RLH WSUV Research

1) Electronic Reference:        This week, I am continuing to broaden my topic horizons by simply continuing the background research. My first task was to check out an electronic reference from the university library system. One quick look at all that our library had to offer could have proven quite overwhelming. (I can see that there are plenty of resources for serious research, although I will likely want to consult with a research librarian for help in making adequate use of it all.) Happily, a shorter resource suggestion list was provided for me. After checking out each of the suggested resources, I decided to utilize the Britannica Online reference source because it is actually just an online version of what I used for research when I was a kid. The familiarity was somehow comforting. 😊     In keeping with my chosen research topic, I entered Spanish Flu into the search bar and the heading "Influenza Pandemic of 1918-19" came up. Since this was ac...

 This week, I was asked to respond directly to questions, so I am including them in this post. Part One: Background Information from a Web Search   1.      What is your research topic? This should be a general area of interest at this point. It should NOT be a research question yet. Spanish Flu: The Corona Virus Pandemic is often compared to the 1918 Pandemic often known as the Spanish Flu   2.      Select an unfamiliar Search Engine or Metasearch Engine from the list linked in the lesson and run a search for your topic. DO NOT use Google or Wikipedia for this part of the assignment!   Wait!!! There are other ways to search for information???   a.        Tell me which search engine or metasearch engine you used.     Bing b.        What new ideas or information did you find about the topic?    Just browsing brought up actua...

PART 1        It is strange how confusing living in the information age can be. Real news, fake news. How is it even possible to tell the difference? This week's instruction was centered on just this dilemma. I was pretty excited to learn that there are some specific techniques that can be used to help determine what is reliable information and what is not. My first assignment was to read a fact-check page from the DigiPro project. The topic that caught my attention was, "When did we begin standing for the national anthem?" I am not certain why I expected this article to simply be a history lesson. I was reminded in the introduction that the tradition of standing for the national anthem has a much more political context in US sports, particularly the NFL. Much of this article was primarily informational in nature, and I found it to be quite interesting. However, most of the embedded links led to a page on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine stating that the URL h...

     Since returning to school after thirty years, searching for information has been both the foundation and bane of my existence. Most of my classes have required research in one form or another, typically culminating in a final project or paper. In general, I love the idea of research and I fully understand how important research is in gaining and furthering knowledge. However, in practice, I have experienced great uncertainty and anxiety in the process of seeking information. Long gone are the days when research is limited to the physical resources of a local library. Suddenly, I have access to a whole world of information right at my fingertips. Access to virtually unlimited information sounds like a good thing. But I have found it to be extremely overwhelming. Just coming up with an idea for a research topic can be challenging enough. Sorting through great quantities of information which often seems inconsistent and conflicting can be down right discouraging. Typi...