This week in LIS 201 (week 6)

Week 6: FIRST MIDTERM EXAM

EXAM ON TUESDAY, OCTOBER 08

Our in-class midterm exam will be held in the normal lecture hall. Please arrive a bit early so we can start on time.

READINGS TO COMPLETE BEFORE DISCUSSION

This week's reading relates to your software training session and your multimedia assignment, not your exam.

• Garr Reynolds, "Presentation tips," http://www.garrreynolds.com (2013). 

HOMEWORK TO COMPLETE BEFORE DISCUSSION

None.

DISCUSSION MEETING

Attend software training sessions, not your regular discussion. Rather than hold your normal discussion section, all students will attend software training sessions scheduled in various computer labs around campus, during your normal discussion section time. You will receive customized training on PowerPoint presentation software that you may use for your multimedia project. This training is offered courtesy of the DoITSoftware Training for Students program.

For sections meeting Wednesday, October 9th:Location: 150 Animal Sciences (CALS lab)
Time: During your regularly-scheduled section time

For sections meeting Thursday, October 10th:Location: 150 Animal Sciences (CALS lab)
Time: During your regularly-scheduled section time

For sections meeting Friday, October 11th:Location: DMC-A, (lower level of the Biochemistry building)
Time: During your regularly-scheduled section time

You should feel free to bring your own laptops if you have your own copy of PowerPoint.

ONLINE OVER THE WEEKEND

This week your online activity will involve the selection of the book that you are going to read and review.  Each student in your discussion section must choose a different book to read, so if you fear someone else will pick the same book as you, finish this assignment early!  And as a final challenge, the book must have been published in the last two years — which narrows the field of candidates considerably!

• Think about some search terms or phrases which might quickly and effectively lead you to interesting books on "the information society." Will using the term "information" suffice? What will using the search term "information society" leave out? Be creative.
• Using an online bookstore like Amazon.com, do a search for a book related to the information society that you would like to read. (We are starting in an online book store in order to make sure that the book is still in print.) Narrow your choice down to three candidates that have been published within the last two years. Which book has the most pages? Which costs the most? Which has the best reviews?
• Once you have found three possible books, look each of them up through the public web interface of WorldCat. This is a meta-catalog of all US public and university library catalogs. Which book is held by more libraries? What are the subject classifications of each book? Do they differ? Do they suggest further, more interesting search terms? (You may want to go back to step #2 with these terms.)
• Look each book up on Google Books. Which book seems to have generated the most chatter on the Web? Which has more reviews available through Google? Are any of them in the public domain?
• Finally, look up each book on Library Thing. (You may have to create a free account on this service in order to search, but it's worth it.) Which book has been read by more users of this social networking service? Which book seems to match best with other books that you think you might like?
• Decide which book you want to read at this point.
• Now do a search of your chosen book on two academic journal databases: ProQuest and Project Muse. What journals have reviewed your book? Who are the reviewers? What books have the reviewers themselves written? Read and then print out or otherwise save these book reviews (you will use them in your final paper).
• Create a new post on your discussion section blog that describes the candidate books you considered, the book you ended up choosing, and the process you took to choose it. Include an image of the cover (from Amazon.com) and a citation to any academic reviews you found.
• Comment on another student's chosen book. (Has anyone chosen the same book as you? If they posted their choice to the blog before you did, then you need to start over and pick a different book!)
• You must finish this online activity before next week's lecture.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

• Edward Tufte, "The cognitive style of PowerPoint" (2003).