »
As per the topical chat thread, here's a thread for people to stick things that they might like to have chats about.

I'm also very willing to do a general thread about research skills, but a lot of the best conversations about research are sort of organic, so it may also make sense to do a summary of the chat for people who can't be there, and then riff on the topic further as needed, so I'm starting with "Here, let's collect topics." and we can go from there.

So! Topics! Please suggest!

(Also, if you have notes on scheduling: my own schedule is such that it's almost certainly likely to be mid-evening Eastern Time on weeknights or weekend days or evenings, but I'd love to see other people with research skills do some too.)
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Aster Breo

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Re: The Librarian Is In: Research chat topic suggestions
« Reply #1 on: August 15, 2014, 06:40:58 pm »
Quote from: Jenett;155862
So! Topics! Please suggest!

I'd love to learn more about how to find and access academic journal articles online, for those of us who don't have access to a university library.

I'd also like to learn more about how to wring the most out of a Google search, as well as how to best use Google Scholar. And any tools I don't know about yet.

(I'm not a bad researcher, myself, having made it through both MA and JD degrees. But I graduated from law school in 1999, as online databases were just becoming widely available, so I'm not nearly as well versed in online research as I'd like to be.)
"The status is not quo."  ~ Dr. Horrible

Amphibian

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Re: The Librarian Is In: Research chat topic suggestions
« Reply #2 on: August 15, 2014, 06:55:55 pm »
Quote from: Jenett;155862
So! Topics! Please suggest!

While this feels like a 101-level thing, some discussion of the search algorithms and how to tell the engine (in my case, usually Google) what you're actually looking for and refine the search to get better results. A lot of the time I look for something and either get a lot of 'useless' results (related but not actually answering the relevant thing) before finding the information, or my query gets completely misinterpreted and the top twentyodd hits are about something Totally Unrelated.
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Re: The Librarian Is In: Research chat topic suggestions
« Reply #3 on: August 15, 2014, 07:19:00 pm »
Quote from: Jenett;155862
So! Topics! Please suggest!

 
I don't know if this is within the scope of what you have in mind but I'd love to have a discussion about using academic sources in non-academic contexts and how to do so meaningfully.
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Jenett

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Re: The Librarian Is In: Research chat topic suggestions
« Reply #4 on: August 15, 2014, 07:58:50 pm »
Quote from: Aster Breo;155866
I'd love to learn more about how to find and access academic journal articles online, for those of us who don't have access to a university library.

I'd also like to learn more about how to wring the most out of a Google search, as well as how to best use Google Scholar. And any tools I don't know about yet.

 
Both excellent questions!
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Jenett

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Re: The Librarian Is In: Research chat topic suggestions
« Reply #5 on: August 15, 2014, 08:00:42 pm »
Quote from: Amphibian;155868
While this feels like a 101-level thing, some discussion of the search algorithms and how to tell the engine (in my case, usually Google) what you're actually looking for and refine the search to get better results. A lot of the time I look for something and either get a lot of 'useless' results (related but not actually answering the relevant thing) before finding the information, or my query gets completely misinterpreted and the top twentyodd hits are about something Totally Unrelated.

 
See, this is what I meant by prep work: there's at least two books I'd want to poke at for a deeper understanding of some of the algorithm designs.

(This is also a cool one to do real time, for some reasons I could explain in the process, because a lot of search engines, including Google, base your search info on various bits of availalbe data they can see, like location and cookies on your machine.)
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baduhmtisss

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Re: The Librarian Is In: Research chat topic suggestions
« Reply #6 on: August 15, 2014, 08:36:35 pm »
Quote from: Jenett;155884
See, this is what I meant by prep work: there's at least two books I'd want to poke at for a deeper understanding of some of the algorithm designs.

(This is also a cool one to do real time, for some reasons I could explain in the process, because a lot of search engines, including Google, base your search info on various bits of availalbe data they can see, like location and cookies on your machine.)

 
My suggestions are pretty much all of those made above, but I didn't have the knowledge to really explain what I'd suggest? I'm pretty computer illiterate, sooo, any info is good info?
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Allaya

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Re: The Librarian Is In: Research chat topic suggestions
« Reply #7 on: August 15, 2014, 09:15:56 pm »
Quote from: Jack;155872
I don't know if this is within the scope of what you have in mind but I'd love to have a discussion about using academic sources in non-academic contexts and how to do so meaningfully.

 
I wouldn't mind seeing something like this.
Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth.  — Shirley Chisholm
No doubt the truth can be unpleasant, but I am not sure that unpleasantness is the same as the truth.  — Roger Ebert
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savveir

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Re: The Librarian Is In: Research chat topic suggestions
« Reply #8 on: August 16, 2014, 02:31:13 am »
Quote from: Jenett;155862
As per the topical chat thread, here's a thread for people to stick things that they might like to have chats about.

I'm also very willing to do a general thread about research skills, but a lot of the best conversations about research are sort of organic, so it may also make sense to do a summary of the chat for people who can't be there, and then riff on the topic further as needed, so I'm starting with "Here, let's collect topics." and we can go from there.

So! Topics! Please suggest!

(Also, if you have notes on scheduling: my own schedule is such that it's almost certainly likely to be mid-evening Eastern Time on weeknights or weekend days or evenings, but I'd love to see other people with research skills do some too.)

 
I'd be interested in dropping in on this, my only thing would be when organising time, could we possibly use UTC? It's just really confusing trying to figure out which Eastern Time you're referring to. I strongly suspect it wont be the same as my Eastern Time :P
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Sophia C

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Re: The Librarian Is In: Research chat topic suggestions
« Reply #9 on: August 16, 2014, 03:09:40 am »
Quote from: savvy;155943
I'd be interested in dropping in on this, my only thing would be when organising time, could we possibly use UTC? It's just really confusing trying to figure out which Eastern Time you're referring to. I strongly suspect it wont be the same as my Eastern Time :P

I'd also be very keen to join a real-time chat, if we can organise it at a time when I'm awake. I'm pretty good at basic information skills, but the internet-based ones still elude me a bit. I've taken seminars on using information search engines other than Google Scholar, and getting the best out of Google Scholar itself, but I'm still quite lost. I tend to type in my subject and hope for the best.

Lovely of you to offer this!
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Jenett

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Re: The Librarian Is In: Research chat topic suggestions
« Reply #10 on: August 16, 2014, 08:46:04 am »
Quote from: savvy;155943
I'd be interested in dropping in on this, my only thing would be when organising time, could we possibly use UTC? It's just really confusing trying to figure out which Eastern Time you're referring to. I strongly suspect it wont be the same as my Eastern Time :P

 
Heh. Yes. When I sort out an actual time, I'll give time ranges. (For people who don't know, I'm on the East Coast of the US, and angling the current job hunt to stay in the same time zone, though we'll see how that goes.)
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