JOMC 50: Electronic
Information Sources

Wednesday, Jan. 9

If you have not used a Macintosh before, please read Macintosh Basics and Macintosh Getting Started. These documents, which can be found on pages 93-101 in the Dead Tree Edition are designed to accompany free short courses offered by Academic Technology and Networks (highly recommended if you have time).
These publications can be printed from the Web, and are also available as handouts from ATN at 402 Hanes Hall or 300 Wilson Library. If you are new to using computers at UNC, also get a copy of ATN's Computing in the Humanities handout, or see the Web version. If you have computer and a modem, you also should read ATN's Connecting to UNC-CH via Modem. (Same locations)

Monday, Jan. 13

• Intro to UNC computers and information sources, Email, mailing lists, and the World Wide Web ("WWW" or "the Web" for short).
• Metainformation (information about information): library catalogs, online help systems.
• Preview of lab sessions

Read theDead Tree Edition :
Macintosh Computer Basics (Pg. 93 to Pg. 101)
Buy a 3.5" disk before next lab! You will need at least one disk to store your work for this course. (The best kind to buy is an IBM-formatted 2HD disk, because it will work on most of the computers on campus.)See the detailed explanation

Wednesday, Jan. 15

• Track a FedEx package online
• Introduce Topic Proposal Assignment. Read theDead Tree Edition :Tell Us About Your Topic (Pg. 25-26, 265 to Pg. 268)
  
• Using Netscape and Telnet to reach the library.
• What's S.E.A.R.C.H.?
• The Boolean Search
• ATN Web page about online research.

Read theDead Tree Edition :
Keywords and online searching (Pg. 13 to Pg. 16)
Due Date for Topic Proposals: January 29

The Importance of Information What is Information Anyway? and Defining "Information Age" and related concepts: Information age, Information worker, Information Technology.

Lab sessions:

• How to Remember Names (even if you don't have a videotape of everyone).
• Preview or review of Macintosh
• Email: Preview of Telnet, PINE and MailDrop for Email.
• Using Netscape and Telnet to reach the library.
• Discussion of differences between Macs and PCs.
• Discussion of software versions (Word 5 vs. 6, Netscape 1 vs. 2).
• Important: Howell Hall rules (and common sense around electronics in cramped spaces) say no food or drink in the computer labs, not even if you bring enough for everyone. Sorry, but that includes morning coffee in the 8 a.m. groups and lunch in the 12 noon groups.

Same as last week, plus Web pages about Electronic Services at Davis Library.
Also scan the Macintosh and Netscape online help systems and decide whether you'd rather buy $25 reference books that will be out of date next year or read this kind of information off the screen.

Monday, Jan. 20--Martin Luther King Day, No Class

Wednesday, Jan. 22

• WWW site of the Day:pathfinder.com
• Discovering the Library
  Books, card catalogs, Library of Congress Subject Headings, introduction to keywords, online catalogs, databases.

Lab session:

• Using Netscape and Telnet to reach the library --hands on.
• Doing online research and taking notes on the Macintosh with SimpleText, TeachText or Microsoft Word.
• Saving your own bookmark list, notes and bibliography on your Mac or PC disks.

• Distant sources: The Library of Congress
  
• Frequently Asked Questions about the Web.

READ: The Dead Tree Editionpages 119-128--Internet Pioneers and History and As We May Think by Vannevar Bush.

Check out the Web site of the day!
UNC's Carolina Courses online
Search Engines and Indexes



Find friends, colleagues, and old roommates for free at Switchboard
Finding people Gopher sites
Finding people Four 11 directory services
Finding people A More Comprehensive List


• Privacy in the Digital Age
  

• We Know All About You: Search for yourself on the Net
  Search Engines and Indexes
  Gopher and earlier Internet tools
  

  Searching the Web
  Yahoo to Alta Vista
  Chief Yahoos: David Filo/Jerry Fang
  What's Yahoo?
  The name Yahoo! is supposed to stand for"
  

• Yet
  
• Another
  
• Hierarchical
  
• Officious
  
• Oracle"
  
• What are some search alternatives?
  The biggest index? Alta Vista.

READ: The Dead Tree Edition pages 129-140--Finding Stuff on the Net and Searching 101 Web Cheat Sheet

Internet: Introduction and Internet Browsing. These WWW documents are also available as handouts from ATN, 402 Hanes Hall or 300 Wilson Library.

In class, we'll look at some of these sites (or browse on your own):


• Frequently Asked Questions about the Web
• The Library of Congress
• ATN Web page about online research.
• The Atlantic Monthly online
• Internal Revenue Service
• The New York Times
• CNN Interactive
• CNN Interactive covers the State of the Union
• Nando Net
• Geek Girl magazine on the web.



READ: The Dead Tree Edition pages 129-135; 141-148--Internet Introduction and Web Browsing

TOPIC PROPOSALS DUE!

Hands-on Internet

• Web addresses (URLs) and Email addresses
• Telnet, Pine and MailDrop for Email.
• A different way to do email: Mail Drop
• Moving to Arwen's Best of the Usenet Signatures
• Joining mailing lists; browsing Usenet newsgroups, Netiquette.

• Moving to the new Isis
• MailDrop and Pine and Pico Introduction. These WWW documents are also available as handouts from ATN, 402 Hanes Hall or 300 Wilson Library.
• Differences between Lynx and Netscape.
• Another example, see a lynx version of this syllabus
• For more documentation on Lynx please read Using Lynx at UNC-CH. This WWW document is also available as a handout from ATN.

READ: The Dead Tree Edition pages 159-171--Mail Drop/Email Aliases/Pine & Pico

• WWW site of the Day: Play the Market Online
• Review of Email addressing and Web address (URL) systems

Get acquainted with these Web sites:

• Where government and business meet:
  
• EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering Analysis and Retrieval) and SEC documents
  
• Hoover's most popular Web sites for free business information.
• Business publications online: Information Access Company's database InfoTrac

  
  READ: The Dead Tree Edition pages 64-78; --Infotrac and Company research information.

• Business information on paper and online
• International Business Resources.
• Business Information Sources.
• Identifying flagship companies

• International Business Resources.
• Business Information Sources

• The dreaded Computer Quiz
• SPECIAL TOUR!! We take you to SunSite

Eric helps us to celebrate Valentine's Day in Cyber Space and learn how to study for the midterm.

Anatomy of Email, Web and Internet Research


• Review of Email addressing and Web address (URL) systems

• Guest speakers: Barbara Levergood and Ridley Kessler Jr., reference librarians at Davis Library.
  
• Federal, state and local agencies. For example, North Carolina State Government, Orange County, and Chapel Hill.
• Sample government Web site starting points:
  Thomas, the Library of Congress source for government information, and The White House home page, and the The Senate Home Page.

READ: The Dead Tree Edition pages 33-52--What is GPO Access?

Lab session

Davis Library Tour including Govt. Docs and Basement.
Please assemble near front door of Davis Library.

Electronic Services
Virtual Reference Desk
Microforms Collection
Ask a Reference Question
Difference betweenCD-ROMs and U-Search

• Review for Almost Mid-semester test
  • What have we learned?

READ: The Dead Tree Edition pages 79-84--UNC Online Catalog: Periodicals and Other Services

A multiple-choice test on all aspects of the course including discussions in class, lab sessions, and handouts.

50 Questions (Time limit: 45 minutes)

• GPO Access
• Infotrac
• NMI Newspaper Abstracts
• Carl Uncover
• OCLC FirstSearch
• Britannica Online
• A little bit about ERIC
• Introduction of Treasure Hunt Assignment--See page 277 in the Dead Tree Edition for all the details (Also see Citation style guide)
  

There are more than ten times as many students in this class as there are Davis Library Lexis/Nexis workstations, so you must spread your work on this project through the week.

READ: The Dead Tree Edition--GPO Access, pages 45-49; OCLC First Search and Lexis-Nexis information, 79-84 and 85-90; Web Page Authoring Basics, 191-198; Sample Bibliography Style Guide, 270-274.

• Familiar and unfamiliar faces: Newspapers, magazines, and publications born on the Web:
  
• User interface issues
  

Check out the Web Site of the Day!
Chapel Hill High School's Proconian Online at http://www.rtpnet.org/~procon/

Read:
Are Online Newspapers the Wave of the Future?
This draws upon some of the main points from the following articles:
Carl Steadman on the failings of "way new journalism." in Feed Mag, March '96
WIRED 2.09: Electrosphere - "Online or Not, Newspapers Suck" by Jon Katz
Driving a Newspaper on the Data Highway by Mindy McAdams

Mastering Lexis/Nexis
with Gary N. Pattillo and Pam Dutcher, Electronic Services Reference Librarians.
Don't miss this!

• Finding the best and the worst of the web