Reading and Activity #5

Nicole Abbondanza

I generally value my privacy, but I don’t do too much to protect it. On Facebook, I don’t really post anything that I’m worried about prospective employers or anyone else seeing. I barely post anything at all unless it is just simple things. I never tag my location in posts, for my safety and to avoid potential robberies, like the article “Facebook and Your Privacy” mentions. I also don’t believe that I actually list what town I live in; although the fact that I go to UNCW can be a good indicator of where I live. I don’t believe it is necessary for Facebook and other social media websites to hold as much private information about their users as they do. I understand the use of “likes”: they pretty much give companies an idea of the kind of things consumers would be interested in purchasing from them. I also learned recently that there are no security or privacy settings that one can use to keep others from knowing every movement they make on Facebook; from comments they make on other friends’ walls, to “liking” Facebook pages. The only way around this is to place the cursor over a friend’s picture, highlight the “Friends” status, click on “settings”, and uncheck each specific form of activity that can be seen by others.

I find that the idea of a person “liking” a page about health conditions being used against him or her by their insurance companies ridiculous. It is possible that they support a cause or a relative could be suffering from that condition. I also find it incredibly important for people to be strict with their privacy settings. I personally do not allow most apps to access my information and I set my profile to only be searched for or viewed by friends. Despite this, the knowledge that third parties through friends’ pages could still access my information scares me.

I don’t believe that people younger than high school age should be able to use social media sites. I didn’t use any until I started a MySpace when I was 14, and even then all I did on it was change my layout constantly. I don’t make a point to communicate with people that I haven’t met before. Through posts by outraged tumblr users, I’ve seen twitter pages of girls that are 13 posting half-naked pictures of themselves and making derogatory comments about people that are not of their race. Parents seriously need to be monitoring what their kids are doing on the Internet.

I like the idea of viral job listings. It is sometimes difficult to find open positions at certain establishments, especially those that aren’t customer service related. On another note, the hackings of the accounts of Kevin Jolly and Mark Zuckerberg’s profiles scares me as well. I do recall a time when I didn’t use a very specific password and I received a notification of an attempted hacking of my Facebook page. I immediately changed my password to something much more complex and hopefully I won’t have any more trouble. I hope that someday, the privacy of social media users will be even more tightly regulated than they are now.

News Report #4

Nicole Abbondaza

Tumblr’s popularity as a social networking website rivals that of Facebook. The website’s usage continues to expand, rising from around 110 million views to about 140 million since May of this year. Considering Facebook bought out Instagram, its other source of competition, Ingram the author of this article, speculates that it would be in Facebook’s best interest for Zuckerberg to buy Tumblr as well. Inman talks about his daughters’ usage of Tumblr in comparison to that of Facebook, stating that they are more drawn to Tumblr and that “Facebook seems to have become something they feel they have to use rather than something they want to spend a lot of time on…”

Personally, I find Tumblr more appealing than Facebook. I am fairly anonymous on the website, so I am able to express my opinions and feelings more. I also feel that, while it is popular, Tumbler is not as shallow and mainstream as Facebook. There is a greater sense of community in Tumblr. Many “fandoms” of different books, movies, and T.V. shows gather there to talk about said materials. I feel that I have much more freedom on Tumblr, and I enjoy its interface more than Facebook’s. I hope that Facebook doesn’t buy out Tumblr because I’m sure changes will be made, changes that many of the Tumblr users will be against. I actually found the title to this article on Tumblr, and there were several unhappy comments about the idea, such as “We will find another website!” Its users see Tumblr as a haven from society and a source for very like-minded people to share ideas, and Facebook as a now-generic social networking website.

Reading and Activity #4

I have only written one formal research paper while I’ve been in college, in the spring semester of 2012 for my Asian religions class. That was when I was first introduced to scholarly journals. Before then I had no idea what they were. With previous reports that required sources, I just used Google. From now on, I intend on using only the library resources. While I enjoy the simplicity of using Google, I no longer see it as a credible source after enrolling in LIB 103. Searching for the information you need is difficult on library interfaces, especially for those who are entirely unfamiliar with and have not been introduced to them. That is where LIB 103 comes in. I have been able to greatly improve my searching abilities as result of this course. It is still difficult at times, but constant use of the library’s website makes it easier for me to become accustomed to it. As Steven Bell, author of the article “The Infodiet: How Libraries Can Offer an Appetizing Alternative to Google” suggests, I understand why people would prefer to have access to a library interface similar to Google’s; students have fairly heavy workloads and occasionally it may be too time-consuming to navigate the library’s resources to find what they are looking for, or even start looking. The fact that research databases such as ProQuest and RedLightGreen are making changes to their interfaces is a progressive change for the convenience of students.

The article “Truth Be Told: How College Students Evaluate and Use Information in the Digital Age” by Dr. Alison Head and Michael Eisenberg discusses student research methods and their evaluation of the information they find and use, as the title suggests. One of the topics that stood out to me is the idea of asking librarians for help. I feel that many students don’t even consider the idea because they are unaware that one of librarians’ main roles is to help with research. Many people have no idea what it is librarians do. 

Reading and Activity #3

Nicole Abbondanza

In her article “Honor Your Campus Library,” Maria Stewart praises librarians for being resourceful, intelligent, and adaptable to the changes in technology and the needs of patrons taking place in libraries. These characteristics make librarians invaluable to the community, especially to those who frequent academic libraries. Librarians are always going to be needed, and for assistance far beyond just locating a publication. I agree with the Drexel University’s concept of the “Library Learning Terrace,” where students have the freedom to use the space provided to suit their academic needs, while still having assistance from librarians. I think UNCW should do the same. The library is almost always to crowded, except around 12 A.M., and to have a place close to the residential buildings that pretty much serves the same purpose as a library. Upon looking at the design of the new James Hunt Library at NC State, I find that I would like UNCW to have a space like that as well. It is aesthetically appealing both on the inside and out and, personally, it looks like a library I would not want to leave. Aside from, I do not believe anything should change dramatically because, from what I have learned about Randall Library, the resources available definitely qualify in meeting academic needs. On the other hand, I am not in favor of the method of John Hopkins University. The idea of not needing to use the library building for anything is too new for me. However, there are probably departments that would benefit greatly from a system like that. Having an equivalent to a personal researcher certainly is a convenience for busy professors and students. 

News Report #3

 Nicole Abbondanza

News Report #3

“School librarians called to raise awareness of the impact of filtering on student learning”

Jennifer Habley, American Library Association website

9/25/12

http://www.ala.org/news/pr?id=11512

 

           According to Jennifer Habley of the ALA; a day known as Banned Websites Awareness Day has been created as a feature of Banned Books Week by the American Association of School Librarians (otherwise known as the AASL) and will take place on October 3 of this year. The day, as the title suggests, is meant to focus on “the overly restrictive blocking of legitimate, educational websites and academically useful social networking tools in schools and school libraries.” (Habley) The AASL maintains that the blocking of these websites inhibits students’ learning environments. They intend to dedicate Banned Websites Day to informing people of the negative impacts of blocking educational websites and to assist school librarians in responding to Internet restrictions.

            I agree with the stance of the AASL on banned websites and the efforts that they are making toward improving the educational experience of students. It is understandable that a school would be concerned with what their students are being exposed to, but they should not overly filter online content just for the sake of being cautious. If a website serves an educational and informative purpose schools should welcome it and, if need be, limit filtering to only specific sections of the website if the content is legitimately questionable. In a country where our government tries to control what knowledge its people have access to, I really admire the lengths that librarians go to in order protect students’ education. I would like to know the specifics of what the AASL plans to do about schools’ extensive blocking of educational websites, and plan to keep up with the status of Banned Websites Awareness Day.

News Report 2

News Report #2

“How 'Innocence of Muslims' Spread Around the Globe and Killed a US Diplomat”

Elizabeth Flock, US News (usnews.com)

9/12/12

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/09/12/how-innocence-of-muslims-spread-around-the-globe-and-killed-a-us-diplomat

“White House ‘Innocence of Muslims’ Request Denied: Google will not Remove Film from YouTube”

Gerry Shih

9/14/12

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/14/white-house-innocence-of-_n_1885684.html

The anti-Muslim film “Innocence of Muslims” triggered violent protests in the Middle East after clips were posted on YouTube. The film depicted an image of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and represented him as a pedophile.  The film was uploaded onto YouTube with Arabic dubbing some two months after the original English-language post. According to US News writer Elizabeth Flock, an anti-Muslim individual by the name of Morris Sadek posted “Innocence of Muslims” on his blog and later “promoted the film on Egyptian television stations.” One influential station is Al-Nas, whose broadcast of the film ultimately led to the anti-American protests. During these protests, four Americans were killed.  One of the people murdered was the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens.

The fact that a video like this was allowed to post to YouTube is shocking, considering how extremely racist and controversial. I had read in another article that Google refused to take down the video at the White House’s demand despite the damage it is causing. They argue that the video is in not in violation of YouTube’s terms of service. Personally, I think the removal of the video should have been the obvious next step after the outbreaks of protests in Egypt and Libya. The fact that a video initially posted on YouTube could cause international debate is not new, but it shows just how dominant the Internet is on us as a global society. In my opinion, the broadcast of “Innocence of Muslims” has set back our relations with the Middle East. The Internet provides us with an innumerous amount of information, much of it not always positive.

Reading and Activity 2

When evaluating information on websites I usually check if the website is well known, such as a website for a newspaper or magazine. I also look at the domain to see if the information is credible. Another factor I check for is the works cited if the information provided was obtained from another source. The same goes for publications; I check the works cited section.

Wikipedia is the fastest, easiest way to obtain information, because it is all there. However, the information is not always reliable because anybody is able to edit it. There have been times when I wanted to use Wikipedia as a means of obtaining information for an assignment that needs to be cited but, because the information can be easily changed, I couldn’t because the instructor did not permit it. I have taken to using the source of a piece of information provided on Wikipedia (with permission) instead. Having never used the Britannica website, and after reading the essay by Mark Bauerlein, I decided that I wish to regularly use it as a resource when the opportunity arises, as opposed to Wikipedia. The sources are highly credible and it will most likely not cause any issues with instructors who do not like their students using Wikipedia. I also used the UNCW library’s online catalogue for a paper once, although it was difficult for me to navigate. I will try to use it more in the future and I hope to learn my way around it eventually. As for being required to find information from non-internet sources, it is becoming more difficult. Students do not have much time to be searching for printed publications and the internet is being more heavily relied upon by those providing information. I feel that information literacy should have been practiced more when I was in elementary school. We had a “library” class in my school and the extent of understanding and obtaining information that we were taught was tests library vocabulary and reading aloud paragraphs from a book that explains how to write a research paper during class. We were not engaged and the teacher was clearly not interested in making sure we understood. When I reached high school, I had no idea how to research for or write research papers, let alone citation without the instruction of my English teacher. Despite this, I find it incredibly helpful that information literacy is emphasized more today in college. Hopefully I can catch up.