Action Items for Research Paper & Blogging!

Hey all – Here are some action items to guide you through the next two weeks.

Everyone also remember to breathe, take care of you and yours. Contact me anytime with questions or concerns.

Research Paper:

All assignments in INFO 200 help build your understanding and knowledge of the information needs and information-seeking behaviors of the information community you are researching. You can feel free to remix and adapt previous assignments and blog posts and incorporate these into your research paper. This is not self-plagiarism!
Fine tune your community description to fit the required introduction for the paper. A successful description for the assignments addresses who the community is, what information needs and behaviors they have, and should cite some of our foundational literature as well as your own pertinent, peer-reviewed resources. You might even include some stats pulled from research-based sources as well such as Pew, etc.
Be clear with your writing. Use simple, straightforward sentences. Avoid sweeping generalizations without supporting evidence.
Work on the blog posts explored below as sections of your paper’s discussion. Research your community’s use of emerging technology (or technology in general). How do they use it as part of their information behaviors? (After the paper, you’ll be creating a media artifact to share some of these findings too!)
Pay close attention to minimum and maximum word counts.
Follow the formatting requirements closely.
Proof everything. Ask a classmate to proof your work and proof theirs.

Blog Reports:

Here are some thoughts on the rest of our course blogging:

Blog Post #6:

For Blog Report #6, begin by downloading and reviewing the IFLA Trend Report 2024. Start with the executive summary, identify one or more global trends that stand out to you, and then read the fuller overview of those trends. Be sure to look at one of the included scenarios as a model for how a future-focused library scenario can be developed.

Next, think about how one or more of those trends could connect to your chosen information community. Review the Module 12 resources, then search for articles and professional literature that connect the trend to your community or to a similar community. As you research, consider how the trend relates to course concepts and information theories from this semester, whether libraries are already responding to it through services or programs, and what opportunities or challenges it raises for your community. Since this is a global module, look beyond the United States when possible.

As you draft, think of this blog report as early writing for the Discussion section of your research paper.

ACTION ITEMS:

This can be written by exploring the professional literature (Library Journal, American Libraries, etc) or other resources related to your community.
Search for articles related to how libraries are offering learning programs for your community and how your community or a related community is being served on the global stage.
You can actually start these searches now and keep what you find for when you complete the upcoming modules and start writing.
Write both posts to easily fit into your research paper’s Discussion section, perhaps under headings such as “Learning Programming for Citizen Scientists” and “Future Library Trends for Citizen Scientists.” This is not self-plagiarism!

Blog Post #7: Report on your community’s use of emerging technologies

Helper: Create a media-based artifact (infographic, video, audio, etc) from your research and explorations of your community’s use of emerging technologies. How do they use technology to advance the community or share information? Be as creative as you’d like! Use these “How To” pages at the Community Site: