Monday, 4 April 2016

5 - Research and Bibliographic tools

Also referred to as citation management tools.
Research / bibliographic management tools enable researchers to capture bibliographic information about research materials, create bibliographies, add footnotes, and manage research collections. Using one or more of these tools makes it easier not only to collect ans store items, but also to organize and tag them (add metadata) and even save PDFs. 
There are numerous tools available and a majority of these are free. Each tool has its strengths and weaknesses. Therefore it is important to take several for a test drive before you decide on which one(s) is suitable for your individual needs.
BibSonomy assists in the management of scientific publications helping manage publications and bookmarks, to collaborate with colleagues and locate new materials for research
Colwiz ( = collective wisdom) is a freely available reference, research and project manager for researchers, students and academics with web-based, desktop and mobile versions. Sync the library between these different versions and across different computers
Delicious is a social bookmarking service that provides a centralized online service enabling users to add, annotate, edit, and share bookmarks of web documents
Diigo is a social bookmarking service that allows users to save the a website title, description and to tag the website with relevant keywords.  Diigo allows users to save screen shots of the webpages, create lists of webpages, join groups of users and export bookmarks to Delicious
Endnote is a bibliographic referencing tool that allows users to store, manage and share references, cite sources and write papers.

Endnote basic is the free version of the commercial tool EndnoteX7provided by many academic and research institutions

Mendeley is a free reference manager and academic social network. Make your own fully-searchable library in seconds, cite as you write, and read and annotate your PDFs on any device. Mendeley provides users the facility to connect with colleagues, peers or classmates to follow their research output and share published research with others globally
Papers is a reference management application that can search a number of databases that are linked to a particular library, thus requiring a registration. Originally designed for Apple Mac users and more recently for Windows
ProQuest flow is a new way to collect, manage and organize research papers and documents. You can read, annotate, organize, and cite your research as well as collaborate with friends and colleagues by sharing collections
RefME is a web-based tool for generating citations, reference lists and bibliographies. RefME will generate citations by scanning item barcode. Select from numerous style guides including Harvard, APA, MLA and Chicago
RefWorks is  an online research management, writing and collaboration tool -- is designed to help researchers easily gather, manage, store and share all types of information, as well as generate citations and bibliographie


Monday, 21 March 2016

4 - Library Apps

There a lot of links here to Apps for Android and IOS devices, check them out and see if any of them could be handy for you.
Articles:
Weblinks
Boopsie for libraries   A mobile App for Interacting with the Library
SLJ’s Top 10 Apps for 2014
American Library Association - Apps for Teaching and Learning 2015
Readers' advisory and reference services
Readers advisory: there is an app for that (Goodreads, Overdrive, YALSA, Shake it)
Shake it - Orange City Council  
40 great Apps for Mobile Reference and Outreach (ALA 2013)
5 apps that make remote reference rock
Ask a librarian mobile app
Tech services
Gamification in libraries
 
Examples from GLARM industry (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Records and Museums)
Libraries
Curio - State Library of NSW (read more here)
Maori language and culture - Auckland library
SOLUS UK libraries
Summon - University New England
Picaguess - British Library crowdsourcing app: 
 YALSA - App of the week
Museums, galleries ....
Remember me - Australian War Memorial



Sunday, 6 March 2016

3 - EDUCATIONAL APPS AND RESOURCES

For Children:
AppStar Picks - Reviews of the best apps for kids!
Smart apps for kids have put together their Top Picks
Tech with Kids - reviews of kids apps, video games, websites, and smart toys.
For Library Staff:
The Cybils Awards: Children's and Young Adult Bloggers Literary Awards 2015 The Cybils Awards aims to recognise the children’s and young adult authors and illustrators whose books combine the highest literary merit and popular appeal.
The Horn Book: publications about books for children and young adults - App review of the week
Kirkus Book app reviews: Stars only
#storyappchat - a chat for those who create storybook apps for kids
There's A Book: have put together a section on blogs about children's books and children's literature called Blogroll
For Parents:
Common Sense Media try to provide unbiased information and advice and tools to help parents. See their latest list of 10 Hot Tech Toys of 2015
Great kid books A site designed for parents to help them learn about great books for children aged 4 - 14.
The iMums: reviews by mothers of little gadget lovers. This site is designed to educate parents about the best digital stories, educational apps, fun games and technology products available for children.
Know What's Inside provides help for parents to choose the best apps for their kids. The developers of this website are committed to protecting kids’ privacy and building great family-friendly apps.
For Students:
HSC Hub: the ultimate student resource
For Teachers and Educators:
American Association of School Librarians: Best Apps for Teaching & Learning 2015
American Association of School Librarians: PowerPoint presentation on the Best Apps for Teaching and Learning 2014
AppAbled: App advice for special needs
Best Online Universities Mobile learning in action: our 101 favourite apps
Khan Academy provides practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalised learning dashboard to empower learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom
Noodle is an education website designed to help parents and students make better decisions about learning. Noodle education website staff have put together: The 32 most innovative online educational tools to use in 2015
Teachers With Apps – An educational app review and resource site. It is possible to follow Teachers With Apps on Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook to see the latest review and blog posts. Also, you can join Educational App Talk, a Facebook group that “meets” every Thursday night at 9:00pm EST for open table discussions about education apps and all things relating to educational technology.
University of Queensland Free online resources for secondary schools: Get Started
University of Queensland Free online resources for secondary schools: Free eBooks
Victorian Education Department - Ipads for learning

 Victorian Education Department - Educational apps  

Awareness Websites/Apps http://mylifeasarefugee.org http://alltogethernow.org.au/everyday-racism/

Sunday, 21 February 2016

2 - The Changing World of Search

The changing world of search (Not Google - search engines defining themselves as somehow different to Google) There are several search engines that have emerged recently as alternatives to Google.
Some of these are general search engines that work in a very similar way to Google, while others are very different in how they search or what they search. Some are promoting themselves as more private and less keen to promote sites based on your browsing history. Others are searching in graphical ways or searching very specific data.

 Examples:

 • DuckDuckgo - "the search engine that doesn't track you." duckduckgo.com is a very interesting search engine and what a unique name! Try a search for Ballarat and note the interesting alternative results at the top of the screen. Note as you scroll down the results how the list just grows, no need to hit 2 for the next screen of results. By selecting “Images” at the top you get some images of Ballarat, much like Google does. If you try the “Videos” link at the top of the page there are some very good links to videos that scroll across the screen. While there is advertising here, the ads are not focussed on your searching history and no record is kept of any sites or ads you do select.

 • IzSearch - very new engine : "more privacy, less ads" izsearch.com is another interesting and non-tracking search engine. It arranges your search results vertically, but it also has images etc down the left side as well as further options related to your search, including ads from eBay amongst others further down on the right. This also includes links to further sources of images and videos about your subject such as Youtube, Pinterest and Flickr. As well as searching for images, videos, news and maps of Ballarat for example, under the More option you could see Blogs from Ballarat. I wonder if this Blog is in there yet. Under that are some interesting search topics not related to your search text, such as pets, health, food and music.

   • Instagrok - a visual search tool instagrok.com is a very different search engine in the way it lays out answers to your search text in speech bubbles. Each bubble has information on it related to your search text. As you click on each one, extensions from your search with related information appear. If you create a free account at Grok and log in when you do your search you are able to take notes in the journal area about your research. There is also a Quiz area next to the journal which has quizzes based on the information in the speech bubbles. Not the easiest search engine to get used to, but a very different approach and interesting in how it provides the results.

 • Wolfram Alpha - a computational search engine wolframalpha.com is a computational search engine, what does that mean???? Try typing 10 year old girl, 140cm into its search window and look at the very interesting results you get. Try typing “carbon” into its search window, try typing 10 peanut M&Ms to get a break down of the ingredients. Sometimes to lighten the mood they will provide a related joke at the bottom.

 • Focused or specific search: Apart from things like image search we've been seeing a plethora of Subject or material specific searches. A big one over the past few years has been Creative commons search. This gives results that are copyright free, great if you need an image or sound track for your PowerPoint or promotion. https://search.creativecommons.org/

 • Data - we've all now heard of Big data and open data. There's heaps of data on the web. But how do you find it? This searchable site has data from all over the world including Ballarat https://www.opendatasoft.com/a-comprehensive-list-of-all-open-data-portals-around-the-world/?utm_source=opendatainceptionio&utm_medium=footer&utm_campaign=opendatainception


Thursday, 7 January 2016

1 - Search Help Symbols and Operators

Welcome to Digital Trends at the Library. Over the next few weeks we are hoping to introduce some of the many new things happening online and show how they relate to our role in the library. Your feedback and suggestions will help this program to focus on the things that will be relevant to your needs. 


This session there’s an overview of some of the most useful Google search tricks, from basic tips to new features just recently released.


Try each of these search tricks out using the examples given or create your own examples of these searches.


Symbol
 How to use it
"
When you put a word or phrase in quotes, the results will only include pages with the same words in the same order as the ones inside the quotes. Only use this if you're looking for an exact word or phrase, otherwise you'll exclude many helpful results by mistake. Great for books , songs or movies.
Example: 
"imagine all the people"


-
When you use a dash before a word or site, it excludes sites with that info from your results. This is useful for words with multiple meanings, like Jaguar the car brand and jaguar the animal.
Examples: 
jaguar speed -car


*
Add an asterisk as a placeholder for any unknown or wildcard terms. This works best inside quotes.
Example: 
"a * saved is a * earned"


..
Separate numbers by two periods (full stops) without spaces to see results that contain numbers in a range.
Example: camera 
$50..$100
$
Find prices
Example: 
nikon $400


@
Find social tags
Example: 
@agoogler


#
Find popular hashtags for trending topics
Example: 
#throwbackthursday


vs.
Compare foods using vs. Type in “lamb vs. beef” or "wheat vs. corn" for example, and you’ll receive side-by-side comparisons of the nutritional facts

Operator
How to use it
site:
Get results from certain sites or domains.
Examples: 
olympics site:nbc.com and olympics site:.gov

define:
Find the dictionary meaning or web description of something.
Example:
 define:
kakorrhaphiophobia

related:
Find sites that are similar to a web address you already know.
Example: 
related:time.com

OR
Find pages that might use one of several words.
Example: 
marathon OR race

info:
Get information about a web address, including the cached version of the page, similar pages, and pages that link to the site.
Example:
 info:google.com



If you can't decide between 2 choices and don't happen to have a coin handy, type "Flip a Coin" and Google will flip a coin for you to randomly display heads or tails.


Ever come across a photo that looks strangely familiar? Or if you want to know where it came from? If you save the image, and then search it on Google Images with the camera button, you'll be able to see similar images on the web and information about who or what is in the photo.


Quiz: