Canadian Television History

User Profile

2005-04-21T12:06:00.000-07:00

My User Profile

My Attitude towards researching on the internet is that it is extremely useful and helpful, and is much easier than searching for hard copy resources in the library or other resource center. My goal concerning research is not the time length, but to gain the best and most relevant information for the topic I am looking at.

I usually do my research in mine or a friends room, on the internet. I will insert key words into a large search engine or database, and gain collective information this way. Then, I will use this information to find relevant materials at the library. For instance if I was research theatre in the 1920's, I would first use this key word in numerous internet searches, and from those searches find some more relevant key words to use while searching. I might find some authors, and then from that point I would log on to the library website, type in the authors last name and any other relevant information, and search the library catalogue. I would then write down the call numbers and locations of the books in the library so I could jsut walk into the library and find the books without searching.

The time of day does not really affect my researching skills, although I hate to admit I usually do my research only a couple of says before an essay is due. Although the time of day does not really matter personally, I prefer to do my research and find my library information during the day, and then actually go find the research materials during the night. I usually write down any ideas or paragraphs forming from the information immediately after.

I personally prefer to conduct my research alone. I find that if I start at my starting point (gathering lots of information then gradually narrowing the topic down) with many people, I lose my train of thought and become influenced by what other people think and believe about the topic I am researching. However, if someone is conducting research on the same topic as I am, I will firstly conduct research on my own, and then compare with the research that other people have gathered about the same topic. I find that consulting with a group after I have conducted my own research is helpful, but not before.

As for assistance with researching, if I am stuck at something (say thinking of an appropiate keyword or finding a relevant database) I will continue to explore the websites until I have found something relevant. If I cannot find anything by myself, I will usually ask a fellow student or colleauge, as they are probably in the same stuck position as I am. Although I mentioned before that I prefer to conduct research by myself at my starting point, if I am stuck working with a group tends to produce better results. If my fellow students and I cannot find information and are stuck on a topic, I will usually turn to the guidance of a librarian or in the case of our class MIT 026, the professor or TA's.

Shannon Allely

NIck's User Profile

2005-03-24T08:02:00.000-08:00

User Profile Attitude: When it come to researching I find it almost impossible to enjoy it. The key to researching for me is finding a few more sources then I actuallu need in as little time as I need. The goal is to get it done while looking in the fewest spots possible.

Where: I generally do my research on the internet in my room first, to find out back up information. After this it is best to use the library catologue, again in my room, so I can find solid academic sources that support the claims I found on the internet. The reason for doing this search in your room is that you are quaranteed a computer that works faster then any of the library's.

When: Always at the last minute right before writing an essay. The time of day doesn't matter although I find that things generally run faster late at night due to fewer viewers. I like to research right before or during the writing process so that the ideas are fresh in my head.

Alone or Groups: Alone first, then consult with a group. You research on your own so that you are guaranteed some sources that are different from your groups. The reason for consulting with a group is to ensure that your sources are covering the right information and that you have enough of them. You need to balance both, so that you can better help eachother.

Assistance: Assistance is best to come from fellow students, it is better that you figure it out together. However, if absolutely stuck I will either consult a library or, in the case of a great and friendly T.A., you get some assistance from them.

By: Nick Christie

March 10th Lab

2005-03-23T19:38:00.000-08:00

Visualizations:
- My favourite visualization tool was "visualthesauras.com". The website offers a unique and precise display of the information on the web. Each concept was interlinked with various related terms so you can see the "connective process" as it occurs. Each word you select leads to more options to build a web of various terms.

- The tool that I felt was least effective was the kartoo.com site. It had too many selections from which it became confusing. The layout appeared disorganized and inconsistent and therefore I found it hard to navigate the site. Organization makes the sites more convenient and easier to use, whereas with kartoo.com the layout creates confusion and a sense of overwhelming.

Open Directory:
The open directory had only a few results when "Canadian television history" was entered, whereas Google provided several various hyperlinks to other search sites for further information. Google presented more results which provided "history" in the name of the document. Google is a highly constructed search engine and therefore there were several reprecussions when conducting the search. The open directory is not produced by scholarly writers but volounteers and therefore the information produced and viewed may be biased or unfactual. Therefore, when analysing the facts both present advantages and disadvantages of the directories.

Lab- February 10th, 2005-

2005-03-23T17:19:00.000-08:00

Book 1
Rutherford, Paul. c1990. When Television Was Young: Primetime Canada 1952-1967. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Found at: Weldon Library (3 day reservation)
Call Number: PN1992.3.C3R88 1990
Subject Headings: Television Broadcasting –Canada- History, Television programs –Canada – History

Book2
Rutherford, Paul. The making of the Canadian media. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1978.
Found at: ARCC, Weldon; ARCC Delivery Loan
Call Number: P92.C3R88 (Weldon), P92.C3R88 1978 (ARCC)
Subject Headings: Mass Media –Canada–History

Book3
Szuchewycz, Bohdan & Sloniowski, Jeanette. Canadian Communications: Issues in Contemporary Media and Culture. Scarborough, Ontario: Prentice Hall Allyn and Bacon Canada, 1999.
Found at: IMS Stack
Call Number: P92.C3C36 1999
Subject Headings: Mass Media- Social Aspects-Canada.

Book4
Singer, Benjamin D., Ed. Communications in Canadian Society. Scarborough, ON: Nelson Canada, 1991.
Found at: DB Weldon Library stacks
Call Number: P92.C3S5 1991
Subject Headings: Mass media-Social aspects-CanadaMass media-Canada-Influence

User Profile

2005-03-18T13:41:00.000-08:00

Attitude:Generally, when doing research, I am not very enthusiastic as it is a very long and tedious process. However, if the subject interests me, I am often inclined to go above and beyond what is needed in order to further enhance my knowledge. Research can often be very frustrating as it can be very hard to come upon relevant and reliable information. Most of the time, it takes an extended period of time just sorting through all the texts.

Where:I usually prefer researching at home. However, on ccasion, depending on the information I need, I would rather do reasearch in the library as it offers a broader range of resources.

When: I like doing research in the afternoons as I generally have less distractions during that time of day

Alone vs. Group: I prefer researching alone as I find that I can be more productive working on my own as opposed to with a group of people. When working in a group, I find that everyone often has very different ideas which can clash therefore slowing progress.

Assistance: If I am at the library doing research, I will ask the librararian for assisstance as he or she is generally very reliable and probably knows best how to solve the problem. If I am at home, I would be inclined to ask the TA or professor for help as they too would be knoweledgable in that area.

Posted by:Mathangi Raman

March 17th- User Proffle

2005-03-18T08:55:00.000-08:00

Emilie Brown

User Profile

As I approach my second year of university at Western my opinions of information retrieval have changed dramatically. My main use for a website of this sort would be information retrieval for a topic specific search. In learning various research methods I have become comfortable in using a considerable amount of research tools. Although the process can sometimes be overwhelming, with a considerable amount of time and effort the appropriate information is found with satisfaction.

With different topics, comes different challenges. When I am researching information that is difficult to understand I enjoy the library setting. The tranquility and peacefulness of the institution allows me to use my full concentration. In researching fun facts, such as information on my favorite local band or upcoming concerts I can be in a more comfortable, relaxed setting such as my residence room.

My research is mostly done in the early evening as this is when I feel I work best. During the day there are to many alternatives to homework and thereforeit is difficult to concentrate. The early evening setting proposes a time of relaxation and calmness and therefore it is ideal for doing research I do notbecome easily frustrated during this time because of my surroundings, students,homework and no other alternatives.

Personally, I feel that I work best in groups because I am a perfectionist in some areas. With groups sometimes there is a loss of information or the taskis not completed at the best of all constituents ability. In working alone Iam able to acquire all the information required to complete the assignment.Topics of interest sometimes conflict in groups and therefore create more of aproblem than a solution.

For scholarly assistance the first place I go is my peers. Fellow students who participate in my classes and whom are reliable can sometimes answer questionsbetter than professors or teaching assistants. Sometimes, they are easier torelate to because many may have had the same question in the beginning and have taught themselves to comprehend the situation. If my peers do not know theanswer, logically, I look to my teaching assistants. Sometimes going to teaching assistants is more advantageous as they have acquired more knowledge and can sometimes enlighten you more than your peers. There is also a chancewhen taking information from peers that the information is wrong. Finally, if my teaching assistant has not justified my question I would look to myprofessor. Usually, without a doubt the professor can answer the question I ampondering and all is resolved. If my professor cannot answer my question theywould usually find the resources until they can. Therefore, in a roundaboutway, my questions have always been answered successfully because of the scrutinizing process.

User's Profile

2005-03-17T16:02:00.000-08:00

When i must research for scholarly purposes, I tend to try understanding the concept/issue/whatever in steps. I like to get a broad understanding first and let that settle in my mind. Then, over the next few days I do more thorough research, moving towards being a potential proffesional towards the issue.
I start my research at a library to get a broad understanding of the issue. When my understanding is well rounded I then do the rest of my research at home. I use the internet as well to find a large variety of resouces and ideas.
Being a procrastinator and extremely lethargic, I tend to start my research in the evenings. Although it may not be the best method, it places me under pressure, where I feel some of my best work is derived.
I like to work alone when researching because this limits the potential distractions to only me (which i can deal with).
In regards to assistance, if a TA/Prof./Librarian is physically available (i.e. I'm in the same room/building as they are), then i will turn to them. But usually, i will just ask a variety of peers and make an evaluation from all the advice they have given me.

Posted by: Daniel Vieira

User Response

2005-03-17T12:57:00.000-08:00

What is your attitude to reasearch processes?
My attitude to the research process is to perform the most efficient and reliable sources. When I am interested or enjoying the material, I will continue searching for this topic and finding hopefully continually informative sources. I don't enjoy searching for material that I am not interested in, as it eventually bores me, causing me to not care as much about the results.

2. Where do you research?
Generally all of my research is done online. Google, when efficiently used, provides very imformative and reliable results, and if this is not the case, the UWO library website works well. Going to a library can be beneficial for important research that should be guaranteed credible and sourcable, but is often a hassle.

3. When do you do research?
I do my research when I get home from school and am not hungry. Never work on an empty stomach. This cannot be stressed enough.

4. Alome or in Groups?
I do it alone because it is easier to develop clear thoughts when there are no interuptions and you are free to do what you want, when you want. The lack of restricitions is key to the research process.

5. Assistance?
I generally don't ask for assistance, but when I do, it's primarly from friends who are in the same class as I am. Beyond that, I might ask parents, or ask an online forum that would be reliable for the required information.

Matthew Grasby
Daniel Medini

User Profile - March 17th Lab

2005-03-17T12:48:00.000-08:00

User Profile

When this website is complete I will be a second year student in the faculty of Information and Media Studies. Currently my attitude towards the research process is a very open and interested attitude. I have found that I enjoy studying Canadian television and look forward to researching it later on throughout university, as I did not know that Canadian television had such a prominent and influential history. I enjoy researching on this topic and will research next year with a very willing and interested attitude.

When I am doing research it is mostly done in my residence room, and next year, when I am no longer in residence, it will probably be done in my own bedroom. I find the library to be too quiet and I lose concentration and get bored very easily. The time of day in which I do this research is not specified as I will do it whenever I have time or feel up to it; however, most of my research is currently done during the evening when I get home from class. I will finish at the latest of 11:00 pm as I do not like staying up late to research. I enjoy researching on websites that are very professional, with normal font and neutral colours. A site that is too bright with unique fonts, makes me feel that the site I am researching on is not legitimate or that I cannot take it seriously.

I have found that researching a particular topic takes a lot of concentration and energy. For this reason I prefer to research on my own; however, working with a group is beneficial during the beginning of the research process. Working with a group allows the members of the group to initially bounce ideas off one another and tips on researching. The initially discussing of a topic also allows one to gain a better understanding of the areas of the topic later giving him or her ideas on where to search.

If I ever run into trouble when searching or I am finding I am having a difficult time locating information, I will approach the resource which is most convenient and available. I believe a professor to be the most reliable as he or she is the one who understands the topic the best, but also think it is useful to approach a TA because they will be the person who marks the assignment. I believe a librarian to be useful for limited reasons, as they can help find information but cannot help one to understand information. Classmates are also great because as stated above they can bounce information off one another and provide each other with help before a professor or TA needs to be approached.

Posted By Jenna Benson

Beyond Search Engines - March 10th Lab

2005-03-17T12:43:00.000-08:00

Among all of the visualization tools, the most practical and ultimately our favourite tool was the Visual Thesaurus. Not only does this tool allow the user to come up with the most relevant topics in a graphical and easy to view format, but there are very useful summaries for those with a restricted time limit. In short, the combination of the easy to use interface and applicable information makes this the best tool available.

As for the worst of the tools, with a very basic and non-appealing interface, Mooter.com was indeed the worst. There was no way of determining the most relevant with the least relevant articles or topics. As well, there are nowhere near the amount of options in how to approach your results as in comparison with the other engine tools.

The open directory is a powerful tool in comparison to Google. As stated “The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors.” In this way, the community can contribute and not just the employees of Google. As more and more people are made aware of this, the faster it will grow, perhaps even exponentially.

By: Daniel Medini and Matthew Grasby

User Profile

2005-03-17T12:42:00.000-08:00

I feel that after taking this course I have a better understanding of the research process. I used to be intimidated when attempting to find specific information, now I feel I have the acquired skills to effectively research without becoming frustrated by unsatisfactory results. I have realized that when researching you have to speak "computer language" using boolean expressions. This year I like to research in the library because it is an effective learning environment and I stay focused. Next year when I live off campus I will do more of my research at home. Researching at home will be much easier for me now that I have the skills to do so. I learn the best in the mid-morning because I am awake and alert. I cannot focus as well at night when I am tired. I enjoy researching in groups because I can swap information with other people and share interesting things I find. I usually ask for assistance from the librarian because they are friendly and know what they are doing.

Carolyn Innis

User Profile James Smith

2005-03-17T12:37:00.000-08:00

Attitude to research process?
My attidtude to the research process is unfortunatly a mixture of laziness and then last minute panic. I try not to do just the bare minimum and cover my bases by looking at articles, websites and books. However, most of that is done in a flurry of movements about 4 to 5 days before the paper is due. I cannot fully say I enjoy the research process, then again It has to be done so I simply consider it a step in the writing process. The effective ness of my last minute researching isn't always that effective but it does get the job done and in the

Where do you like to do research?:
I like to do my research at the library. Its a quiet place where you can get a surprising amount of reading done. It is far from distraction and since it is the location of the material, it cuts down on walking time. Other then that, any other research can be done at home on the computer, but one can only include so many websites in a report so the library is definatly my best bet.

When do you do research?:
Usually a week in advance but on occasion I've done it up to 2-3 days prior. Any time during the day is good enough for me to do research, time of day isn't really that much of a factor.

Alone or in Groups?:
Research in group i have found is the best way to do it. You can maximize the volume of material and at the same time have many different minds at work analyzing and giving opinions. It allows for a greater collective understanding and interpretation of the pieces. However, the downside is that if you all have the exact same material and are using the exact same quotations, there could be a problem. It is important to have a certain level of individuality within the structure of the group dynamic so as to show your own understanding of the material.

Assistance?:
I have personally only asked for assitance once while doing research. That one time, it was quite effective. It depends on the situation. If I have no idea what the article is about, then of course i will look for help from peers or even a T.A. For the most part however, I do not ask for assitance but I do give it if it is needed. Working in a group usually cuts out the need for assitance since the probablilty of a collection of people understanding something is higher then just one person on their own.

James Smith

User Profile

2005-03-17T12:36:00.000-08:00

My basic attitude towards the research process is one that is not overly eager. When faced with the task of having to research for a project, essay or personal interest I never look forward to it, but veiw research as a frusterating, and lengthy process as most of the time the results I find are unuseful or require a great deal of weeding. However, by taking this course I have gained more confidence in myself to find reliable sources and information, although I still do not look forward to the whole process. I like to conduct research in my own room where it is less formal and more comfortable. I can eat snacks, wear comfy clothes, take breaks, and listen to music without disturbing other people. I usually conduct research around the middle of the day when I am fully awake, full of caffine, and not yet bored with schoolwork. At this point in the day I have more energy and as a result am more motivated to start and finish the work. When I am doing reserch I like to do it in groups of people, where the work can be divided among members, more opinions, ideas and imput are given, and there are people to help you understand and make sure you are doing the research correctly. If I am need of assistance I usually go to a classmate first, but if that does not work I always go to a TA for help, and usually find it.

-Samantha Byers

My very own user profile!

2005-03-17T12:35:00.000-08:00

Research and me...

What is my attitude to the research process?
My attitude with regards to research varies depending on what I am researching. If the content is something that is of interest to me, it is likely that I will spend more time researching all aspects of the subject. However, if it is something that I do not enjoy at all, it is not probable that I would go above and beyond what is needed and expected to perform the task.

Where do I like to do my research?
Generally, I would prefer to do my research in the comfort of my own home because it's easy to take the occasional tv, chat or snack break. That, of course, is also one of the biggest problems. Working at home leaves me very susceptible to distractions, so if I really need to get myself in gear, I would prefer going to a coffee shop where I can eliminate the majority of those distractions but still benefit from background noise (because I can't stand complete silence).

When do I prefer to do my research?
For the most part, I would prefer to do my research in the evening. I find it much easier to sit myself down and relax for the evening whereas during the day, I feel like there are other errands that I need to be running.

Do I research alone or in groups?
I enjoy working groups because it makes the act of doing homework or research seem much less tedious and much more fun. Because I don't like a lot of quiet, it's nice to have people around as a background noise (although sometimes they aren't so much in the background).

Where am I most likely to turn for assistance?
First I would turn to a friend or classmate and ask for their help: a classmate who is probably doing something very similar is likely to offer some assistance but in the event that they have no idea how to answer my question, I'll probably turn to a TA or a professor.

... and there you have it!

Heidi Greven

User Profile

2005-03-17T12:33:00.000-08:00

Attitude to Research Process: Prefers easily accessible information, as a general rule, not extremely passionate about content I am researching for class papers
Where: Majority of research is done in my dorm room, when necessary, will go to library to retrieve other sources
When: Most of my research is done at night (close to the deadline) as I am a procrastinator! Text should be easy to read with an attractive layout
How: I tend to do my research alone unless it is for a group assignment
Assistance: Most likely I would ask a classmate for help first, and then contact a TA or Prof should I need further clarification

Posted by: Carolyn Crawford

User Profile

2005-03-17T12:32:00.000-08:00

User Profile: Meghan Fejes

What is your basic attitude to the research process? Overall, I tend not to do a lot of extra research, as in going above and beyond my requirements. I research to fufill the requirements of my assignment or paper, and usually refrain from going that extra step unless I know it will be beneficial to my end result. Honestly, I don't like researching information, so I try to do just what I need.

Where do you like to do your research? I like to do my research in my residence room, so that I can spread out all of my work on my desk and get a feel for what I am doing. If I do not do my research in my residence, I do it in the library when the research calls for me to go above and beyond my own resources.

When do you do your research? I tend to do all of my research later at night after class, when I am working on homework.

Do you tend to be alone or in groups? For the most part, I work alone, because I feel that I can get more done that way.

Where are you most likely to go for assistance? I usually go to a classmate first, and if they cannot help me, I usually go to a TA or a Prof.

User Profile

2005-03-17T12:30:00.001-08:00

Attitude to Research Process
We would have a positive outlook towards researching because there are so many resources on the internet these days that makes it very easy to find useful information. Also from previous knowledge it would be easy to know the best sites for useful informationIt is interesting to find out new information .

Where?
We would most likely use our computers in our rooms in residence to find infornmation or in some cases we would bring our laptop computers to the library.

When?
We conduct reasearch during the afternoon or evening on most days because during these times it is easier not to get distracted.

Alone? or in a Group?
We believe it would be easier to conduct research in a group, but in most cases it is easier to conduct research alone especially when conducting research on our computers.

Assistance?
It is very helpful to get assistance from librarians, our Professor, TA's, and classmates esspecially when trying to find information that is usually difficult to find.

Posted by: Jessica Gale and Jessika Fink

User Profile

2005-03-17T12:30:00.000-08:00

Attitude: Research is a long and tedious process regardless of what method is taken to obtain information. In my opinion, research can be frustrating but at the same time fairly rewarding. Searching through dozens of irrelevant entries to find that one result that argues your case perfectly is worth the time and effort. Clearly laid out sites and information reduces the stress and time associated with a lengthy research project.

Where: Personally, research is conducted mainly in my residence room. A comfortable, familiar atmosphere allows me to focus and not stray away from the task at hand.

When: After an afternoon of rest and relaxation, dusk brings about the best time to conduct research. Once the sun goes down and my mind can focus on homework, rather than why I’m not outside enjoying the sun, work is completely most efficiently.

With whom: Researching alone allows me fully analyze my thoughts and ideas without being downplayed by peers. Although researching in groups may bring about more ideas (the idea of synergy), some possible ideas may be disregarded and thrown out completely by peers who do not feel the same way.

Assistance: Although when push comes to shove, assistance is requested from my peers. The simplicity of going down the hall, and asking a question is much simpler than scheduling a meeting with a teacher or RA and having to meet at that scheduled time.

Evan Powell - 250292622

User Profile - Jana Van de Rydt

2005-03-17T12:26:00.002-08:00

User Profile - Jana Van de Rydt

1. What is your attitude to reasearch processes?

My basic attitude to the research process is to search for the most reliable and credible sources, as effeciently as possible. I like resreaching material that is of interest to me, and when I that is the case, I look at more sources. But when the topic is not ineteresting, I usually jsut find resources as fast as I can.

2. Where do you research?

I usually do all my research on the internet using goole and the uwo library search websit. The internet is an efficient way to do research and you can find some pretty reliale information. The library is a good place to do research if you need primary documents, but I don't go there much because it's a hassle to walk there and take out books.

3. When do you do research?

I do research mostly at night because that's when I do my homework and assignments, and it's when I am most awake.

4. Alome or in Groups?

I usually do my research alone, because most of the time it's for an essay. I like doing my research alone, because then i know that all the information that I'm using is relevant and from a credible source.

5. Assistance?

WHen i need assisstance during my research, I usually ask a librarian if I am at a library, because they would be able to tell me where the books are that I need. If I am at home or in a computer lab I would either ask the teacher or a fellow classmate. That way I will get better direction on what to research and where to find the information, if I am having trouble locating it.

User profile

2005-03-17T12:26:00.001-08:00

My attitude to research depends on what i'm looking for. I usually give myself a time frame to do the research so that I don't spent all my time on reasearch. I like to do my research at my room in residence, I feel that I can get it done whenever I want and at any pace. I do my research whenever I have time. Whether it is in the morning or afternoon, I feel that I can do research at any time of the day. I like to od my research alone. I'm more productive that way and I'm not depending on other people to do their share of the work. When I need help on research, I usually go to a librarian at the library. It is probably the only time I'll consider physically going to the library. The times they have helped me have been very useful so I have no problem with them.

Rosa Garcia

User Profile

2005-03-17T12:26:00.000-08:00

Basic Attitude Towards the Research process - I enjoy doing research and discovering information on a topic, however, I easily become frustrated when I cannot find relevant or reliable informaiton. Also I don't like to have to sort through lots of text. I prefer to have bulleted information, charts and graphs to pull information from.

Where do you like to do research - I prefer to do research on my computer at home.

When do you do research - I like to do research in the morning and into the afternoon.

Alone or in Groups - I would rather do research on my own then in a group.

Where are you most likely to go for help - I am most likely to go to a classmate for help with research.

-Jade

User Profile

2005-03-17T12:25:00.002-08:00

My attitude toward the research process is that it can be made much easier by having the proper know-how as to where to find resources as well as how to analyze them properly. Knowing what resources are available and where to find them can make this process much easier as when doing large research projects it can often be very frustrating to know where to begin.
I believe conducting research can be done most productively at the library as there you are surrounded by many different types of sources. However, research can also be done at home on the internet, which sometimes can also be productive especailly due to online library catalouges. I think research can be done at any time. I prefer to do it during the day when I am able to focus clearly on what I am trying to find.
I prefer to do research alone, at least initially, as I find I am able to stay focused.
For assistance I will usually first turn to a classmate to see if I can find help there, if not I will usually then contact the TA in hope to then get the assistance that I need.

User Profile

2005-03-17T12:25:00.001-08:00

Attitude:
My attitude to the research process is that i feel it is important to get the most valid research tools possible. Some people can find research to be a drag, however when i am looking up information that i am interested in, i do not mind researching at all. When students are researching information for essays, research papers etc, we want to make sure our sources are reliable and valid enough to use as references in our own work.
Where:
When i am conducting research, I usually like being in an environment that i feel most comfortable in. Before i go to the library, I look on the university library catalogue on my computer in my dorm room. I feel the most relaxed in my own room, so I would rather look up information there rather then using the computers in the library. This way I can go to the library with a list of books that I need, and find them quickly without wasting any time.
When:
I like to conduct research in the evenings because I know that i have the rest of the night off to do what I please. This way I know that I have no distractions, so I am able to focus and put time and effort into finding valid research.
Alone or in Groups?
I like to conduct research in groups, when I am doing group projects. When I am doing an essay I prefer to do all the research alone.
Assistance:
If i am at the library by myself, then i will go to a librarian for help. If i go to the library with some friends, i would probably ask them for help before going to a librarian.

By: Michelle Brock

March 17th Lab

2005-03-17T12:25:00.000-08:00

User Profile

Attitude:My basic attitude to research is to find everything I need in the least amount of time. I dislike having prolonged searches that give unecessary information. I also enjoy researchign things that I am interested in rather than assigned topics. If I am interested in the topic I will do a more thorough search and take more time to go into depth.
Where :I normally search information on the internet in my residence room because it is most convenient. The library is a bit of a hike and I ususally do not have the motivation to go and seach there.
When: Mornings are my prime time to search information because my roommate is sleeping therefore there is little distraction. After my research is done, I have a sense of accomplishment and for the rest of the day I can focus on other things.
Alone vs. Groups:I often research alone because groups tend to research different aspects of information that might not be coherent with everyone else's. This would cause your results to be varied and probably very random.
Assistance:When I am having difficulty with researching information, I often go to the librarian because they are well trained in finding it. However, if I am havin gdifficulty understanding the task, I will rely on the Teachign Assistant for help because they are much more available than the professor most times.

Done by Lauren Perry

Final Lab - Summary

2005-03-17T12:24:00.001-08:00

My attitude in the research process is that I want it to be simple. The goal is to be about to find useful information or various ways of information retrieval. I prefer doing a search when I am alsone becaudeeI can really focus my ideas. thoguh it is not bad to work in gourps because you can brainstorm more ways to search for something. I ususally conduct my searches in the afternoon or at night time. This does not affect the way I search. I prefer to search when I am in a library becasue there is access to help if I am having trouble. I usually seek assistance from a librarian when it has to do with general searches. I find the online chats with a librarian especially useful when I am working from home. When I am working on class assignments, it is useful to have the professor's e-mail address as he is the one dictating the assignments and how they will be marked. A classmate is good to ask for help, but the information is not always reliable.

By: Laura Michele Turgeon

User Profile

2005-03-17T12:24:00.000-08:00

#1: Attitude to the Research Process:

Researching "Canadian Television", I would come in with relatively common knowledge and my enthusiasm would build as I assembled the material to write a paper.

#2: Where do you like to research?

Home

#3: When do you do research?

Night; I work better at night, privately in my office.

#4: Tend to be alone or in groups?

Alone.

#5: Where are you most likely to go for assistance?

Professor or T.A.

User Profile

2005-03-17T12:23:00.002-08:00

My attitude toward the research process is that I feel it is necessary to get the most relevant sources available. Put the most important part of the sources is that they need to be reliable and accurate, especially when the sources are going to be quoted in students essays.

Where I study: I study best at home when writing papers, but when need multiple sources for a paper, I go to the library. This is when i need things like a magazine article, books, journals etc.
When: Primarily my research is done in the afternoon and evening (3pm-9pm).
I research alone.
For assisstance in my research I will usually email a prof or TA. But my first way is asking friends I have in the class.

By: Daniel Cichon

All About Me (AKA Hypothetical Average User)

2005-03-17T12:23:00.001-08:00

Basic Attitude to Research: I don't like it. I want my information, and I want out. I just want the infomation necessary to complete the topic at hand.

Where I research: Usually in my residence room, as my computer is there and fastest to get to over any library/lab computer, or library itself.

When I research: I usually research in the mid-afternoon, if my classes are over or I have an afternoon break in classes. That's the time I'll think about where I could look for things. I would find my sources then and do the rest of the work later at night.

Alone or in groups: Usually I research alone. If there is a group project at hand, then I try to suggest that we each go our seperate ways to find information, then reconvene later to analyze and discuss.

Who I get assistance from: I would most appreciate help from the professor and, to a slightly lesser degree, students. The professor knows exactly what he or she wants from the assignment, and would therefore be most knowledgeable in where I could find the most pertanent information. Student assistance would also help, so that I could ask around where other students found good information, so that if one of them found something the professor was unaware of, then I would learn about it as well.

-Rob Kalanda

User Profile - Michael Wilson

2005-03-17T12:23:00.000-08:00

Attitude or Research Process
Where- Library
When- Day
Alone?- Mostly
In groups?- Only if it is a group project

Assistance
Librarian - Yes
Prof/Ta?- Yes
Classmate?- Only if the first 2 fail

Michael Wilson 250246109

User Profile

2005-03-17T12:21:00.001-08:00

Attitude:

As a first year MIT student, my initial interest upon searching for the Canadian history of television would be the use of a user friendly resource. Many people become discouraged using a certain resource if the searching process is inadequate or insufficent. The best approach to enable the user to not be discouraged would be a similar interface as that of google. As an MIT student, I'm familair with many of the effective Boolean Operators and aware of their capabilites, so therefore it would only be wise to incorporate such features within the searching process.

A main objective of the search would be to attain valid and relevant articles. The idea of auser firendly interface and resource is only half the battle. Any resource worht using must yield relvant and viable information, especially pertaining to the topic of History of Canadian Television.

Where and When:

Most of my searches would be conducted in my dorm at residence. Fortunately, I have laptop which gives me the ability to access information which is wireless friendly. Most of my time spent on my research would be conducted within the afternoon to evening, and it would be most likely that others share that similarity. Therefore, such a resource must be accesible 24/7.

Alone:

The majority of my reseach would be conducted alone, however, there are instances where reseach can be divided. Nevertheless, research would be conducted alone.

Assistance:

I would only prefer assistance from a professor or a T.A, because it is most likely that my question is similar if not the same to other peers. The concept of posting frequently asked questions is useful as it saves time of emailing a prof, however, it would be best to have access to the professor's email or T.A's email.

By: Joe Fars

User Profile

2005-03-17T12:21:00.000-08:00

User Profile for myself
I don't mind the research process as long as I am researching a topic that interests me. It is rather time consuming.
I find the best place to research or to study is in a library because there are too many distractions if I study at home (in residence). I prefer to study during the day because itis when I am most awake and can retain imformation easily. But with the amount of information that we have to study and research I find the time wherever possible within a day.
I prefer to do projects and research alone because I find it more organized and it saves a lot of time from differing opinions.
If I need help researching I will first ask someone (like a friend or classmate) if they are close by. If not I am willing to go to a TA for help.

Melanie Andrews

User Profile

2005-03-17T12:20:00.001-08:00

My attitude towards research is to generate a background understanding of the topic at hand and from there begin to develop various subtopics I need to look into. I usually like to research from within my own home, on my computer. I like to log onto the universities' library website and research for books that cover my topic, and once I have found a sufficient number of books, I can then go into the library knowing exactly what I am going to get. All other resources (ie. websites, online articles) can be accessed through my computer at home. I tend to do most of my research in the evening. I find it difficult to wake up and immideately begin to research for information. It also has a great deal to do with my schedule, and since most of my classes are during the day, I am almost forced to research at night. All of my research is done by myself and I do not do any of it in groups. This is mostly due to the fact that assignments are done individually and so therefore the research is also. For assistance I tend to ask a classmate first, but when that fails I turn to my TA or professor. I seldomely ask assistance from the librarian but in some cases they can be useful.

Jason Smith

User Profile

2005-03-17T12:20:00.000-08:00

User Profile

I don't enjoy the research process, I find it tedious. It's a lot of trial and error and takes a very long time to find worth while sources. This is especially so on the internet because of all the different sources online and a majority of irrelllevent ones as well.

I enjoy studying and researching in my residence room. This is mostly because I have a single so there are fewer distractions. I find that when I try to study in the library I get very distracted and bored.

I really don't hasve a preference to when I study as long as it's not early in the morning. I can barely walk at that time let alone do work. I would usually prefere my studying to be done in the late afternoon to the early eavning because there are less people around.

I would rather do a project in a group rather than alone and also study in a group. I find that it motivates me more to work harder.

I get my best help from peers rather that librarians or TAs. I feel that im more on an equal level with them and therefore its easier to talk to them.

-DaLe

User Profile

2005-03-17T12:18:00.001-08:00

Chantal Arseneault-Lewis

Attitude: mildly interested
Where: I like to do research at home.
When: at night
I like to research alone.
Assistance from a classmate or prof/TA is the most helpful.

User Profile

2005-03-17T12:18:00.000-08:00

Chantal Arseneault-Lewis

Attitude: mildly interested
Where: I like to do research at home.
When: at night
I like to research alone.
Assistance from a classmate or prof/TA is the most helpful.

Resource Guide Student Profile

2005-03-17T12:15:00.000-08:00

ATTITUDE?
Generally, researching can be a pain in the ass, especially if the topic is less than interesting. What attracts me most to hits are their level of originality and uniqeuness. Most times, my level of knowledge concerning the research process is limited, thus a simplistic straight-forward search method is preferred. Research is necessary, and can be very interesting, as long as the methods are permeable and lead to interesting avant-garde information.

WHERE?
This is a tough question. If I am lazy, and parked at the procrastination station, then researching from home is the desired method. If I am aware of my constant parking at the procrastination station, then I prefer to research at the library. The library offers more, and a variety of resources, along with help from librarians and other students if need be. I find that I am more likely to get work done at the library, in an environment of intellect and people who I can look at when I get bored.

WHEN?
Depending on the topic, I tend to get information decently last minute. This practise is not favourable, I am aware, however it is a common method of research I am sure amongst the world. That being said, I would like a research database to be easily accessible, constantly available, and easily understood to save precious "I am a procrastinator" time.

ALONE/GROUPS?
I really have no prefence either way. If I had to choose, I would say in a group, to retrieve the information, as many minds can be better than one in finding resources. Once the information has been retrieved, I like to be alone to work my way through it and find pertinent articles, books, etc.

ASSISTANCE?
I prefer straight to the point assistance, that normally coming from a librarian or university professor. I tend to not completely trust other students, as I myself am a STUDENT asking the question. The professors and librarians are here to in some ways help the students find information, so my first instinct would be to seek out help from a professional body.

Interesting
Neat
Far out
Ooo i like information
Radical
Marvellous
Awesome
Tubular
Intense
Ostrich
Nice

mark. reinhart. 250097821

User's Profile

2005-03-17T12:14:00.002-08:00

What is your attitude towards the research process? I tend not to do any background research if possibly. I only do extra when it is important to understand the research process. Otherwise I just do what it required. If the research material is particularly interesting then I research it extensively. Otherwise I just do the basics.

Where? I tend do to my research in my room if I have access to all the resources. If I do not then I go to the library. I need to have almost complete silence when I work or else I get distracted.

When? I tend to work in the afternoon when I am very wide awake. It is important that I have very good light so I tend not to work in the n ight. I find it difficult to work when I am tired so I do not work late at night or in the early morning.

Alone or in Groups? I work best when I am alone. I do not get distracted when I work by myself. However, there are times when working in groups motivates me to work more efficiently. When I see another person is working I tend to work harder and much faster.

Assistence? I first go to a classmate for assistence. I find that a classmate understands the problems more and can find ways to help me. If I still have problems I go to my TA or professor for ideas on how to research. If I am still having problems with my research I ask a librarian for help. This is only a last resort since I tend not to work in the library anyways.

User's Profile

2005-03-17T12:14:00.001-08:00

User Profile: Rachel Shiff

What is Basic Attitude to Research Process? I usually do not do any extra research. I tend not to do any background research unless I know that it will really help me understand and work better.

Where do you typically like to do research? I typically do my research in the library or in my room. It must be very quiet for me to work productively.

When do you do your research? When I am well rested in the middle of the afternoon. It is important that I have good lighting and a lot of space to spread out my materials.

Do you tend to be alone or in groups? I tend to work alone but sometimes I am motivated to work if there are others around me. They encourage me to work without interruption.

Where are you most likely to go for assistence? I first go to a classmate and see if he/she can help me, if not I go to the TA or professor and then the librarian. I find that classmates who understand can help me but if I am really in trouble a prof or TA can really help explain the process.

User's Profile

2005-03-17T12:14:00.000-08:00

User Profile- March 17th, 2005-

2005-03-17T12:00:00.000-08:00

Lab

User Profile

As I approach my second year of university at Western my opinions of information retrieval have changed dramatically. My use for a website of this sort would be the collection of information for tasks or assignments. In learning various research methods I have become comfortable in using a considerable amount of research tools. Although the process can sometimes be overwhelming, with a considerable amount of time and effort the appropriate information is found with satisfaction.

With different topics, comes different challenges. When I am researching information that is difficult to understand I enjoy the library setting. The tranquility and peacefulness of the institution allows me to use my full concentration. In researching fun facts, such as information on my favorite local band or upcoming concerts I can be in a more comfortable, relaxed setting such as my residence room.

My research is mostly done in the early evening as this is when I feel I work best. During the day there are to many alternatives to homework and therefore it is difficult to concentrate. The early evening setting proposes a time of relaxation and calmness and therefore it is ideal for doing research I do not become easily frustrated during this time because of my surroundings, students, homework and no other alternatives.

Personally, I feel that I work best in groups because I am a perfectionist in some areas. With groups sometimes there is a loss of information or the task is not completed at the best of all constituents ability. In working alone I am able to acquire all the information required to complete the assignment. Topics of interest sometimes conflict in groups and therefore create more of a problem than a solution.

For scholarly assistance the first place I go is my peers. Fellow students who participate in my classes and whom are reliable can sometimes answer questions better than professors or teaching assistants. Sometimes, they are easier to relate to because many may have had the same question in the beginning and have taught themselves to comprehend the situation. If my peers do not know the answer, logically, I look to my teaching assistants. Sometimes going to teaching assistants is more advantageous as they have acquired more knowledge and can sometimes enlighten you more than your peers. There is also a chance when taking information from peers that the information is wrong. Finally, if my teaching assistant has not justified my question I would look to my professor. Usually, without a doubt the professor can answer the question I am pondering and all is resolved. If my professor cannot answer my question they would usually find the resources until they can. Therefore, in a roundabout way, my questions have always been answered successfully because of the scrutinizing process.

New Visualization tools Preference

2005-03-17T11:49:00.000-08:00

The Worst: Kartoo<>
I like the layout of this site, the Genie idea is different. However, I found it confusing because the results you got were all gathered together, and were not organized in any way that made it easy use. It was very confusing and hard to read.

The Best: Mooter
I liked how it showed other words/ searches that were similar to the original one i was looking for. It helped me broaden my search which was helpful because i didn't have to struggle to find similar search topics myself. It widen the chance for me to find more relevant searches to my search topic.

March 10th Lab Blog

2005-03-17T11:38:00.000-08:00

The Visual Thesaurus was my favorite new tool on the list in class. I feel this way because it seems to me to be the most useful and practical to everybody. Mostly because of the vast amount of essays i need to write, and i can never think of the right word. Also it had a simple and interactive layout. Kartoo had a boring layout and multiple pages which i did not like. It made it harder to look at everything like you could do with all the other search tools. It wasnt interactive and it contained a boring layout. This made it the worst out of the 5 options available to us. I feel that the Open Directory concept is a good one and should offer better results than bigger engines such as google or yahoo. Filtering and sorting the web however is impossible and you are sure to lose some good sites in the process, and additionally you will still have some bad results. However, this should still improve the results gained with commercial browsers like google. I was actually not able to test the site because it said the server was to busy, but im sure it will work better and would be interested to see how the results come out. -DaLe

Open Directory

2005-03-17T11:26:00.000-08:00

I like the idea of an open directory. It makes the internet much more user-friendly. I'm sure that all the directory programmers out there have nothing but the best intentions, but the only people who can really know the best way to run anything would be the people who use it (like democracy on the Net!), not someone guessing what something might be used for. Also, the directory will get better the more traffic it gets, thus making it constantly improving

The disadvantage of course is that it would be very difficult to design. People will have conflicting ways of running it and volunteer submissions may not turn out to all support each other. Also, such an endeavour requires a starting point. If there is no main orginization group, then getting this project off the ground would be incredibly difficult.

Of course Google's "type in whatever" approach helps in that even the least technologically savvy can find information they seek. The disadvantage of course is that when you play to the weakest link, the quality of the content will suffer, as seen by the fact that Google often shows us irrelevant material.

-Rob Kalanda

(PS Sorry about the double post)

Visualization Tools

2005-03-17T11:25:00.000-08:00

Of the vizualization tools, I like The Visual Thesaurus. It's simple and clear, and also provides little extras to a thesaurus like giving you example sentences using the word in question. Also, the fact that you can drag the dots and fling them around is fun. Weeee!

I dislike mooter.com the most. All it does is provide other words that might help narrow your search. This is equivalent to simply typing in both the original search term and the suggested word in the search bar (possibly with AND). Also, if you want a combination of terms, you'd be clicking lots of different links, when you could just as easily type in the search manually and save yourself lots of time.

-Rob Kalanda

Visualization Tools

2005-03-17T11:10:00.000-08:00

Beyond Search Engines

2005-03-17T09:53:00.000-08:00

Task 2) The best visualization tool we beleive was http://news.stamen.com. Being a site regarding the retrieval of news, Stamen is a very useful and intriguing site. If one were to watch news on television and was unsure of its validity they could just go to this site. There they could search for things like the topic, person, issue, and the site will or will not show how valid the information given was. We especially like this site because in current society the line between propoganda, mischeif, and sincerity are clouded. Stamen is a helpful tool that clears this line.
The least useful visualization tool was http://visualthesauras.com. Although connecting lines of thie site make using a thesauras easy and maybe for some fun, we feel this site is a dangerous movement. One should resort to print to expand their vocabulary. Although it may be time consuming , there are less risks involved with print. Other visualization sites such as Kartoo, and TouchGraph Google were weak as well, but they were at least new ideas. These two sites, being new concepts for websites are still in need of work but we decided to keep an open mind about them regardless of their weak attributes and websites. Visual thesauras however is nothing special, just a cheap shortcut whish has the potential to uncrease the density withing individual users (if used substantially).

Task 3) There were several advantages of the Open Directory Project that we found while conducting a search on Canadian Television History. The fact that the site is comprised of sites collected by several editors, means that the sites being searched have essentially already been filtered. This means that the sites this directory searches through is not as large and cluttered like the Google search engine. There is quality over quantity in that respects. The directory also organizes the site by placing each site into a catorgory and into subcategories. This allows users to be more specific in their searches and see new words or phrases relevant to thier original search which allows them to expand their queery. The results on the search we found we not specifically about the history of Canadian television but about other things also involved in television. Like the history of television awards, stations, programs and materials used in making a TV set. This site was much more contained, and limited than the scattered results received from Google in most cases.
The disadvantages of the Open Directory Project was that the search did not have the option of an advnaced search like Google where the user can use booleans to help narrow the search. It seems that the default boolean used was OR as most results that appeared usually only had one or two of the words being searched. Although the sites contained in this directory are filtered out by the editors who add sites to this tool, it is limited to what the editors felt was worthy to be used, and therefor users could be missing out on several sites that might have been useful in their search.

By: Dan Vieira and Samantha Byers

Lab- March 3rd, 2005- Audio/Video-

2005-03-16T16:58:00.000-08:00

Title: Does watching American TV make you less Canadian?
Link to Radio Broadcast: http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-68-1150-6298/arts_entertainment/canadian_content/clip1
Summary: March, 1961: politicians and pundits are making a lot of noise about the Americanization of Canadian television. Some are promising to "Canadianize" our airwaves. What's that mean? Tongue somewhat in cheek, Montreal commentator Sydney Lamb decides to watch a lot of television to find out what exactly our national identity is, and how it could be endangered by watching Wagon Train or Jack Benny.

Title: American values? You're soaking in them.
Link to Television Broadcast: http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-68-1150-6304/arts_entertainment/canadian_content/clip7
Summary: By age 11, Canadian children have spent more time watching American television than they have spent in school. In a presentation to the CRTC, CBC president Albert Johnson says this means Canadian kids are soaking up American attitudes, values, history and mythology. He pleads passionately for increased Canadian content on television.

Title:Broadcasting's brave new world
Link to Television Broadcast:http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-68-1150-6305/arts_entertainment/canadian_content/clip8
Summary: Canada's voice is diminishing in a broadcast world that now includes pay television and super stations, VCRs, cable and satellite. That's the conclusion of today's Caplan-Sauvageau report on Canadian broadcasting policy. According to co-chair Gerald Caplan, successful private broadcasters are being cheap, the CBC is underfunded and the CRTC has failed its mandate. He tells Barbara Frum that there's a crisis in Canadian culture — and the broadcasting industry can afford to fix it.

The Joys of Citations- Part 2- February 3rd Tutorial

2005-03-16T16:09:00.000-08:00

Title:Technologies of communication and the Canadian state
Author:Webb JA
Source:Acadiensis [0044-5851] Webb yr: 1998 vol: 27 iss: 2 pg: 142

Explanation: This article appears relevant to the article titled, " Braodcasting and cultural identity: The Canadian experience" because the article discusses Canada as a state and how the evolution of technology has influenced the country. The other article touches upon how our broadcasting system has influenced our views of what it is to be Canadian. Therefore, both touch upon how the Canadian population as a whole is influenced by the power of the mass media.

Title:Virtual HR: The impact of information technology on the human resource professional
Author:Gardner SD, Lepak DP, Bartol KM
Source:JOURNAL OF VOCATIONAL BEHAVIOR 63 (2): 159-179 OCT 2003

Explanation: This article can be compared to that of Marshall McLuhan which appears in the Journal of Economic History in 1960. The article entitled "Effects of the Improvements of Communication Media" touches on the refining of media. The article titled" The impact of information technology on the human resource professional" is comparable because in discussing the "perfection" of the media, resource professionals would be those who would be the most evidentally effected and would therefore make a good case study in analysing this issue.

Title:MYTH IN THE TELEVISION DISCOURSE
Author:BREEN M, CORCORAN F
Source:COMMUNICATION MONOGRAPHS 49 (2): 127-136 1982

Explanation: The article titled, "Myth in the Television Discourse" relates to the article" Myth and the Mass Media" because television makes up the greater proportion of "mass media". Television has an influential role on the public both advantageously and disadvantageously. In both papers the impact of television is being discussed. The article titled "Myth and the Mass Media" focusses more on media in general, where as "Myth in the Television Discourse" focuses more on televisions impact and would therefore be a useful source if your research needed to be more specific.

By:Emilie Brown

Beyond Search Engines-March 10th Lab

2005-03-15T22:00:00.000-08:00

Visualization Tools

The visualization tool which I liked the best was touchgraph.com. I thought it was very interesting to see the way space is represented on the web, similar to how David Weinberger describes it in Small Pieces Loosely Joined. This site would be of great use for any student completing research to see how the websites they are looking at are related to other sites. For example, if I really liked the information posted on one website I could see which sites relate to that one and hopefully find other similar or relevant information. I also found it very useful the way you could click the information icon and retrieve a summary of the website and connect to it. A tool such as touchgraph.com is very convenient because it allows one to see the summary of sites and what they relate to before one has to go searching through the Internet and each site to find relevancy. Lastly, I found it interesting how touchgraph.com displayed clusters of similar sites and their “location” to one another through the visual maps, as this is a great research tool.

I found Mooter.com to be least effective as a visualization tool. Not only was Mooter.com the least visually stimulating, but the results provided were very basic. They gave no reference to space or how close certain links were on the web. The results displayed when clicking on a sub link were mostly relevant to the topic; however, there were few results and although they were relevant I cannot see how many of them would be useful. On a positive note, Mooter.com’s interface was very easy to navigate through and understand which made searching very simple and quick.

The Open Directory

The Open Directory was very unique as I had no idea such tools existed. Compared to Google there were many advantages and disadvantages of the Open Directory. It provided categories that one could search in which I though to be very helpful and convenient. As well, compared to Google, there is a lot less information on the Open Directory which means one does not have to spend so much time sifting through what is relevant and what is not. Another advantage if the Open Directory is that unlike Google it allows users to organize small portions of the directory. This ensures that non-relevant information or useless sites are not displayed, making searching more successful. Google does not have this method of organization in which users can organize what they deem is appropriate for others users to have access to. Although the Open Directory had many advantages it also had some significant disadvantages. When searching for the history of Canadian television I found many of the results to not be relevant, even those which were displayed higher on the list of the results page. Goggle provided more useful sites such as that of the CBC and different museums and foundations. Most of the sites I came across on the open directory were not about the history of Canadian television but just about television. Many can also declare the lack of search results as a downside to the Open Directory as sometimes more search results gives you a better understanding of the topic and ideas of future searches.

posted by: Jenna Benson

THE OPEN DIRECTORY COMPARED TO GOOGLE

2005-03-14T12:06:00.000-08:00

ADVANTAGES:
- is the largest and most comprehensive directory on the web
- is human edited, and therefore more personalized
- constructed by a GLOBAL community of volunteer editors
- powers the core directory services for the Web's largest and most popular search engines and portals, including Google.

DISADVANTAGES:
- editors may not be the most reliable sources - potential BIAS
- don't have some of google's featurs such as "Similar Pages" and "Cached"

Posted by: Jessica Gale and Jessika Fink

LAB: Beyond Search Engines

2005-03-14T11:32:00.000-08:00

Visualization tools to navigate the web:

I thought that mooter.com was the least effective method for informationretrieval. Though it was effective at returning hits when a search isconducted, it was the least visually appealing in comparison with kartoo,stamen and the visual thesaurus. It is comprised to a web that branches outfrom “all results” that are returned to the various topics. All in all thepage is very simple, which makes it less stimulating.

I liked the kartoo site best. It was great how you could conduct a search andrather then have the results be presented in list form, the results werereturned in a type of web. Also, when the cursor passes over each website, itcreates a type of web to key items featured on that web site. Also, Kartooprovides a list of key word searches that are pre- indexed, and relate to theoriginal search. Overall, this site has a very attractive interface that makesthe search process appear to be fun and easy.

The open directory:

Obviously when comparing the two search tools (Google, Open Directory) there areweaknesses that are unavoidable. Google will yield many unwanted and unreliableresults because anybody can post information on the internet. The OpenDirectory is limited also because its growth is limited to the speed ofcontribution from its members. Google has the advantage of a more in-depthadvanced search which makes use of boolean operators in order to return moresuccessful results. The Open Directory's advanced search is somewhat limited.

By: Laura Michele Turgeon

Beyond Search Engines

2005-03-13T23:55:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed the Touch Graph google best because it allowed me to view an operating site and its link to the World Wide Web. The idea of pulling any specific link gave the idea that there would be more focus to that link when active and how all other sites would have to respond respectively.

I least enjoyed news.stamen.com as it seemed to have a superfluous structure in regards to accessing articles. I had picked the article pertaining to AC Milan and it yielded a google search result. This site seems redundant as I can easily search for the same topic at google using an interface that is alot more user-firendly.

The Open Directory:

The main advantage that the Open Directory has is that it has a very similar interface that Google has, which allows for familiarity among an initial search. However, the advanced search interface and options seems to be quite different as there isn't an option for Boolean Operators dialog boxes, as there are in the Google's advanced search process. Google also has many unwanted and irrelevant results as anyone with the internet can post something online. Another disadvantage the Open directory carries is the fact that its growth is limited to the speed of contribution from its members.

By: Joe Fars

Mar 10

2005-03-13T21:53:00.000-08:00

2. a) I found the site I liked best was the Kartoo site. It not only provided an in depth visual display of all the related topics I could find information on, but it provided a list on the left side of the screen that allowed me to narrow the type of information I wish to receive. b) The site I like least was mooter.com because it provided me with very few hits. The visual graph provided had minimal links. However, I did like the fact that after clicking on the links, it would lead me to a new site and from there I could research further. The graph itself was not very applealing either; it was very plain and unattractive.

3. Both Google and Open Directory are very similar in the way they retrieve and display information. I found that Open Directory did not provide the best hits in terms of content but did provide a sufficient number of sites by which I could look through to find some useful information. Google on the other hand provides more useful information(although sometimes content can be an issue) and displays the sites retrieved in a more attractive way. Although the appearance of how the engine displays the sites has nothing to do with the information it retrieves, it makes the engine seem more professional by making it more appealing.

Jason Smith

Beyond Search Engines

2005-03-13T20:25:00.000-08:00

Blogger was not fully functional the day of my lab, this was posted the night of Sunday, March 13.

Best: The best search, in my opinion, was through www.touchgraph.com/TGGoogleBrowser.html. Touchgraph offered many different options the others didnt. The search cleanly and creatively laid out all the search results in an interactive display. Not interested in sorting through the extensive charts? Google:related, a link that takes the user directly to a google search of the website. The graph feature also allows you to change the colours, view the URL, and also add another URL to the search. Advanced controls are also available for experienced touchgraphers. One downside: you need a URL to base the show upon, touchgraph did not offer searching of an abstract idea. For example, if you type in movies, then limited results will be shown.

Worst: Kartoo.com. Although an ingenious idea of displaying search results in clusters, these results seemed to have limited relevance to the topic searched. One search began with movies: clusters appeared from UPS online and ebay. The third page finally showed movies.com. Another search for apple computers brought clusters which included websites to purchase computers and fruit, but not apple.com (a leading manufacturing in computers and software). Searching also took far too long, google can show results within thousands of a second, kartoo took at least 2-5 seconds (if not longer) to display results. Kartoo was also visually confusing. A multicolour background with link icons that resemble lined paper, which are linked together with green lines to individual words that randomly placed across the screen seemed far to overhelming for a first time user.

Open Directory
Advantages: Fast searching, results were displayed almost instantley. Results were also sorted into categories, this may allow the user to navigate through the categories if more information is required. Results were organized and could be easily understood and read.
Disadvantages: The information displayed, in my opinion, showed little relevance compared to results from Google. Google's intial search displays Museum of Television, CBC's history of Television and Yahoo!'s Canada Television History directy. The Open Directory shows results of current Canadian Television. It displays showtimes on different networks, and the Canadian Television Fund; both of little relevance to the history of canadian television.

Evan Powell- 250292622

Tutorial for March 10th

2005-03-12T20:26:00.000-08:00

Michael Wilson 250246109

Visualization Tools
The tool I liked best was the visual thesaurus! As an MIT student, I obviously have to write many essays. I have found thesauri very useful tools for improving my writing, and the visual thesaurus was awesome in the way that it displayed the information, and the way it showed the roots of different words.
The tool I liked the least was news.stamen. Not only was it confusing, and difficult to use, but I didn’t understand the criteria it used to declare what story was a ‘winner’ or ‘loser’. Not only that, but why that was even relevant, I suppose it could be useful for someone doing research on the coverage of news events in the media, but otherwise, it seems useless to me.

Open Directory
I liked the Open Directory search better than Google. Google is familiar to me, and I know how to use it, so I like it. What the Open Directory website offers that Google doesn’t is that it is compiled by humans and it has categories in which to search, much like the UWO library website. I’ve always found that categories are very helpful when conducting searches, and this is why I found Open Directory to be a good search engine, comparable to Google.

Michael Wilson 250246109

TouchGraph Google and Open Directory

2005-03-12T17:17:00.000-08:00

2. We liked the Mooter site the best because it was simple to use and providedaccurate results. The set up of the page was very clear; we, along with mostpeople, have seen a web-model before and they are generally easy to navigatethrough. Once we selected a certain topic, many results came up that werebeneficial to our research.

We least liked the Kartoo site as it was confusing and difficult to navigatethrough. Little or irrelevant information was provided for the topic weselected (Canadian Television). The design of the site was set up in a waywhere, as a first time users, was too complex. Compared to the Mooter site,this was much more difficult to use.

3. The advantages of searching the Open Directory webpage were that because it is a place where Google gets many of its results we were given many results when we searched it. It also groups its results into categories in which webpages belong to if they are similar to one another.

The disadvantages of the Open Directory webpage were that there weren't as many specific results as there are in Google. When we typed in "Canadian Television History" into the Open Directory we got a large amount of results but the majority of them weren't exactly on the history of Canadian television and rather on topics that are similar or related to it. This would be useful sometimes but not if someone was looking for exactly what they typed in the search engine.

Posted by: Carolyn Innis and Sara Swider

Archive search

2005-03-12T09:08:00.000-08:00

archives.cbc.ca
- this website has audio and video archives on Canadian content. It begins with a 5 minute audio clip of a reporter making Canada's first air mail flight in 1939. It goes up to the year 2003 with a TV clip (3 Min) of Air Canada filing for bankruptcy.

canada.gc.ca
- the government site when searching on audio and video content, gave a listing of some sites. However, CBC seems to be the dominant response.

vac-acc.gc.ca
- this site is a part of the Canadian governemet site and it claims to have audio and video clips of the war.

Rosa

Beyond Search Engines

2005-03-11T20:05:00.000-08:00

a. The site I liked the best was the Touch Graph Google site. The site retrieved many relevant hits. Also I liked the visual representation of how the information retrieved linked to one another.

b. The site I liked the least was Mooter.com. I found the opening page to be very bland. There was nothing on the page that made me excited to use the site. The Mooter site seems like nothing more then just another search engine.

The Open Directory:

The Open Directory returned fewer results then in a Google search. An advantage to the Open Directory is that at the top of the results page the results are separated into various categories making it easier for the searcher to find useful information. Google does not provide this categorization. A disadvantage to using the Open Directory is that the hits provide were links to other refined search engines and not directly to relevant sites itself. Google provides the user with a more direct access to relevant websites.

-Jade

Open Directory Preferences

2005-03-11T17:29:00.000-08:00

When using open dierectory the first and most obvious difference between it and Google is the number of search results that will turn up. Google has the great advantage of having millions of webpages available, but the similar disadvantage of listing them all. Open Directory gives fewer results but they are far more specific to the topic searched and generally are not simple opinion pages posted with no facts or actual academic information. Also, the reults of official and academic pages were ranked according to relevance and many more useful sites were provided on Open Directory.

By: Nick

March 10th Lab Questions

2005-03-11T09:17:00.000-08:00

Visualizations:

a) http://visualthesaurus.comwas my favourite visualization tool to navigate the web. The website offered a neat and precise visual display of the information on the web. Each idea or concept was connected with many other associative terms so you can see the connective process as it happens. Each word you choose leads you to more options to build a web of terms and define your search.

b) http://kartoo.com was my least favoutie visualization tool to navigate the web because it had many different aspects to choose from which made it a bit confusing. The layout seemed disorganized and inconsistent therefore I found it difficult to navigate the site. Precision is my favourite attribute of a search tool because it guides you to create a relevant search whereas confusing ones, such as kartoo, create confusion.

Open Directory:

Open Directory search of “Canadian television history” had a fewer results than the Google search and offered hyperlinks to other search sites to find your information. Google returned significantly more results which contained “history” in the name. Google produced many more results however, when you clicked on the hyperlink, it directed you to the website with the reference. Also, the Open Directory is run by vounteers therefore may be bias becuase they can eliminate or add whatever they want with no reprecussions. There are limited rules to follow contrasting Google's highly structured search engine.

Done by Lauren Perry

Tutorial for March 10th

2005-03-11T07:10:00.001-08:00

Tutorial for March 10th

2005-03-11T07:10:00.000-08:00

Different ways to visualize

2005-03-10T23:05:00.000-08:00

2) I liked the TouchGraph Google the best. I think it is the most useful because it shows how all the websites are connected and how strong the link between them is. It also gives information about the website and the link which I think is very useful. I also liked the design and look of the page.

I liked Mooter the least because it only showed how they were connected without showing the strength of the connected. There was also very little information about the sites in general. Overall I found it a little difficult to use.

3) The advantage of the Open Directory is that is monitored. Because it is a directory and not a search engine it does not rank, promote or optimize sites. It mainly just has the information about each site and each site seems very credible. It is a data provider which search engines feed off of. This can also be considered a disadvantage. Because it is monitored it is missing some of the sites and opinionated web pages that would not be considered credible. Also, because the websites are not ranked it is impossible to know which web site is more useful than the next or how often it is visited.

New Visualization Tools: What's hot and what's not!

2005-03-10T22:17:00.000-08:00

A (not so) in-depth comparison of TouchGraph Google, Mooter, Kartoo, Stamen andthe Visual Thesaurus.

While all of the above mentionned tools have many advantages and disadvantages,there are certain factors that we feel make some better than others, overall.

The tool I liked...

... BEST: Touchgraph

This tool is user friendly and easy to understand. The results are very precise: they allow you to view sites that are not only connected to CBC but to thesites that are connected those sites as well, which enables a more in-depth search. It's not visually overwhelming yet still very interesting in appearance and allows the user to obtain information about the other sites before pulling them up so that they can decide how pertinent it is to their search based on the short description provided.

... LEAST: Mooter

Perhaps a little too plain for a visualization tool. The visuals included in thesearch do not necessarily assist in enhancing our understanding of the results. It is very simple; there are no additional pop-ups or anything like that, but that is most likely because of the level of simplicity (there simply is no need for it). Furthermore, the results are a little too basic and each cluster is represented the same way as it would be on any regular search engine.

Heidi Greven and Rob Day

Beyond Search Engines

2005-03-10T18:03:00.000-08:00

New visualization tools:

BEST – TouchGraph Google: returned the most results AND the most relevant results. Showed graphically how each site linked outwards. I will most likely check into this site for future reference.

WORST – visualthesaurus.com: I typed “CBC” and it returned “complete blood count” and “blood profile” as results. The page also locked up as the Javascript loaded. Amateurs… I was nice and tried “Canadian television”; no results. I tried “television”, which returned a great number of terms related to the keyword, but just a definition of the related terms and no information. Useful to create an expanded list to search for, but you have to take those keywords somewhere else; what is the good in that?

The Open Directory:

Open Directory search of “Canadian television history” returned a narrow list of 87 results, but only had hyperlinks to the homepages of the referring sites; you would have to search within each of those sites to actually find information on “history”.

Google search of the same returned 3,820,000, but records contained the term “history” right in them. Therefore, Google took a bit more searching through the masses for records, but gave a direct hyperlink right to the page where the reference was made.

Beyond Search Engines

2005-03-10T16:00:00.000-08:00

Visualization Tools

The site which I enjoyed the most was kartoo.com. Visually, the website was very interesting and appealing, but at the same time, it was not overly complicated. The graph itself was very informative as it explained the relevance of the links and and how they were related to the search. Kartoo also helped refine the search by providing a set of related topics which could also pertain to the search.

The site which I least liked was mooter.com. First of all, the interface of the website was very simple in nature and the graph itself failed to be very visually stimulating. Compared to all of the other resources, this site was very unattractive. Furthermore, the site was not very informative and failed to give any background information about the given links, making it hard to judge their usefullness regarding the search. Overall, I also found that many of the search results were not very useful or relevant.

The Open Directory

There are many differences which are evident between Google and the Open Directory. When conducting a search on Google, it is able to accumulate a large amount of results. However, most of the time, many of the websites are completly irrelevant and even useless. The Open Directory on the other hand is able to generate less sites, however these websites are more relvant as the directory is managed by humans.The Open Directory can also be disadvantageous as unlike Google, it does not have very broad advanced search mechanism

Visualization Tools and the Open Directory

2005-03-10T13:38:00.000-08:00

Visualization Tools

The visualization tool that I found most useful was TouchGraph. It provides a wide variety of links to related, useful websites. It gives a summary of each site which makes it easy to select which ones you want to view. It is also aesthetically pleasing but simple at the same time. I found Kartoo to be the least effective. It is very complicated because there is so much to look at, all at once. It is also harder to actually get on to the related site that you wish to view.

Open Directory

An advantage to the Open Directory is that people have chosen sites for the subjects so you know that they are relevant. Many times when searching on Google you come upon sites that are irrelevant to your search. A disadvantage to the Open directory is that there is not a topic for everything. Any type of information can be found on Google.

By: Cassandra Reinthaler

Beyond Search Engines

2005-03-10T13:32:00.001-08:00

Beyond Search Engines

2) Visualization Tools

The Visialization tool that I enjoyed best was the TouchGraph Google because itwas very interesting to see the links between pages. It was a pretty simple andeasy to use program and (like Visual Thesaurus) it has a feature that allowsfor pointless moving around of the finished search.
I didn't like Mooter because it seemed really confusing to interpret the searchresults that are retrieved. The user interface is pretty confusing as well.

3) The Open Directory
Obviously when comparing the two search tools (Google, Open Directory) there areweaknesses that are unavoidable. Google will yield many unwanted and unreliableresults because anybody can post information on the internet. The OpenDirectory is limited also because its growth is limited to the speed ofcontribution from its members. Google has the advantage of a more in-depthadvanced search which makes use of boolean operators in order to return moresuccessful results. The Open Directory's advanced search is somewhat limited.

-Kevin Lefort

Beyond Search Engines

2005-03-10T13:32:00.000-08:00

Beyond Search Engines

2) Visualization Tools

The Visialization tool that I enjoyed best was the TouchGraph Google because itwas very interesting to see the links between pages. It was a pretty simple andeasy to use program and (like Visual Thesaurus) it has a feature that allowsfor pointless moving around of the finished search.
I didn't like Mooter because it seemed really confusing to interpret the searchresults that are retrieved. The user interface is pretty confusing as well.

Lab #7 Beyond Search Engines

2005-03-10T12:54:00.000-08:00

Beyond Search Engines: Lab #7

The best visual representation site from the ones listed, in my opinion, was The TouchGraph Google. The reasons this site was the best is because it gave a very good ‘big picture’ representation of all the sites connected to whatever site I searched. Also the interaction with how you can move and manipulate the represented sites was entertaining. Also the way an information window that pops up in the screen gives a quick abstract to what the linked site is about, without losing the big picture in front of you.
The one I liked least from the list is Mooter. Mooter to me was not as engaging and interesting as all the other ones. Its plain interface was boring with little information displayed on screen. When a search was completed it came back with eight results immediately surrounding the website. Where as TouchLabs, had a more links out of the original searched page. Also when I clicked on one of the shortly titled linked pages, it left the big picture part behind and I only was able to see the site link that I clicked on.

Open Directory

The advantages of searching the Open Directory compared to searching the Google search engine is that you get a lot less results in the Open Directory. This is an advantage because the philosophy is a ‘quality over quantity approach.’ It’s easier to find what you need without sifting through 100,000 sites that have little or no relevance like on Google. The Open Directory also seems to get rid of any dead links, meaning that the sites given to you are all current and updated.
The disadvantages of the Open Directory are that it is run by volunteers. This means humans are doing the whole process, and all humans have certain biases. With these biases, the volunteers are able to choose what sites make it on to the website. Where as when a search bot does it, it only goes by the objectively through the site, since a machine can’t have a personal bias. This means offensive or controversial material may be filtered out of the Open Directory.

By: Daniel Cichon

The Open Directory: Lab- March 10th 2005

2005-03-10T12:49:00.000-08:00

By: Michelle Brock

Some disadvantages of the open directory are that it is human run, and considering that humans are bias the information that is posted will also be bias. Also, there are alot less sites that can be found using the open directory. When i entered 'Canadian Television History' only 87 results were found. If i were to enter 'Canadian television History' on the google website, thousands of results would be found.

Some advantages of searching through the Open Directory are that is shows the best content and results to what you are looking for. Compared to Google, it has percise information instead of mostly garbage websites that anyone can publish on the internet. The Open Directory is also beneficial because it filters out alot of dead links that Google still keeps on its website.

Beyond Search Engines: Lab- March 10th 2005

2005-03-10T12:45:00.000-08:00

By: Michelle Brock

2)
The visualization tool that I liked best was the TouchGraph Google. It was very eye catching and appealing. It made me want to explore the site further because the visualizations were very interesting and fun. Also, there is a lot of information on the web site that lets me explore and find new information about topics that I was unaware of. The thing I liked most was that I was able to find information on a topic, then more information on related topics was also shown, which makes the site extremely helpful.

The visualization that I liked the least was Mooter. I found this site not to have as much information as TouchGrpah was. Mooter is not as appealing as the other visualizations were. There is no background information given to the viewer before clicking on a link, which is not as helpful when compared to the other sites. I did not enjoy surfing on this site as much as I enjoyed TouchGraph, Kartoo, and News.Stamen. I would only go to this website if the other visualization websites were not working.

Number 2 - March 10th

2005-03-10T12:40:00.002-08:00

a) http://visualthesaurus.comwas my favourite visualization tool to navigate the web. The website offered a neat and precise visual display of the information on the web. Each idea or concept was connected with many other associative terms so you can see the connective process as it happens. Each word you choose leads you to more options to build a web of terms and define your search.

b) http://kartoo.com was my least favoutie visualization tool to navigate the web because it had many different aspects to choose from which made it a bit confusing. The layout seemed disorganized and inconsistent therefore I found it difficult to navigate the site. Precision is my favourite attribute of a search tool because it guides you to create a relevant search whereas confusing ones, such as kartoo, create confusion.

Done by Lauren Perry

Visualization Tools

2005-03-10T12:40:00.001-08:00

Visualization Tools

2005-03-10T12:40:00.000-08:00

DMOZ

2005-03-10T12:34:00.000-08:00

The advantages you get from searching the open directory are as follows. 1.) Your returns have been assessed by human editors. 2.) The results returned are those that have been deemed to be of higher quality and relevance than normal. 3.) The results are free from corporate pressure. The disadvantages are as follows. 1.) The content has been edited so some sites that might have been relevant to your personal search may have been dropped. Google on the other hand will supply everything, the good, the bad and the ugly. 2.) Some areas are yet to be covered and as such there is no information concerning that topic, whereas Google will always return on every topic. 3.)The open directory, like a database, can only cover what is indexed, and growth is slower than Google. On the other hand, Google is constantly crawling the web adding new information rapidly.

Rob Day and Heidi Greven

Lab Blog HTML code

2005-03-10T12:25:00.000-08:00

Beyond Search Engines

2005-03-10T12:24:00.001-08:00

I enjoyed the Touch Graph google best because it allows you to view a functioning site and its link to the World Wide Web. The idea of pulling the specific link gave the idea as there was more focus to one site and how all other sites would have to respond respectively.

I least enjoyed news.stamen.com as it seemed to have a superfluous structure in regards to accessing articles. I had picked the article pertaining to AC Milan and it yielded a google search result. The site seems redundant as I can easily search for the same topic at google.

The Open Directory:

The main advantage that the Open Directory has is that it has a very similar interface that Google has, which allows for familiarity among an initial search. However, the advanced search interface and options seems to be quite different as there are not option Boolean Operators, as there are in the Google's advanced search process. Google also has many unwanted and irrelevant results as anyone with the internet can post something online. Another disadvantage the Open directory carries is the fact that its growth is limited to the speed of contribution from its members.

visualization tools

2005-03-10T12:24:00.000-08:00

after visiting the visualization tool, i came to the conclusion that i like Kartoo the best because it had so many options, and it didnt involve a lot of researching, everything that is related to the topic (i chose CBC for all three sites), it also gave references to information in other parts of the world, on topics about shares, employment. etc. it had the most variety.
The site i enjoyed the least would have been mooter. i found it very similar to goodgle. it was not as specific as kartoo, in a sence it did not give as many options after one search as kartoo did. although both were very easy to use.

Beyond Search Engines

2005-03-10T12:23:00.001-08:00

2) Visualization Tools

The Visialization tool that I enjoyed best was the TouchGraph Google because it was very interesting to see the links between pages. It was a pretty simple and easy to use program and (like Visual Thesaurus) it has a feature that allows for pointless moving around of the finished search.
I didn't like Mooter because it seemed really confusing to interpret the search results that are retrieved. The user interface is pretty confusing as well.

3) The Open Directory

Obviously when comparing the two search tools (Google, Open Directory) there are weaknesses that are unavoidable. Google will yield many unwanted and unreliable results because anybody can post information on the internet. The Open Directory is limited also because its growth is limited to the speed of contribution from its members. Google has the advantage of a more in-depth advanced search which makes use of boolean operators in order to return more successful results. The Open Directory's advanced search is somewhat limited.

BEYOND SEARCH ENGINES

2005-03-10T12:23:00.000-08:00

BEST: VISUAL THESAURUS
We liked this site the best because it is very straightforward and clear. When it creates its visual map in response to a query, it is interactive in a way that doesn't confuse the viewer and leave them unsure of where to go. You also have the ability to toy with the results, to move the text around and strech it, perhaps making space for the next connection. You can built on your query and not get lost in the process. Related words and meanings surround your word, allowing for endless possibilities.

WORST: KARTOO
We thought Kartoo was the least effective in our searching. Although it is colourful and provides numerous connections, it leads the eye in too many places at once. It is confusing for the viewers, and makes assumptions about linking your query to numerous things that may or may not be relevant. Its mapping is overall unclear, and if you finally fnd a site you desire, it takes many steps to reach it.

Posted by: Jessica Gale and Jessika Fink

Touchgraph Preferences

2005-03-10T12:19:00.000-08:00

Mooter.com is by fair the worst of them. It provides the fewest and least useful links that are mainly service sites.

My favourite is Kartoo.com, as it has several different webbings, multiple sites and a wide variety of services.

Nick

address

2005-03-10T12:15:00.000-08:00

History of Canadian Television

2005-03-08T14:28:00.000-08:00

Howard, Phillip. "Awesome Promises in the cathedreal." The Toronto Star, [Date to be determined], pg. 1.

Legge, Gordon. "Diana's Funeral Hits Calgarians Deeply." The Globe and Mail. [Date to be determined], pg. 8.

Done by: Lauren Perry and Jana Van de Rydt

Citation Pearl Growing Assignment

2005-03-08T14:24:00.000-08:00

Barbrook, R. “Broadcasting and National Identity in Ireland.” Media Culture and Society 14, no.2 (1992): 203-277.

Breen, M. Corcoran, F. “Myth in the Television Discourse.” Communication Monograph 49, no.2 (1982): 127-136.

Jensen. “News as Ideology - Economic Statistics and Political Ritual in Television Network News.” Journal of Communication 37, 1987.

Done by Lauren Perry and Jana Van de Rydt

Using the Library Catalogue

2005-03-08T14:18:00.000-08:00

Russel, Nicholas. Morals and the Media: Ethis in Canadian journalism. Vancouver: UBC Press, 1994.
Location: DBW circ 2HR
Call Number: P92.C3R87 1994
Subject Heading: Mass media - Canada - Moral and ethical aspects. Journalistic ethics - Canada.

Rutherford, Paul. The Making of the Canadian Media. Toronto; New York: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1978.
Location:KC Second Floor
Call Number: P92. C3R8
Subject Heading:Mass Media-Canada-History

Romanow, Walter I. Media Canada: an Introductory Analysis. Toronto: Copp CLark, 1996.
Location:IMS stack NOLOAN
Call Number: P92. C3R65 1996
Subject Heading: Mass-Media-Canada

Ripley, Diane L. Rural Communication: Information and Innovation in Farming: a Literary Review. Brandon, Man: Rural Development Institute, Brandon University, 1993.
Location:DBW Stack ovrsize
Call Number:P92. C3R57 1993
Subject Heading: Farmers - Prarie Provinces- Information Services- Communication- Social Aspects- Prarie Provinces- Communication and Traffic - Social Aspects - Prarie Provinces - Mass Media - Social Aspects - Prarie Provinces.

Done by Lauren Perry and Jana Van de Rydt

Video and Audio Archives

2005-03-03T13:13:00.000-08:00

http://archives.cbc.ca/index.asp?IDLan=1

This website is available from the CBC website. It provides both radio and television broadcasts from the past. There are several categories available including People, Arts and Entertainment, Politics and Economy, Life and Society, Disastors and Tragedies, Science and Technology, and Sports. The length of the clips range in length. The longest ones I found were close to 30 mins in length. Some Audio and Video broadcasts are from as far back as 1914. This website covers a wide timeline of events.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/series/primeministers/video/video.html

This website is available from The Globe and Mail website. It provides video clips of interviews with previous Canadian Prime Ministers. The interviews are grouped by PM. PM's included are Lester B. Pearson, Robert Borden, John Diefenbaker, and Sir John A. McDonald. Video ranges from the late 50's to 2002. The length of the interviews are not shown.

http://www.army.forces.gc.ca/LF/English/6_5.asp?FlashEnabled=1&

These video archives are from the Canadian NAtional Defence Website. The Clips are interviews of army personel and updates from soldiers on their current activities. The Clips range in date from May 2003- Febuary 2005. The length of the clips are not written anywhere.

Chantal Arseneault-Lewis

Video and Audio Archive

2005-03-03T13:10:00.000-08:00

http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-41-1611/sports/foster_hewitt/

The Voice of Hockey: Foster Hewitt

This is a useful clip if one is looking for short (ranging from 2 to 14 minutes) historical sports clip. Here you can find his first broadcast as well as other interesting broadcasts and video clips.

http://canadaonline.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/webcast.asp%3FLanguage=E

Web cast: Parliament of Canada

This is useful as if you would like to listen live to parliament, the senate or the house of commons, you can access that here.

http://www.mint.ca/en/news/videos/index_video.htm

This would be a useful site if you were looking to study the history of Canadian currency as well as other Canadian historical events; the Alberta Oil Strike for example.

Stacey Connell

Lauren Perry and Jana Van De Rydt

2005-03-03T13:04:00.000-08:00

Thursday, March 03, 2005

Canadian History Television

1)CBC Archives - video clip
"Comedy Days in Canada"
Title: How to spit on umpires feet without getting caught.

-poking fun at the culture of baseball and the most distinguishing baseball rituals; tobacco chewing

Address: http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-68-1255-3280/arts_entertainment/comedy/clip6
Date: May 18, 1977

2) CTV Archives - webcast
-broadcast of Web Awards honouring the best website on the internet
Date: Monday June 4th 2001 5:44 PM ET
Address: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/Article News/story/CTVnews/102738641401_22795241

3) Global TV - Webcats
- webcast of how the National Security Certificate, a part of our immigration system, denies simple rights to the presumation of innocence in an open trial.
Date:Monday February 21st, 2005.
www.canada.com/national/globalnational/index.html

POWER POINT Presentation on Canada's History of Communication
Address: http://www.sfu.ca/cmns/130d1/130historylecture1_files/130historylecture1.ppt#256,1,historyofcomunication
March 3rd 2005

Done by Lauren Perry and Jana Van de Rydt

Canadian Historical Archives

2005-03-03T12:58:00.000-08:00

Posted by Jason Smith and Karolina Bialkowska

Finding television audio and video archives is imperative to the study of our cultural history. Television has become a cultural mogul, dominating the lives of Canadians for decades past. In order to research effectively, there must be sites that contain proper video archives and audio archives. Here are three sites that seem to provide a comprehensive look into our television past, while at the same time being well organized and informative, with a large selection.
1) The motto of the CBC Archives seems to embody all that we are looking for – “Relive our History through CBC Radio and Television.” In essence the site can be searched by date, Topic, clip, and there is an easy to use list of concepts on the left. With a large, well organized and very Canadian collection, it is comprehensive and informative, offering an in-depth look into our cultural and media history.
http://archives.cbc.ca/index.asp?IDLan=1
2) The second site found was through the Library and Archives Canada government site. It was named the Recorded Sound and Video collection, and boasted appr. 200,000 records. The downfall of such a collection is that it can only be accessed online from a specific library, although it gives information about Canadian history and the role of archives. In essence, this is a good informational site and will benefit those who use it to get a taste of Canadian history.
http://www.collectionscanada.ca/6/28/s28-1016-e.html
3) The third site is more of an archives portal that can be searched for particular dates and times and different types of archives, and gives a broad range of access to information for people searching Canadian historical events and issues. It is comprehensive and easy to use for people looking for many different reasons to research the topics listed.
http://www.archivescanada.ca/english/index.html

Lab: March 3rd: Canadian Video Archives

2005-03-03T12:56:00.000-08:00

Thursday, March 03, 2005: Lab

1. http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-41-1611/sports/foster_hewitt/This first website is extremely helpful when looking for archives from CBC Canadian Television. It shows previous television broadcasts mostly from sports news. It highlights important dates in the history of sports, and allows us to view the broadcast, and also to listen to the radio broadcasts of important historical events.

2. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/archivianet/020212_e.htmlThis website has numerous videos that allow us to view video and audio archives in Canada. However, to avoid copyrights laws the video archives must be purchased from the Collections Canada website. Permission must be requested in order to view the archives. The website is full of numerous topics and videos that show clips from previous newscasts and Canadian history. This website can be trusted because it is a government publication, and is very useful and easy to use when looking for video and audio archives.

3. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1098908078056_94317278?s_name=&no_ads=This website is a Canadian News site that is known all over Canada; CTV. It shows footage of the historical Canadian battle of Ortona. The footage takes place in 1943 where allies fought their way north along the Italian peninsula. This footage is very informative and is good when looking for historical Canadian content.

4. http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/index.htmlCanadians will celebrate, honour, remember, and teach our youth about the contributions and sacrifice of our veterans. In the past the Archives of Ontario has honoured veterans with a number of virtual exhibits. This website is very helpful when looking for Ontario archives of the past.

By: Michelle Brock and Kristen Vanderhoeven

Daniel Cichon's Cumulative Contribution

2005-03-03T12:49:00.000-08:00

Thursday, March 03, 2005

Lab 6: Television Archival Footage
1. Link: http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-69-1587-10801/life_society/60s/clip2 (source is the CBC Archives at http://archives.cbc.ca)Topic: John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 'bed-in' in Montreal (May 16th, 1969)Description: This video footage was shot while John Lennon and Yoko Ono, checked into the hotel because of the outside heat and for a place to smoke marijuana.The source is really good because CBC has a massive archive of the biggest moments caught on Canadian televison. Other notable clips include: First official Canada flag raised (http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-69-1587-10779/life_society/60s/clip5), Justin Trudeau's Eulogy(http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-69-307-1620-21/unforgettable_moments/life_society/justin_trudeau_eulogy) and a rememberence on what would have been Alexander Graham Bell's 100th birthday (http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-75-607-3176-11/that_was_then/science_technology/graham_bell). All stream well and are high quality clips.2. Link: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1098908078056_94317278?s_name=&no_ads= (From the CTV Archives)Topic: A war veteran talks about Canada's version of Stalingrad that took place in Ortona, Italy; over 60 years ago.The CTV website has archives of some of its broadcasts. But not on the level that the CBC has. Also not all of the archival footage was broadcasted. Instead the footage deals with clips that may have not made it to TV or follow-up interviews on stories.3. Link:http://www.collectionscanada.ca/archivianet/020212_e.htmlThis website doesn't have direct links to the video files themselves. Instead it gives users the chance to order broadcasts of their choice and they will be sent on a preferred format to them. Also only full broadcasts will be sent, not individual clips. Their entire archive that lists the items they have is http://www.collectionscanada.ca/archivianet/0201_e.html.By: Daniel Cichon
posted by Dan at 12:14 PM 0 comments
Thursday, February 10, 2005

Lab #5- Chicago Citations of Last weeks blog
Chicago Format of my citations.1. McLuhan, Marshall. Mcluhan’s Laws of Media. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1975.2. McLuhan, Marshall. "Myth and Mass Media." Daedalus 88 (2): 339-48. Reprinted 1960. In Myth and Mythmaking. edited by Henry A. Murray, New York Braziller.3. Fillion, Michel. “Broadcasting and cultural identity: the Canadian experience.” The Journal of Media Culture and Society 18.3 (1996): 447-469
posted by Dan at 1:56 PM 0 comments

Lab #5- Using the Library Catalogue
Four Books on History of Canadian TelevisionI.Singer, Benjamin D, Communications in Canadian society. Toronto, Ontario: Thompson Educational, 2001.Location of the book: Weldon Library, Stacks on 4th FloorCall Number: P92.C3S5 2001 Subject Headings: Mass Media- Social Aspect- Canada, Mass Media- Canada- InfluenceII.Manera, Anthony, A Dream Betrayed: A Battle for the CBC. Toronto, Ontario: Stoddart, 1996.Location of the book: King’s College, Second FloorCall Number: HE8689.9.C2M35 Subject Headings: Canadian Broadcast Corporation- Appropriations and Expenditures, Canadian Broadcast Corporation, Broadcast Policy- Canada.III.Rutherford, Paul. The Making of the Canadian Media. Toronto : McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1978.Location of the Book: Weldon Library, 4th FloorCall Number: P92.C3R88Subject Headings Used: Mass Media—Canada—HistoryIV.Vipond, Mary. The Mass Media in Canada. Toronto : J. Lorimer, 2000.Location of the Book: Weldon Library, 4th FloorCall Number: P92.C3V57.2000Subject Headings: Mass Media—Canada—HistoryMass Media—Social Aspects—CanadaMass Media Policy—CanadaCompleted by: Daniel Cichon and Michelle Brock
posted by Dan at 1:35 PM 0 comments
Thursday, February 03, 2005

Citation Pearl Growing
1. Original ArticleTitle: Mcluhans Laws of MediaAuthor: McLuhan MSource: TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE 16 (1): 74-78 1975Cited Reference to it:Title: Reuniting the Global TheatreAuthor Nevitt BSource: KYBERNETES 19 (6): 42-53 1990This article is relevant to our lab topic because it deals with the ways in which technologies (like TV and the Internet) are bringing the globe closer together in the sharing of information and how they are shaping the way we interact with one another.2. Original ArticleTitle: Myth and Mass MediaAuthour: McLuhan MSource: Daedalus 88 (2): 339-348 1959Cited Reference to it:Title: MYTH IN THE TELEVISION DISCOURSEAuthor(s): BREEN M, CORCORAN FSource: COMMUNICATION MONOGRAPHS 49 (2): 127-136 1982Document Type: ArticleLanguage: EnglishThis article is relevant to the lab topic of "History of Canadian Television" because it addresses the idea of how television actually affects the public, and how the public perceives television to affect them.3. Original ArticleTitle: Broadcasting and Cultural Identity: The Canadian ExperianceAuthor: Filion MSource: Media Culture and Society 18 (3): 447-467 JUL 1996Cited Reference to it:Title: BROADCASTING AND NATIONAL IDENTITY IN IRELANDAuthor(s): BARBROOK RSource: MEDIA CULTURE & SOCIETY 14 (2): 203-227 APR 1992Document Type: ArticleLanguage: EnglishThis article does what the original one does, but instead the country it deals with is Ireland. This helps us to see how other countries use television to connect a set of ideals from it to theri cultural identity.By: Daniel Cichon
posted by Dan at 1:45 PM 0 comments

Joys of Citation
Atherton, Tony. "Television will emphasize Olympic sounds; COUNTDOWN TO CALGARY" The Montreal Gazette, February 9th 1988. In ProQuest Periodical Abstracts. [Internet] Bell and Howell Information and Learning Co., 1999 [cited January 27, 2004] ; available from http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=161507921&sid=4&Fmt=3&clientId=11263&RQT=309&VName=PQD By: Daniel Cichon
posted by Dan at 1:12 PM 0 comments
Thursday, January 27, 2005

Important Event in Television History
The Calgary Winter Olympics were a major Canadian event covered by Canadian television stations.The article: "Television coverage will emphasize Olympic sounds; COUNTDOWN TO CALGARY" By: Tony Atherton, from The Montreal Gazette, February 9th 1988.http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=70&did=161507921&SrchMode=1&sid=4&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1106859040&clientId=11263Discusses how not only will the Calgray Olympics focus their attention to the visuals provided by televsion but also they are making strides to increase the audio of the Olympic events. This gives the spectator another level of realism while watching the games from the comfort of thier own home.By: Daniel Cichon
posted by Dan at 1:49 PM 0 comments

Audio and Video Archives

2005-03-03T12:47:00.000-08:00

http://www.collectionscanada.ca/archivianet/020114_e.html

This website is useful and insightful as it offers archives of film, video and sound, from throughout Canadian history. The website is also very reliable and up to date as it sanctioned by the Government of Canada (Library and Archives Canada)

http://archives.cbc.ca

This site is also very useful. It offers audio and video clips based on a broad variety of subject matter as it is drawn from the CBC broadcasting archives

http://www.cpac.ca/forms/index.asp?dsp=template&act=view3&template_id=634&lang=e

This site offers archived video clips from a Canadian political channel, CPAC. All the clips offer certain highlights based on important political news

Lab: Thursday, March 3, 2005, 3 pm.

2005-03-03T12:46:00.000-08:00

http://archives.cbc.ca/

Tonnes of radio and television archives. From the wraith of Hurricane Hazel in ’54 to punk rock coming to Canada in ’77.

http://www.collectionscanada.ca/02/020114_e.html

Film, Video and Sound - ArchiviaNet - The Audiovisual Holdings Database contains about 265 000 descriptions of films, videos, and sound recordings held by the National Archives of Canada.

http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/guides/csg_102_smirr.htm

Archives of the Province of Ontario:

The Sound & Moving Image (SMI) Portfolio identifies, acquires, preserves and makes available public and private audio, video and motion picture film material relating to the history of Ontario.

Political voices and images: From newsreels and speeches of Mitchell Hepburn (Premier of Ontario, 1934-1942) to television ads and election campaign footage of Bill Davis (Premier of Ontario, 1971-1985).

Television and radio programs: Including newsfilm from CHCH-TV (Hamilton) and programs from Multilingual TV (Channel 47), CHIN Radio/TV International and CJRT-FM, and the Canadian Association for Adult Education.

LAB: THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2005 @ 3pm

2005-03-03T12:43:00.000-08:00

http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-73-236-113221/unforgettable_moments/politics_economy/vive_quebec_libre

This is a great example of a video archive on French President Charles de Gaulle. On July 24, 1967 he caused a political uproar. The video gives you a real feel of what television was like in the 60’s, black and white!

http://www.archivescanada.ca/english/search/ItemDisplay.aspsessionKey=1109882268010_206_75_45_162&l=0&v=0&lvl=1&coll=1&rt=1&itm=192229&rsn=S_WWWfeaElNrKh&all=1&dt=AW+"television"&spi-

This is a site that provides video of former employees of the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation who were seeking more independence. Their mission was to produce professional media products from an Inuit point of view. 1989-1993

http://archives.cbc.ca/400d.asp?id=1-75-92-435

The link above is one of many that CBC provides that has audio/video options.

Video and Audio Archives and Clips

2005-03-03T12:41:00.000-08:00

CBC Archives
http://archives.cbc.ca/IDT-1-71/conflict_war/

This is a very useful source of archives of Canadian video and audio clips. The site is excellent at sorting the information into various categories which makes it very easy to locate relevant clips. The clips range from current time to as far back as the 1940’s, with a small number in the 1930’s. The site not only has certain categories to search in but it also provides numerous searching methods to find the clips, including index searches and topic searches. A very useful section of this site, which would be of great help to anyone studying Canadian media, is the section “CBC Days to Remember.” This section provides the main highlights of each decade starting at the 1930’s, with timelines, video and audio clips.

Canadian Armed Forces

This is an excellent resource which presents video clips of old military videos and historical military moments caught on tape. Although you have to put in a request to the phone number listed below, this is an excellent resource for anyone studying Canadian media. The site also provides numerous historical pictures of previous military endeavors in different countries sorted by individual operation names.

For video requests contact WO Gerry Pilote at 613-995-8763 or André Rousseau at 613-995-8736

http://www.combatcamera.forces.gc.ca/common/combatcamera/video_e.htm

British Columbia Archives
Http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/visual/visual.htm

This website features a wide array of video and radio archives in a huge range of topics, organized alphabetically by title or photographer/artist. The main purpose of this website is that it gives viewers call numbers for the material they are looking for so that they can find the video clips in the British Columbia Video Archives.

Royal Canadian Mint Video Archives

http://www.mint.ca/en/news/videos/index_video.htm

This site features archived videos from the history of the Royal Canadian Mint. It would be useful for someone studying the history of Canadian currency and looking for media to show a visual representation of the historical events.

Created By Mark Scigliano and Jenna Benson

LAB: THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2005

2005-03-03T12:37:00.000-08:00

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/terroristattack/sept11/

This URL page contains a realaudio clip containing commentary from a PBS representative. NewsHour historians and columnists Tom Oliphant and Bill Kristol review the events of September 11, a day that saw the shattering of American landmarks.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/special/attack/video/sep2001/video20010911.html

This website has many different clips that CTV news aired concerning September 11th. It focuses on different aspects of the tragedy including live footage and commentaries by the newscasters and by President Bush. In one of the clips CTV's Roger Smith reports on Canada's response to the tragedy including increased security.

http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-70-301-1616-11/disasters_tragedies/september_11_airport/

This is CBC's take on the tragedy of the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001. It discusses how it has impact the security in Canada and the trouble that the airports are having with security. This clip is relevant to a person searching for Canadian Television as it is a clip associated with a specific broadcasting program

The objective here was to illustrate that a person can view the same clip from different broadcasting programs to examine the different commentary associated from each.

By: Joe Fars and Rachel Shiff

Audio/Visual Archives

2005-03-03T12:33:00.000-08:00

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=children%27s%20shows

This site holds both audio and visual archives from Canada’s television past. The broadcasts date from as far back as the 1970s all the way to 2004. Coverage includes live shows for kids performed at several theatres across Canada, children’s commercials and shows for kids. The clips all range in time most being between 5 and 45 minutes. This site would be helpful to compare children’s programming from about the 1970s to the present. Comparisons of commercials can also be made by looking at the commercial clips on the site. The archive can also be beneficial to those comparing documentaries made in the past to more recent ones. This is because the site also includes several documentaries on child development.

http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-41-1289/sports/olympics_cbc/

This archive found on CBC’s website contains 50 years of Olympic broadcasts. There are both audio and visual clips on this site. Included are both live coverage of event in the Olympics as well as studio broadcasts during the games discussing its events. Most clips are no longer then 4 minutes long. The first games covered by the archives dates back to 1956. This site would be useful to someone looking at coverage of the Olympic Games or the actual games themselves.

http://www.120seconds.com/index.cfm

This archive provides both audio and visual exerts from Canadian broadcasts. Stories include cuurent events in Canadian culture, politics, sports and entertainment. There are pieces which range from 5 to 10 minutes.

-Jade

PowerPoint Canadian History Presentation

2005-03-03T12:28:00.000-08:00

http://www.sfu.ca/cmns/130d1/130historylecture1_files/130historylecture1.ppt

Not really from a conference, these are the lecture notes from the "Explorations In Mass Communications: Issues and Controversies" class at Simon Fraser University. It still talks about communication history in Canada (among other things).

Lab assignment for March 3rd

2005-03-03T12:21:00.000-08:00

1)
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/HTMLTemplate/!ctv/Search?query=video+broadcasts&chooseSearch=ctv&atoz=-1

CTV's website offers up to date news video broadcasts of their news reports. This would be useful Canadian source for anyone wishing to research current media events. This website reported largely on the hot topics of today, which in this case was the situation in Iraq. So if someone wanted to research on the percentage of media coverage focused on a particular event, then this site would be perfect. The video clips are news broadcasts that range from 30 seconds to 5 minutes.

2)
http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-109-1257/1930s/1938/

This website is archived radio clips from a weekday in 1938. This site would be useful for anyone doing research into Canadian radio and newsbroadcasts from the time period, more specifically, the depression. The site could also be useful for anyone wishing to gain insight into the social and political attitudes of the time. The clips range from 1-20 minutes in length.

3)
http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-69-1587/life_society/60s/

CBC Archives site offers a variety of features. One specific feature that it offers is a timeline of the 1960's with video clips to match the information. There are 28 video clips for the era of the 60's. An example of the clip[s offered is John Lennon and Yoko Ono's trip to Montreal for a week "Bed-in" of smoking marijuana, entertaining and singing with a running time length of 11:46. This site offers a wide variety of clips and running lengths ranging from 2:00 mins to 14:00 mins.

Michael Wilson
Paige Steele