Category «Education»

Academic and Scholar Search Engines and Sources 2021

Marcus Zillman’s new guide provides a wealth of information to enhance your efforts in conducting expert research on a wide range of subject matters. The guide is also another reminder that Google should not be your go-to subject search engine by demonstrating how choosing to use reliable topic specific sources can deliver greater scope, breath and depth of information for your analysis and reporting. These sites include metasearch, semantic and Deep Web search, with many sources offering advanced search functionality, unique and comprehensive data sets and repositories, dashboards and tools from around the world, all of which are updated and curated effectively and consistently. These sources represent the work of academic, government, consortium, firms and industry.

Subjects: Competitive Intelligence, Education, KM, Legal Research, Search Engines, Search Strategies

Non-Library Jobs & Advice on How to Get One: an introduction to INALJ’s series of interviews

Naomi House was inspired to do this series because of the drastic changes to the availability of traditional library jobs during this pandemic. She highlights library and information professionals who work outside libraries but use their skills as well as many who have lost their jobs or been furloughed. These interviews are an introduction to transferable skill sets as well as resources for those looking for work in those fields.

Subjects: Business Research, Education, Job Hunting, KM, Librarian Resources, Libraries & Librarians

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, April 4, 2021

Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and security, often without our situational awareness. Five highlights from this week: Electric Cars, Smart Refrigerators Pose Cyber Risk To US Utilities, GAO Finds; Supreme Court Sides With Facebook Over Unwanted Automated Texts; Hunting the hunters: How Russian hackers targeted US cyber first responders in SolarWinds breach; National Weather Service Digital Infrastructure Is a Disaster; and CRS In Focus – Biometric Technologies and Global Security.

Subjects: AI, Congress, CRS Reports, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Education, Government Resources, Healthcare, Legislative, Privacy, Social Media, Spyware, Technology Trends, United States Law

Education and Academic Resources 2021

Marcus P. Zillman’s guide comprises an extensive listing of resources and sites for students, researchers, teachers, infopros and parents, on multiple study areas. Sourced from academic, public, private, association and corporate sectors, the subject matters include: distance learning; MOOCs, lecture guides and study notes, study skill resources, online tutoring and homework help, free e-learning videos, scholarship resources and PhD, Dissertation, thesis, and academic writing resources.

Subjects: Distance Learning, Education, KM, Reference Resources, Search Engines, Search Strategies, Training

Black and Hispanic people more ‘engaged’ with books than most Americans are: New report from Panorama Project

David H. Rothman, cofounder of LibraryEndowment.org, discusses the new Panorama Project report that covers a variety of topics, ranging from piracy to synergies between books and other media. Specifically significant to Rothman is the report’s data indicating that avid book engagers (4+ books/month) are more ethnically diverse and younger than the general survey population.

Subjects: Education, KM, Libraries & Librarians

How the well-connected Panorama Project could help give us a national library endowment

David H. Rothman advocates on behalf of the Panorama Project which he says is not just an effort of librarians even though it’s benefiting from the input of Alan S. Inouye, the ALA’s director of public policy. Among the others involved have been people from the Book Industry Study Group, independent booksellers, Penguin Random House, and OverDrive, the largest supplier of books for libraries and schools. One of the recurring themes in the project’s research is that synergies can exist not only between books and other media, but also between the library and retails models. For example, among several thousand readers surveyed, “38.31% of respondents had bought a book online that they first found in a library (within the last 12 months.” Local bookstores also benefited, and the project intends to explore this further. The findings are just preliminary, but based on earlier work by researchers for OCLC and OverDrive, Rothman doubts there will be surprises in regard to synergies between libraries and retail.

Subjects: E-Books, Economy, Education, KM, Libraries & Librarians

COVID-19 masks FAQs: How can cloth stop a tiny virus? What’s the best fabric? Do they protect the wearer?

Face masks reduce the spread of viruses passed on from respiratory secretions. While cloth masks are imperfect, widespread use of an imperfect mask has the potential to make a big difference in transmission of the virus. Professors Catherine Clase, Edouard Fu and Juan Jesus Carrero started reading the research on cloth masks and face coverings at the start of the pandemic, looking for ways to protect our vulnerable dialysis patients and our dialysis staff. We found a total of 25 studies, advocated for mask use and summarized our findings in a peer-reviewed publication. We also created an evidence-based, plain-language website to help people navigate this area. Although mask use has been widely adopted, many people still have questions about them, and we provide answers in this guide.

Subjects: Education, Health, Healthcare, KM