Information You Can Use in Business and Life

Craigslist an Easy Way to Search with SearchTempest

Craigslist is not an easy site to search. If you find the same frustration try Search Tempest and it makes your world a whole lot easier.

http://www.searchtempest.com/

 

 

Searcher In Charge: Facebook for Adults 50 Plus and Seniors

An educational video for the 50+ crowd and seniors on Facebook.

Searcher In Charge: Facebook for Adults 50 + and Seniors

Librarians Go Gaga: University of Washington, Information School Librarians and Faculty Show Off Their Stuff

From my fellow librarians at University of Washington Information School. Lots of fun.

How Google Search Works

Interesting visual on how PPCBlog.com believes search works in Google. http://www.ppcblog.com/how-google-works/. You can get a free infographic at this link as well. 

 

Information Literacy : An Example of How Not to Say You Are an Expert from Infolitnow.com

Information literacy teaches the individual to understand the sources of information they are analyzing and how credible the authors are who are writing the content. The blog Infolitnow.com (http://infolitnow.com/about-2/)  indicates they want to "bring information literacy to the masses using information literacy principals" as noted below in the purpose statement. Okay then do it correctly.

1. Give us your credentials, list your last names and your authority and expertise for us to take your work seriously. 
2. Make sure your links work, as currently the link for Melange Information Services, Inc. does not work! 
3. IMHO, you have a lot of ads on your blog which reduces your credibility for this type of content.
4. Check your spelling, as editor is spelled wrong. ("Infolitnow was the brain child of Senior Editior Scott...")    
   
   "We Ask the Right Questions and Give you the Answers. We are a site that writes about everyday issues that will affect your everyday life.

Infolitnow was the brain child of Senior Editior Scott and Editor Dr. Lana W. Our goal is to bring information to the masses using the principals of information literacy. Infolitnow is a subdevition ot Melange Information Services: Mélange Information Services, Inc. offers 21st century college and career readiness training designed specifically to prepare learners and workers to function at the top of their game in a 21st century world economy. We take those mind set and skills and bring them to this new venture Infolitnow.com."

 

I would like to understand the thinking of the authors of Infolitnow.com on the questions listed below:

1. Why are you promoting information literacy but not giving your credentials so the user can evaluate the worth of the content relative to your expertise as authors? 
2. Why is there a broken link into a website (http://www.melangeinfo.com/index.html) that is equally vague?  
3. Why are you using the concepts of the Big6 (http://www.big6.com/) without crediting the original authors?
4. What do you mean by the word "subdevition" as I find no definitions for this word anywhere. "Infolitnow is a subdevition ot Melange Information Services:...".

It would be good for our readers to understand how following your examples of information literacy put them at the "top of their game in a 21st century world economy".

Thanks.

Searcher In Charge Health Information: Health Search for Consumers

TM

Over the past year I have been working on a series of videos titled Searcher In Charge: Health Information. They are findable by searching “searcher in charge” in YouTube. I have also provided the individual links to each video at the end of this message. These videos are produced by myself, Lark Birdsong, through the Information Literacy Initiative at the University of Washington, Information School.

 

The goal of the video series is to provide consumers who go online a way to find basic health information using an information literacy approach to finding, analyzing and evaluating quality health sources. The words “information literacy” are not used in the videos as they are produced for consumers, yet the concepts of information literacy are included. The target market is adults who go online for health information. Yes, that is a large market and some adults will be able to use the videos and others will not. The videos provide plenty of search examples for the health consumer and the videos can be replayed as needed by the consumer so they can gain the information.  Currently there are seven videos in the series with an average time of approximately 6 minutes and 50 seconds. Another video is provided as tips for viewing the videos and one more video on health sources will be added. A few key notes:
 

·         The video series highlights the importance of health care providers for finding quality health information

·         The use of libraries and librarians for finding quality information is highlighted

·         Tips for finding quality health sources are provided

·         Tips for analyzing websites and other sources of information are included

·         Tips for evaluating the quality of the results is provided

·         Search examples in Google and Bing are included that use MedlinePlus and the Mayo Clinic websites

·         The videos have some logic if played in order yet any video could be viewed as a standalone video

·         Production, images and other features improve as the video series progresses

·         The video series allows for embedding and credit is requested if embedded (Searcher In Charge Health Information, produced by Lark Birdsong, Director, Information Literacy Initiative of the University of Washington Information School, [lark@larkbirdsong.com or 303-884-8666])

·         Video #7 will include sources of quality health information; more details below

·         I also plan to use websites in video #7 that direct consumers to libraries that might have health information such http://www.publiclibraries.com/ (USA specific). I have other entry points into libraries beyond the USA such as http://www.123world.com/libraries/, http://www.worldcat.org/,  http://www.libdex.com/country.html, http://lists.webjunction.org/libweb/  and will add other sources for this area if I receive recommendations.

 

I have not produced the last video on health sources for Searcher In Charge Health Information #7 yet. I have been gathering quality health sources that help a health consumer with more general questions find quality entry points. I am open to other health sources and  would like to gain feedback on quality health sources that might be good starting points with health questions. I am not sure how I will format this last video and what information will be included as it might depend on the number and type of recommendations I receive. If you have any suggestions I am appreciative of your thoughts. Also feel free to forward this information if you believe it would be useful to others.

 

 

Individual Links to each video:

Searcher In Charge Video Series Viewing Tips http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t5NQyqh53g

Searcher In Charge Health Information #1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40U8ymsp3Fw

Searcher In Charge Health Information #2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MDTkF8WglE

Searcher In Charge Health Information #3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bTHVUIYHAo

Searcher In Charge Health Information #4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzinjiYb3-w

Searcher In Charge Health Information #5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNJcTNlAzEQ

Searcher In Charge Health Information #5 More Details http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdhwL7hEIcg

Searcher In Charge Health Information #6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocz2Mo764es

 

 
Thanks for your time and suggestions.

How to Easily follow Race Across America, RAAM and RAW 2010, with Real Time Information from Twitter and What the Hashtag.

“How to Easily follow RAAM and RAW 2010 with Real Time Information from Twitter and What the Hashtag.”

By Lark Birdsong
RAAM, 2008 Competitor
RAW, 2010 Chief Crew

What the Heck is Twitter and What the Hashtag?

Here is a way to follow RAAM and RAW from people who are “tweeting” over the days leading up to RAAM and RAW, the 12 days of competition, and post race information as it happens. So what is Twitter? In common sense language, Twitter is a website on the internet where people can put in up to 140 characters of information and it is also a place where people can read this information, usually within a few seconds after the person “tweeted” the information. Per Twitter, “Twitter is a real-time information network powered by people all around the world that lets you share and discover what’s happening now.”

Why in the world would I want to do this?

Because the information can be from individuals who have knowledge of the race as it is occurring. For example, I will be tweeting about the men’s and women’s RAAM solo race and all the RAW competitors I see, along with tweets about the Denver Spokes, since I am chief crew for this wonderful team.

If you are interested how Jure Robic or Amy Xu is doing, I might have seen them and tweeted about their progress. RAW teams and RAW individual solo competitors will be swirling around us and I will tweet about them when I can. Anyone tweeting can provide information about accidents, competitions, weather, wonderful moments, etc. Pictures can also be added to tweets and you could even see pictures of the competition as well.

As with any information you have to determine whether it is quality information. So yes sometimes it might not be accurate or maybe folks might be trying to throw off a competitor by providing a false location. Twitter is one piece of information and if it is really important to the competitor’s race strategy, she/he would have to verify information from multiple sources of information.

Yet information from Twitter can be very useful. Think of how it would be to see a photo of someone you are following through a tweet or hear that they made it through a nasty piece of weather or were okay after a crash on the bike. These are just a few of the examples of information that could be found on Twitter. If I were coming upon an accident that might affect racers behind us I could tweet about it and many others could know about the accident much sooner than their arrival at the accident scene. In this instance I would also call the race officials, yet the public distribution of the information instantly through Twitter has the ability to get to many more racers and crew much quicker. Many big companies are using Twitter to their advantage and there are reasons why. So let’s start tweeting and reading all the information about this wonderful race called Race Across America (http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/ ) and Race Across the West (http://www.raceacrossthewest.org/) by those that are tweeting on the race.

Okay I am convinced so how do I do it?

Here is a step by step manual to follow this great race and graphic examples. You can only follow people who tweet or you can tweet, you don't have to do both.

Do this for people who Tweet; please add #raam2010 to all their Tweets for RAAM/RAW

• Add this at the end of every tweet, #raam2010; leave a space before the #.
• Below is an example of a tweet I just posted. I use HootSuite (http://hootsuite.com/) to put my information in or “tweet from” on my iPhone and my Twitter name is lebird (http://twitter.com/lebird). I will be tweeting before and during the race.
• Denver Spokes compete in RAW 2010. Celeste Callahan at 68 has done 3 RAAMs and soon 1 RAW http://ht.ly/1LxjI #raam2010
• We can see all the tweets that use #raam2010 on What the Hashtag.

Do this for people who only want to read RAAM and RAW information for 2010; use What the Hashtag?! website

• Go to the website What the Hashtag?! (http://wthashtag.com/Main_Page)
• Type in raam2010 in the white search box with a # sign to the left and below What the hashtag?! blue icon. Here is an example of how it might look.

• Go to the lower half of the webpage and you see the most recent information that people have tweeted about regarding RAAM and RAW. See this example.

• If you want a transcript of more tweets click on the transcript tab that is just above the most recent tweets and chose the date range you want to have a transcript from. I chose May 13, 2010 through May 15, 2010 and an example is listed below.

 

Wrap Up- It is easy so go ahead and try it, there is information waiting for you to read

1. It is easy to get all the RAAM and RAW tweets in one place for people to read if, people tweeting use #raam2010 in all their tweets. (doesn’t matter if capitalized or not).

2. Individuals wanting to read these tweets go to What the Hashtag?! And type in raam2010 in the search box by the # (http://wthashtag.com/Main_Page).

3. People wanting a transcript of more tweets that they see click on the transcript tab in What the Hashtag?! and put in the date range you want to read.

4. You can of course do both, tweet and read the other tweets.

Best wishes to all for a safe and fun race. See you soon.

What the Hashtag and Twitter: Live Conversations for a Hashtag and Transcripts for a Conference or Topic, Wow!

I learned about What the Hashtag?! (http://wthashtag.com/Main_Page) from Andrea Meyer of Working Knowledge (http://workingknowledge.com/. Andrea works a lot with Twitter and her expertise is valued by many companies.

I tested What the Hashtag?! and wanted to show one way I found it useful. First, from the website What the Hashtag?! they describe their services as "a user-editable encyclopedia for hashtags found on Twitter."

If a hashtag is setup (I tested #health) for a topic, type it in and you will see a description for the hash tag, contributions the last seven days, top contributors, area to have a live conversation with folks on this  specific hashtag and what makes me really excited, is a view transcript tab.

Click on it and you can get tweets for some time back. I went back one month for #health and received a transcript for 30 days worth of tweets on #health. 

If there is not a hash tag setup for your purpose you can set one up. Here is an example of one I setup for some work I am doing. I wrote the hashtag, description and have promoted this tag on other listserv's and social media sites as the one to use for this year's Race Across America. (http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/).

Lastly, and this is also really exciting, What the Hashtag is a place to get the transcript from a conference, if it has been setup. As an example, the Association of Information Professionals (http://www.aiip.org/) is having their annual conference starting April 28, 2010 and has designated the official hashtag for the conference as #aiip10. Since this hashtag was not setup, I setup one up for the hashtag (#aiip10) for the AIIP 2010 Conference and described how the hashtag can be used on What the Hashtag. I can now type this hashtag into What the Hashtag and have a transcript from the entire conference. This could also be used to have live conversations during the conference, from anywhere, as long as an individual is registered on What the Hashtag.  Here is how it looks now before the conference starts.

After I set the #aiip10 hashtag up, this is how it looks now. I tweet as lebird (http://twitter.com/lebird)and infoliteracy (http://twitter.com/InfoLiteracy) and they showed up about one hour after the tweet. You can also see the other tweets leading up to the conference. 

 

I believe this is a valuable tool to have live conversations on a topic plus gain a transcript on #hashtags. Thanks Andrea for bringing this to our attention.