1. Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel
This book is currently in my books to read list on GoodReads. It received a rating of 3.66 out of 5 from 208 readers. I read the description and about 15 reviews. It seems like an interesting read. A lot of the plot involves travel which is one something I am very interested in and enjoy reading about. I honestly forget how it originally ended up in by books to read list but apparently it had sparked my interest in some way.
2. Finding George Orwell in Burma by Emma Larkin
This is another book in my books to read list on GoodReads. It received a rating of 3.89 out of 5 from 461 readers. I added this book to my list because I had read the novel Burmese Days by George Orwell when I was an undergrad at OSU and it became my favorite of George Orwell’s works. I wanted to learn a little more about his time in Burma and that is exactly what this book explores. I have always been a critic of Imperialism and I enjoy reading historical accounts of what really went on when countries such as Burma were infiltrated by the Western world.
3. The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia by Ursula K. Le Guin
I selected this book because one of my best friends, who first introduced me to GoodReads, had given it a 5 out of 5 rating. I trust her judgment in books and read her review. The average customer rating was 4.14, which is remarkably high for GoodReads, as far as I can tell. I do not read much Science Fiction but I am definitely willing to give it a chance, especially when it is so highly recommended by someone whose opinions I value and trust.
4. The Book of Other People by Zadie Smith
I figured I should try some of the other resources to find books as well. I logged into my WorldCat account, which I regret I have not used much since signing up for this class. There did not seem to be a good way to browse on this site so I began by entering the name of an author, Zadie Smith, whose novel I had recently read to see if she had written anything else that might be of interest to me. I came across this book of short stories which is actually a collection of several authors, many of whom I was already familiar with and fond of. I am a huge fan of short stories and am extremely excited to get my hands on this collection. The reviews were all over the place, but I figure it would be very hard to review a collection with so many different voices being represented. The fact that I am already a fan of many of the contributors was enough reason for me to add this one to my list.
5. My Brother Bill by John Faulkner
Next I used the WorldCat ‘most popular tags’ cloud to see if any of the tags would spark my interest. I chose the tag ‘biography’ because I rarely read biographies but it is a genre I always tell myself I want to explore more. I searched through 6 pages of biographies before settling on this novel about William Faulkner, written by his brother. I read quite a bit of Faulkner while at OSU and realized I did not know much about his life. I thought it would be interesting to hear about him from his brother’s perspective.
6. Vegan Yum Yum by Lauren Ulm I used Google Books to search for books about veganism. Google makes everything so ridiculously easy that I can not help but love all of their services. The search bar for Google Reads is identical to the normal Google Search bar. I simply typed the word ‘vegan’ and was given a huge list of potential reads. I decided on this cookbook because I was familiar with the website of the same title and have always been impressed with the Lauran Ulm’s recipes. The reviews were great and the book was recommended by both vegans and non-vegans.
7. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
Next I decided to try out LibraryThing. I clicked on the Zeitgeist link out of curiosity because I had no idea what it was. Basically, it contains a bunch of statistics and ‘top 25’ and ‘top 50’ lists. I browsed through the top books but found that it contained books I had either read already or had no interest in reading. I clicked on the recommendations tab but found that it just listed a bunch of random, recent recommendations. I did not really like the way this website was set up, but I was determined to use it to find a book. I clicked on the ‘more’ link under top books and was taken to a page that listed the top 1,000 books and top 1,000 authors, which was a bit overwhelming. Finally I came across a title that I liked. I am a huge Steinbeck fan but never got around to reading The Grapes of Wrath. It received a rating of 4.19 out of 5.
8. Small Ceremonies by Carol Shields
I went back to GoodReads to look up an author that I recently read and enjoyed to see what else she had written. I searched for her name, Carol Shields, and was given quite a few results. I frequently enjoy reading first novels of authors I like which is why I chose this selection. It received a 3.61 rating. The user reviews were mostly good as well.
9. Sarum: The Novel of England by Edward Rutherford
Next I went to the ‘find books’ tab on GoodReads to browse some of the popular lists. I browsed through the ‘best historical fiction’ list and found this epic novel about the history of England told through the lives of five families. I chose this novel because it did not seem like something I would normally pick out for myself but I wanted to find something different. It received a 3.91 rating
10. Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith
I certainly did not want to ignore the way I find out about at least 50% of the books I decide to read. That is word of mouth and conversations with my friends and family members. I definitely do not rely on the internet for everything. My best friend and I were both English majors and love to talk about books and give each other recommendations. He suggested this book to me, claiming it was a hilarious read. Although he and I don’t always agree, I decided to give this one a shot because I appreciate comedy in novels from time to time.
Critique of sources:
Goodreads: If you could not already tell, I am a fan of this service. For me, it was the easiest source to navigate. That might be because I am already familiar with it. It has a simple rating system and plenty of good user reviews. I liked that you can separate your books in to ‘read’, ‘currently-reading’, and ‘to-read’. I loved browsing through the lists and I found most of my choices though this site.
WorldCat: I like that this site actually connects you to local libraries. However, when it came to browsing, this site was not as intuitive for me. I also did not like the way it looks. The design was very bland and boring. However, I did think it provided a good service and the addition of local library information made it stand out among the other sources.
Google Books: Google Books was probably the easiest to figure out. Google makes all of their services easy and instinctual to navigate. I do not think I would use this site to actually read books because I do not like starring at the computer for hours and hours. However, it is a very easy way to find books and it seemed to offer the most reviews out of all of the sources.
LibraryThing: I know I am just being picky, but I really hate the name ‘LibraryThing’. I really think they could have come up with a better one! This service was sufficient. I was not very impressed with the layout and it was difficult to brose books. The Zeitgeist page was overwhelming to me. I think they should have narrowed down their choices or organized it in a better way. There was just way too much text to scan through and I was not clear on what the all of the numbers meant. I do not think I would use this source very often to find books.
Word of Mouth: Talking to people about books remains one of the most common ways I am introduced to new literature. I happen to be surrounded by a lot of book lovers in my life and suggestions are mentioned very frequently. It is not uncommon for me to clean out my purse and find a book title scribbled on a scrap piece of paper that was a suggestion from a friend six months ago. I love talking to people about books and I think some of my favorite books have been suggested to me by friends, family members, professors, and classmates.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Assignment 9
Access and Disability
Google Scholar
Title: Access to information and instructional technologies in higher education I: Disability service providers’ perspective.
Authors: Fichten, C.S., Asuncion, J.V., Barile, M., Fossey, M.E., Robillard, C., Judd, D., Wolforth, J., Senécal, J., Généreux, C., Guimont, J.P., Lamb, D., & Juhel, J-C. \
Source: Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability
Pages: 114 - 133.
Published: 2004
Times Cited: 17
Title: Web accessibility at university libraries and library schools
Author(s):Axel Schmetzke, (Axel Schmetzke is a Librarian/Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Wisconsin, USA. E-mail: aschmetz@uwsp.edu)
Source: Library Hi Tech, Vol. 19 Iss: 1
Pages: 35-49
Published: 2001
Times Cited: 62
Title: Evaluating web resources for disability access
Authors: Murray Rowan, Peter Gregor, David Sloan, Paul Booth
Source: ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility
Pages: 80-84
Published: 2000
Times Cited: 34
Title: English public library services and the Disability Discrimination Act
Authors: Kirsty McCaskill, Anne Goulding
Source: MCB UP Ltd
Pages: 192-206
Published: 2001
Times Cited: 7
Title: The Provision of Library Services for Visually Impaired Students in UK Further Education Libraries in Response
Authors: Clare Harris, Charles Oppenheim
Source: Journal of Librarianship and Information Science
Pages: 243-257
Published: December, 2003
Times Cited: 6
Title: New Access Right and Its Impact on Libraries and Library Users, The
Authors: Gasaway, Laura N
Source: 10 J. Intell. Prop. L.
Pages: 269
Published: 2002-2003
Times Cited: 23
Title: Accessibility and usability of Web-based library databases for non-visual users
Authors: Suzanne L. Byerley, Mary Beth Chambers
Source: MCB UP Ltd
Pages: 169-178
Published: 2002
Times Cited: 19
Title: AcceSS: accessibility through simplification & summarization
Authors: Bambang Parmanto, Reza Ferrydiansyah, Andi Saptono, Lijing Song, I Wayan Sugiantara, Stephanie Hackett
Source: ACM
Pages: 18-25
Published: 2005
Times Cited: 29
Title: Living Well with a Disability: How Libraries Can Help
Authors: Klauber, Julie
Source: American Libraries, v29 n10
Pages: 52-55
Published: November, 1998
Times Cited: 6
Title: Access to library internet services for patrons with disabilities: Pragmatic considerations for developers
Authors: Courtney Deines-Jones
Source: Library Hi Tech, Vol. 14 Iss: 1
Pages: 57-68
Published: 1993
Times Cited: 10
Title: Library Services for Persons with Disabilities
Authors: Jill Mendle
Source: The Reference Librarian, Volume 23, Issue 49 & 50
Pages: 105-121
Published: February 1995
Times Cited: 9
Title: Academic Library Service to Deaf Students: Survey and Recommendations
Authors: Mularski, Carol
Source: RQ, v26 n4
Pages: 477-486
Published: 1987
Times Cited: 6
Critique:
Online Journals (LLIS and SSCI):
The one positive I found with using the online journals was that the citations were uniformly arranged and easy to navigate and copy onto my document. Otherwise, using these journals was a very frustrating process for me. I had to do several searches and change my keywords many times to come up with enough relevant sources. I would definitely say I utilized the Berrypicking Model while doing this assignment. I was trying so hard to find the right combination of keywords that I would scroll through my results and pick out potential keywords to try next. The title of one article would lead me to a new search term and the process ended up being a very long and winding journey to come up with my sources. I honestly had to give up on the Library Literature and Information Science articles because I could not find a single match in the Social Sciences Citation Index. This was extremely frustrating for me. I ended up searching only in the Social Sciences Citation Index but was again frustrated when I had a difficult time finding relevant articles that had more than 5 citations. I ended up stretching my search criteria quite a bit and finding articles that were only slightly related to the topic in order to fill two pages worth of citations. One feature that was helpful was the ability to narrow down the journal topics so that I could search for articles related to library and information science.
Google Scholar:
Google Scholar offered a much easier and less frustrating process. I found articles with more relevant information and a sufficient amount of citations. I liked that when I changed my search terms the articles I had already opened were highlighted so that I knew I had already used them. This process was much quicker and far less painful. The only critiques I had were that when I opened a few articles I was given the ‘page not found’ message and that the citations were not as uniformly arranged as the online journals and took a little more time to copy onto my bibliography. Also, there were a few articles that were perfect for the topic but had less than five citations, which was a little disappointing. Overall, Google Scholar was much easier to use and offered a much more direct searching process.
Google Scholar
Title: Access to information and instructional technologies in higher education I: Disability service providers’ perspective.
Authors: Fichten, C.S., Asuncion, J.V., Barile, M., Fossey, M.E., Robillard, C., Judd, D., Wolforth, J., Senécal, J., Généreux, C., Guimont, J.P., Lamb, D., & Juhel, J-C. \
Source: Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability
Pages: 114 - 133.
Published: 2004
Times Cited: 17
Title: Web accessibility at university libraries and library schools
Author(s):Axel Schmetzke, (Axel Schmetzke is a Librarian/Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Wisconsin, USA. E-mail: aschmetz@uwsp.edu)
Source: Library Hi Tech, Vol. 19 Iss: 1
Pages: 35-49
Published: 2001
Times Cited: 62
Title: Evaluating web resources for disability access
Authors: Murray Rowan, Peter Gregor, David Sloan, Paul Booth
Source: ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility
Pages: 80-84
Published: 2000
Times Cited: 34
Title: English public library services and the Disability Discrimination Act
Authors: Kirsty McCaskill, Anne Goulding
Source: MCB UP Ltd
Pages: 192-206
Published: 2001
Times Cited: 7
Title: The Provision of Library Services for Visually Impaired Students in UK Further Education Libraries in Response
Authors: Clare Harris, Charles Oppenheim
Source: Journal of Librarianship and Information Science
Pages: 243-257
Published: December, 2003
Times Cited: 6
Title: New Access Right and Its Impact on Libraries and Library Users, The
Authors: Gasaway, Laura N
Source: 10 J. Intell. Prop. L.
Pages: 269
Published: 2002-2003
Times Cited: 23
Title: Accessibility and usability of Web-based library databases for non-visual users
Authors: Suzanne L. Byerley, Mary Beth Chambers
Source: MCB UP Ltd
Pages: 169-178
Published: 2002
Times Cited: 19
Title: AcceSS: accessibility through simplification & summarization
Authors: Bambang Parmanto, Reza Ferrydiansyah, Andi Saptono, Lijing Song, I Wayan Sugiantara, Stephanie Hackett
Source: ACM
Pages: 18-25
Published: 2005
Times Cited: 29
Title: Living Well with a Disability: How Libraries Can Help
Authors: Klauber, Julie
Source: American Libraries, v29 n10
Pages: 52-55
Published: November, 1998
Times Cited: 6
Title: Access to library internet services for patrons with disabilities: Pragmatic considerations for developers
Authors: Courtney Deines-Jones
Source: Library Hi Tech, Vol. 14 Iss: 1
Pages: 57-68
Published: 1993
Times Cited: 10
Title: Library Services for Persons with Disabilities
Authors: Jill Mendle
Source: The Reference Librarian, Volume 23, Issue 49 & 50
Pages: 105-121
Published: February 1995
Times Cited: 9
Title: Academic Library Service to Deaf Students: Survey and Recommendations
Authors: Mularski, Carol
Source: RQ, v26 n4
Pages: 477-486
Published: 1987
Times Cited: 6
Critique:
Online Journals (LLIS and SSCI):
The one positive I found with using the online journals was that the citations were uniformly arranged and easy to navigate and copy onto my document. Otherwise, using these journals was a very frustrating process for me. I had to do several searches and change my keywords many times to come up with enough relevant sources. I would definitely say I utilized the Berrypicking Model while doing this assignment. I was trying so hard to find the right combination of keywords that I would scroll through my results and pick out potential keywords to try next. The title of one article would lead me to a new search term and the process ended up being a very long and winding journey to come up with my sources. I honestly had to give up on the Library Literature and Information Science articles because I could not find a single match in the Social Sciences Citation Index. This was extremely frustrating for me. I ended up searching only in the Social Sciences Citation Index but was again frustrated when I had a difficult time finding relevant articles that had more than 5 citations. I ended up stretching my search criteria quite a bit and finding articles that were only slightly related to the topic in order to fill two pages worth of citations. One feature that was helpful was the ability to narrow down the journal topics so that I could search for articles related to library and information science.
Google Scholar:
Google Scholar offered a much easier and less frustrating process. I found articles with more relevant information and a sufficient amount of citations. I liked that when I changed my search terms the articles I had already opened were highlighted so that I knew I had already used them. This process was much quicker and far less painful. The only critiques I had were that when I opened a few articles I was given the ‘page not found’ message and that the citations were not as uniformly arranged as the online journals and took a little more time to copy onto my bibliography. Also, there were a few articles that were perfect for the topic but had less than five citations, which was a little disappointing. Overall, Google Scholar was much easier to use and offered a much more direct searching process.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Assignment 8
Access and Disability
*I had a very difficult time locating relevant articles with more than 5 citations and had to be a little creative in my search. I believe I came up with a decent list of articles that are somewhat related to the topic, but it was quite a challenge.
Title: Scholarly communication in developmental dyslexia: Influence of network structure on change in a hybrid problem area
Author(s): Perry CA, Rice RE
Source: Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Volume: 49, Issue: 2, Pages: 151-168
Published: February, 1998
Times Cited: 16
Title: Access to information on the World Wide Web for blind and visually impaired people
Author(s): Oppenheim C, Selby K
Source: ASLIB Proceedings, Volume: 51, Issue: 10, Pages: 335-345
Published: November-December, 1999
Times Cited: 9
Title: An end to disabling policies? Toward enlightened universal service
Author(s): Goggin G, Newell C
Source: Information Society, Volume: 16, Issue: 2, Pages: 127-133
Published: April-June, 2000
Times Cited: 10
Title: Focusing on disability and access in the built environment
Author(s): Imrie R, Kumar M
Source: Disability and Society, Volume: 13, Issue: 3, Pages: 357-374
Published: June, 1998
Times Cited: 22
Title: Coping with age-related vision loss in everyday reading activities
Author(s): Ryan EB, Anas AP, Beamer M, et al.
Source: Educational Gerontology, Volume: 29, Issue: 1, Pages: 37-54
Published: January, 2003
Times Cited: 14
Title: An exploration of access and treatment discrimination and job satisfaction among college graduates with and without physical disabilities
Author(s): Perry EL, Hendricks W, Broadbent E
Source: Human Relations, Volume: 53, Issue: 7, Pages: 923-955
Published: July, 2000
Times Cited: 8
Title: Disability and Adult-Education – The Consumer View
Author(s): Preece, J.
Source: Disability and Society, Volume: 10, Issue: 1, Pages: 87-102
Published: 1995
Times Cited: 8
Title: Websites as educational motivators for adults with learning disability
Author(s): Johnson R, Hegarty JR
Source: British Journal of Educational Technology, Volume: 34, Issue: 4, Pages: 479-486 Published: September, 2003
Times Cited: 7
Title: Developmental associations between verbal and visual short-term memory and the acquisition of decoding skill
Author(s): Meyler A, Breznitz Z
Source: Reading and Writing, Volume: 10, Issue: 6, Pages: 519-540
Published: December, 1998
Times Cited: 5
Title: Why are online catalogs still hard to use?
Author(s): Borgman CL
Source: Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Volume: 47, Issue: 7, Pages: 493-503
Published: July 1996
Times Cited: 105
Title: Usability testing: A case study
Author(s): Chisman J, Diller K, Walbridge S
Source: College and Research Libraries, Volume: 60, Issue: 6, Pages: 552-569
Published: November, 1999
Times Cited: 20
Title: Gaining access to everyday life information seeking
Author(s): Carey RF, McKechnie LEF, McKenzie PJ
Source: Library & Information Science Research, Volume: 23, Issue: 4, Pages: 319-334
Published: 2001
Times Cited: 14
Title: Remote library users - Needs and expectations
Author(s): Cooper R, Dempsey PR, Menon V, et al.
Source: Library Trends, Volume: 47, Issue: 1, Pages: 42-64
Published: SUM 1998
Times Cited: 10
*I had a very difficult time locating relevant articles with more than 5 citations and had to be a little creative in my search. I believe I came up with a decent list of articles that are somewhat related to the topic, but it was quite a challenge.
Title: Scholarly communication in developmental dyslexia: Influence of network structure on change in a hybrid problem area
Author(s): Perry CA, Rice RE
Source: Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Volume: 49, Issue: 2, Pages: 151-168
Published: February, 1998
Times Cited: 16
Title: Access to information on the World Wide Web for blind and visually impaired people
Author(s): Oppenheim C, Selby K
Source: ASLIB Proceedings, Volume: 51, Issue: 10, Pages: 335-345
Published: November-December, 1999
Times Cited: 9
Title: An end to disabling policies? Toward enlightened universal service
Author(s): Goggin G, Newell C
Source: Information Society, Volume: 16, Issue: 2, Pages: 127-133
Published: April-June, 2000
Times Cited: 10
Title: Focusing on disability and access in the built environment
Author(s): Imrie R, Kumar M
Source: Disability and Society, Volume: 13, Issue: 3, Pages: 357-374
Published: June, 1998
Times Cited: 22
Title: Coping with age-related vision loss in everyday reading activities
Author(s): Ryan EB, Anas AP, Beamer M, et al.
Source: Educational Gerontology, Volume: 29, Issue: 1, Pages: 37-54
Published: January, 2003
Times Cited: 14
Title: An exploration of access and treatment discrimination and job satisfaction among college graduates with and without physical disabilities
Author(s): Perry EL, Hendricks W, Broadbent E
Source: Human Relations, Volume: 53, Issue: 7, Pages: 923-955
Published: July, 2000
Times Cited: 8
Title: Disability and Adult-Education – The Consumer View
Author(s): Preece, J.
Source: Disability and Society, Volume: 10, Issue: 1, Pages: 87-102
Published: 1995
Times Cited: 8
Title: Websites as educational motivators for adults with learning disability
Author(s): Johnson R, Hegarty JR
Source: British Journal of Educational Technology, Volume: 34, Issue: 4, Pages: 479-486 Published: September, 2003
Times Cited: 7
Title: Developmental associations between verbal and visual short-term memory and the acquisition of decoding skill
Author(s): Meyler A, Breznitz Z
Source: Reading and Writing, Volume: 10, Issue: 6, Pages: 519-540
Published: December, 1998
Times Cited: 5
Title: Why are online catalogs still hard to use?
Author(s): Borgman CL
Source: Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Volume: 47, Issue: 7, Pages: 493-503
Published: July 1996
Times Cited: 105
Title: Usability testing: A case study
Author(s): Chisman J, Diller K, Walbridge S
Source: College and Research Libraries, Volume: 60, Issue: 6, Pages: 552-569
Published: November, 1999
Times Cited: 20
Title: Gaining access to everyday life information seeking
Author(s): Carey RF, McKechnie LEF, McKenzie PJ
Source: Library & Information Science Research, Volume: 23, Issue: 4, Pages: 319-334
Published: 2001
Times Cited: 14
Title: Remote library users - Needs and expectations
Author(s): Cooper R, Dempsey PR, Menon V, et al.
Source: Library Trends, Volume: 47, Issue: 1, Pages: 42-64
Published: SUM 1998
Times Cited: 10
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Assignment 7
From December 2009 to April 2010 I was living in Valencia, Spain. Before living there, I did not know a lot about Spanish history but was vaguely familiar with the Spanish Civil War. Both my high school and college World History classes skipped over Spain as a whole, which I now find unbelievable after learning quite a bit about Franco, the civil war, and its connections to Hitler and fascism across Europe.
I was taking a friend through the Reina Sofía Modern Art Museum in Madrid and we spent a lot of time checking out an exhibit of Spanish Civil War posters. I was really taken with the imagery and the variation among political groups. There were many sides to the war and the different groups were represented through conflicting images and slogans. Some of the imagery was ambiguous and difficult to decipher at first, but upon close inspection it was usually clear whose side the artist was on. I was especially drawn to the anti-fascist posters. The struggle against Franco and the fascists is a tragic one, resulting in lost lives, forced conformity, hunger, and ultimately with the implementation of a strict dictatorship that lasted for around 40 years. I was deeply touched by the stories of those who resisted Franco, stories I heard through the children of those who lived it, through a 6 part documentary I watched, and even through first hand accounts of people I spoke with.
I will admit that finding a collection of posters is not what I originally set out to do while browsing the Library of Congress picture collection. I originally thought I would find some photos of Spain, or more specifically, of Valencia, during the war. However, I was not entirely impressed with the images that were available. The search terms I used were “Spain during civil war” and “Valencia civil war”.
The search results for “Valencia civil war” yielded several images of war posters. That is when I remembered my visit to the museum and decided to search for more of these posters. I then searched for “Spanish Civil War posters”. Here I found an entire collection of over 100 poster images. My only disappointment is that the posters were not able to be enlarged and therefore were kind of difficult to see. Despite that, I still really enjoyed browsing through the posters. I absolutely loved that the LOC provided lots of information about each poster, including a translation of the text, name of the creator(s), date and location of publication, summary, etc. It was really quite impressive that they were able to provide such detailed information about each individual poster. This really helped me narrow my choices down to mostly posters featuring anti-fascist messages.
Entire Collection of Spanish Civil War Posters:
Delicious
Library of Congress Collection
Individual posters that stood out to me:
Image 1
I chose this image because at first glance I thought it was anti-fascist. The text reads “Spain, now you are free”. Once I really studied the image I realized it is in fact the strong arm of a fascist holding three small political figures. The poster is implying that Spain is now free because it is fascist, which is a pretty hefty contradiction.
Image 2
This one is also a bit ambiguous. The message seems to read that those injured from war should be reading lots of books.
Image 3
This poster is calling for those in the regions of Asturias and Valencia (regions that opposed fascism) to take in and help refugees from the north. I liked the image of the hands reaching out to help the displaced.
Image 4
This was a very popular image, depicting Madrid’s attempt to defend their city against the fascists. Unfortunately, they failed at this attempt.
Image 5
I was very taken with the powerful message of this poster: “Ambitions, militarism, war. This is fascism. Destroy it, uniting your effort with others”
Image 6
F.A.I. was an anarchist group in Spain. For a short time, the region of Catalonia functioned successfully as a cooperative, anarchist state during the civil war.
Image 7
I liked this one because it implies that books can work as tools to fight fascism.
Image 8
This poster has a very hopeful message with the image of a soldier using a magnet to tear apart a swastika.
Image 9
This poster mentions the fight for the preservation of culture in all towns. The different regions of Spain are very dedicated to their own unique culture and customs. Franco wanted a united Spain and citizens were punished for taking part in local traditions and for speaking regional dialects.
Image 10
This poster features a heartbreaking image of a mother and child and text that reads “What are you doing to prevent this?”
I think the LOC picture archives are a great resource for academic or research purposes. I definitely do not think this source would have worked for my Assignment 6 project, which featured more current images. I found the images I wanted very easily; although that might have something to do with the fairly open and vague objective I had to begin with. I did not know what I was looking for, specifically. I let the results guide me.
I do feel that the LOC might be able to improve their search capabilities in some ways. They should offer more options in their “advanced search” such as dates, locations, etc. in order to narrow down results when someone happens to be looking for something very specific. When I searched for “Spain during civil war” I was given 24 different images, some of which had nothing to do with the Spanish Civil War, which was confusing to me. I was really impressed with the amount of historical images available. Even after I had settled on a topic, I continued browsing through some of the featured collections on the main page just for fun. These archives are full of fascinating historical images. I would love to see some of them in person some day.
I was taking a friend through the Reina Sofía Modern Art Museum in Madrid and we spent a lot of time checking out an exhibit of Spanish Civil War posters. I was really taken with the imagery and the variation among political groups. There were many sides to the war and the different groups were represented through conflicting images and slogans. Some of the imagery was ambiguous and difficult to decipher at first, but upon close inspection it was usually clear whose side the artist was on. I was especially drawn to the anti-fascist posters. The struggle against Franco and the fascists is a tragic one, resulting in lost lives, forced conformity, hunger, and ultimately with the implementation of a strict dictatorship that lasted for around 40 years. I was deeply touched by the stories of those who resisted Franco, stories I heard through the children of those who lived it, through a 6 part documentary I watched, and even through first hand accounts of people I spoke with.
I will admit that finding a collection of posters is not what I originally set out to do while browsing the Library of Congress picture collection. I originally thought I would find some photos of Spain, or more specifically, of Valencia, during the war. However, I was not entirely impressed with the images that were available. The search terms I used were “Spain during civil war” and “Valencia civil war”.
The search results for “Valencia civil war” yielded several images of war posters. That is when I remembered my visit to the museum and decided to search for more of these posters. I then searched for “Spanish Civil War posters”. Here I found an entire collection of over 100 poster images. My only disappointment is that the posters were not able to be enlarged and therefore were kind of difficult to see. Despite that, I still really enjoyed browsing through the posters. I absolutely loved that the LOC provided lots of information about each poster, including a translation of the text, name of the creator(s), date and location of publication, summary, etc. It was really quite impressive that they were able to provide such detailed information about each individual poster. This really helped me narrow my choices down to mostly posters featuring anti-fascist messages.
Entire Collection of Spanish Civil War Posters:
Delicious
Library of Congress Collection
Individual posters that stood out to me:
Image 1
I chose this image because at first glance I thought it was anti-fascist. The text reads “Spain, now you are free”. Once I really studied the image I realized it is in fact the strong arm of a fascist holding three small political figures. The poster is implying that Spain is now free because it is fascist, which is a pretty hefty contradiction.
Image 2
This one is also a bit ambiguous. The message seems to read that those injured from war should be reading lots of books.
Image 3
This poster is calling for those in the regions of Asturias and Valencia (regions that opposed fascism) to take in and help refugees from the north. I liked the image of the hands reaching out to help the displaced.
Image 4
This was a very popular image, depicting Madrid’s attempt to defend their city against the fascists. Unfortunately, they failed at this attempt.
Image 5
I was very taken with the powerful message of this poster: “Ambitions, militarism, war. This is fascism. Destroy it, uniting your effort with others”
Image 6
F.A.I. was an anarchist group in Spain. For a short time, the region of Catalonia functioned successfully as a cooperative, anarchist state during the civil war.
Image 7
I liked this one because it implies that books can work as tools to fight fascism.
Image 8
This poster has a very hopeful message with the image of a soldier using a magnet to tear apart a swastika.
Image 9
This poster mentions the fight for the preservation of culture in all towns. The different regions of Spain are very dedicated to their own unique culture and customs. Franco wanted a united Spain and citizens were punished for taking part in local traditions and for speaking regional dialects.
Image 10
This poster features a heartbreaking image of a mother and child and text that reads “What are you doing to prevent this?”
I think the LOC picture archives are a great resource for academic or research purposes. I definitely do not think this source would have worked for my Assignment 6 project, which featured more current images. I found the images I wanted very easily; although that might have something to do with the fairly open and vague objective I had to begin with. I did not know what I was looking for, specifically. I let the results guide me.
I do feel that the LOC might be able to improve their search capabilities in some ways. They should offer more options in their “advanced search” such as dates, locations, etc. in order to narrow down results when someone happens to be looking for something very specific. When I searched for “Spain during civil war” I was given 24 different images, some of which had nothing to do with the Spanish Civil War, which was confusing to me. I was really impressed with the amount of historical images available. Even after I had settled on a topic, I continued browsing through some of the featured collections on the main page just for fun. These archives are full of fascinating historical images. I would love to see some of them in person some day.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Assignment 6
Theme: Live Musicians
Link to Gallery: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alisoneakin/galleries/72157624561293032/
Username: alison195
Gallery: Musicians
I chose to create a gallery featuring photos of some of my favorite musicians performing live. Music has always been extremely important to me. I began playing piano at a young age and took up guitar when I was a teenager. Although I am not a naturally talented musician and I really can not hold a note while singing, I have always been an avid music fan. Music has the ability to alter my mood, to evoke strong emotions, and to make me feel alive. I love music with strong lyrics and beautiful melodies and I am drawn to bands and musicians that are not so hugely popular that they can still play small, intimate venues.
My intention was to feature live images that displayed a sort of connection, either between musician and audience or between members of a band. A few photos I chose simply because I picked up on the musician’s meditation and sentiment. I also concentrated my search on black and white photos for purely aesthetic purposes. I simply like the way they look! None of the photos I chose are mine (I’m not much of a photographer, especially while at a concert). I limited my search to bands that are currently active, due to the availability of recent digital photos. I also like a lot of classic rock but figured photos of inactive bands would be more difficult to come by.
My search process was basically the same for each photo. I first made a list of bands/musicians that I have been listening to a lot lately. I tried to select bands that I feel a connection to, whether through a song or an experience. I typed the name of the artist in the search bar. If the results did not feature many live shots, I added the word “live” after the musician’s name. I searched through both “relevant” and “interesting” photos until I found a black and white photo that met my qualifications. If I had trouble sorting through photos, I sometimes looked through the group galleries that I noticed on the right hand side of the page. I found all the photos I was looking for with relative ease. Some I came by quicker than others, but nothing was impossible to find.
I had very positive impressions of Flikr. I had never used the site much before this class. I was impressed with the volume of photos available, even of some of the more obscure musicians I searched for. I found that searching was very easy and I liked that you could chose between “relevant”, “recent”, and “interesting”. I am not exactly sure how they determine whether something is interesting, but I was very impressed with the quality of images found in that category. Adding images to my gallery was simple and instinctive. I also liked how simple it was to rearrange the sequence of photos in my gallery. One thing I did not like was the limit to the number of photos allowed in my gallery. I was cut off at eighteen and had to leave out two of the images I had on my original list of twenty. Eighteen is kind of an arbitrary number and although I understand why they might want to limit the number of photos per gallery, I think they should allow for a few more.
Generally, I really enjoyed using Flikr and found it easy and fun to put together my gallery. I think that I will continue to use my Flikr account to organize some of my favorite photos that I have taken over the years.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Assignment 5
About four months ago I found myself browsing through novels while killing time in an airport bookstore. I was immediately drawn to a particular novel written about a group of young people rebelling and fleeing from the Communist dictatorship in Romania. I wrote down the title and author on a scarp piece of paper so that I could add it to my always growing reading list. I was curious about this novel because I had recently visited a friend in Romania and had learned a lot about the state of things under Communist leader Nicolae Ceauşescu.
Of course, I lost the piece of paper. I knew the book would not be difficult to find because I remembered the basic plotline and remembered it had been a Nobel Prize winner. I began my search by accessing the Know it Now 24x7 website and asked the following question:
Who is the author of the Nobel Prize winning novel about a group of young people rising against the communist dictator in Romania?
I appreciate the accuracy of information that can be found by directly connecting with a librarian, but I feel that I could have found this information much quicker had I just done a google search. I was told for over ten minutes that I was number 1 in line and that my wait time would be less than one minute. No such luck. Eventually I was told the following: “We are unable to route your request at this time. To leave a message or request a call back click here.”
Next I attempted to ask the same question to Kent State’s “Ask a Librarian” service. I tried to access the librarian through Gtalk via Gmail but they did not instantly show up on my list of online contacts. Next I decided to try the email option. I was a little confused as to why my phone number was required information, but I filled out the online form nonetheless and waited for a response. After two hours with no response in my email inbox, I logged on to Gmail again and found that the librarian contact was available for chat. I once again asked my question and was finally able to get a response.
Here is a transcript of the Gtalk conversation:
me: Hello, I was hoping I could ask a question about a book I am looking for.
Kara Robinson: Sure, how can I help?
me: I was hoping you could help me find the name of an author of the Nobel Prize winning novel about a group of young people rising against the communist dictator in Romania?
Kara Robinson: Is it a recent book?
me: Yes, I believe so.
Kara Robinson: Does Herta Muller sound right?
me: Yes, that sounds familiar.
Thank you!
Kara Robinson: No problem!
Once I had the name of the Author I knew it would be very simple to find the title of the book by doing a basic internet search. However, I wanted to give Know it Now 24x7 another chance. I submitted the following question:
What is the title of Herta Muller's Nobel Prize winning novel?
Once again, I was told that the service was unable to route my request. Instead of using the Know it Now service, I decided to instead click on the link that directed me to the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s local service. However, once I was there it seemed silly to do a live chat with a librarian to simply ask for a book title when I already know the name of the author. Instead, I simply entered the author’s name into the online catalog. I clicked on the first book that appeared in the results, titled The Land of Green Plums. I read the summary, which confirmed it was the novel I was searching for. I also scrolled down to read some biographical information about the author. I went ahead and reserved the novel so that I could pick it up at my local Columbus Library branch, a system I am very familiar with and utilize often. The novel is now in my possession and is waiting patiently in my “books to read” pile on my desk.
I must say, I was disappointed with both online reference services. Know it Now simply did not work for me at all. I was frustrated that both times I attempted to access the service I was put on hold for more than five minutes only to be told my request could not be completed. The Ask a Librarian service through Kent offered several options in which one can connect with a librarian, but neither option I chose (Gtalk and Email) facilitated an instant response. I eventually got through to someone using Gtalk and I am still waiting on the email response to show up in my inbox.
Out of curiosity and for the sake of comparison, I copied and pasted my original inquiry into my google search bar on my web browser. The first option in my search results was a link to Wikipedia’s article on Anti-communism. I clicked on the “Literature” link and immediately found a photograph of Herta Muller and some brief biographical information about her. I went back to my google search results and also found a review of the novel on Goodreads.com, which is a website I belong to and enjoy browsing. Within less than one minute, I found the answer to my question by doing a google search, when it took a few hours to generate a response from one of the online reference services.
I understand the difference between the Age of Information and the Age of Abundance. I can see that the abundant resources available online can sometimes offer too much information or even inaccurate information. However, our society has grown to expect instantaneous results and internet search engines provide just that. That being said, I do think that the information I found through my library catalog and google search was more akin to metadata and would not satisfy more extensive research needs. Google answered my question but did not necessarily offer in depth information had I wanted to expand upon my research. For instance, say I had wanted to learn more about Herta Muller’s life or more about Romanian history before I read the novel. Perhaps then the online reference services could have recommended some useful resources or books on the subject. However, for my purposes, my needs were better met by a simple and quick google search.
Of course, I lost the piece of paper. I knew the book would not be difficult to find because I remembered the basic plotline and remembered it had been a Nobel Prize winner. I began my search by accessing the Know it Now 24x7 website and asked the following question:
Who is the author of the Nobel Prize winning novel about a group of young people rising against the communist dictator in Romania?
I appreciate the accuracy of information that can be found by directly connecting with a librarian, but I feel that I could have found this information much quicker had I just done a google search. I was told for over ten minutes that I was number 1 in line and that my wait time would be less than one minute. No such luck. Eventually I was told the following: “We are unable to route your request at this time. To leave a message or request a call back click here.”
Next I attempted to ask the same question to Kent State’s “Ask a Librarian” service. I tried to access the librarian through Gtalk via Gmail but they did not instantly show up on my list of online contacts. Next I decided to try the email option. I was a little confused as to why my phone number was required information, but I filled out the online form nonetheless and waited for a response. After two hours with no response in my email inbox, I logged on to Gmail again and found that the librarian contact was available for chat. I once again asked my question and was finally able to get a response.
Here is a transcript of the Gtalk conversation:
me: Hello, I was hoping I could ask a question about a book I am looking for.
Kara Robinson: Sure, how can I help?
me: I was hoping you could help me find the name of an author of the Nobel Prize winning novel about a group of young people rising against the communist dictator in Romania?
Kara Robinson: Is it a recent book?
me: Yes, I believe so.
Kara Robinson: Does Herta Muller sound right?
me: Yes, that sounds familiar.
Thank you!
Kara Robinson: No problem!
Once I had the name of the Author I knew it would be very simple to find the title of the book by doing a basic internet search. However, I wanted to give Know it Now 24x7 another chance. I submitted the following question:
What is the title of Herta Muller's Nobel Prize winning novel?
Once again, I was told that the service was unable to route my request. Instead of using the Know it Now service, I decided to instead click on the link that directed me to the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s local service. However, once I was there it seemed silly to do a live chat with a librarian to simply ask for a book title when I already know the name of the author. Instead, I simply entered the author’s name into the online catalog. I clicked on the first book that appeared in the results, titled The Land of Green Plums. I read the summary, which confirmed it was the novel I was searching for. I also scrolled down to read some biographical information about the author. I went ahead and reserved the novel so that I could pick it up at my local Columbus Library branch, a system I am very familiar with and utilize often. The novel is now in my possession and is waiting patiently in my “books to read” pile on my desk.
I must say, I was disappointed with both online reference services. Know it Now simply did not work for me at all. I was frustrated that both times I attempted to access the service I was put on hold for more than five minutes only to be told my request could not be completed. The Ask a Librarian service through Kent offered several options in which one can connect with a librarian, but neither option I chose (Gtalk and Email) facilitated an instant response. I eventually got through to someone using Gtalk and I am still waiting on the email response to show up in my inbox.
Out of curiosity and for the sake of comparison, I copied and pasted my original inquiry into my google search bar on my web browser. The first option in my search results was a link to Wikipedia’s article on Anti-communism. I clicked on the “Literature” link and immediately found a photograph of Herta Muller and some brief biographical information about her. I went back to my google search results and also found a review of the novel on Goodreads.com, which is a website I belong to and enjoy browsing. Within less than one minute, I found the answer to my question by doing a google search, when it took a few hours to generate a response from one of the online reference services.
I understand the difference between the Age of Information and the Age of Abundance. I can see that the abundant resources available online can sometimes offer too much information or even inaccurate information. However, our society has grown to expect instantaneous results and internet search engines provide just that. That being said, I do think that the information I found through my library catalog and google search was more akin to metadata and would not satisfy more extensive research needs. Google answered my question but did not necessarily offer in depth information had I wanted to expand upon my research. For instance, say I had wanted to learn more about Herta Muller’s life or more about Romanian history before I read the novel. Perhaps then the online reference services could have recommended some useful resources or books on the subject. However, for my purposes, my needs were better met by a simple and quick google search.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Assignment 4 - Information Awareness Report
After a recent conversation with my cousin (who resides in Sao Paolo, Brazil) in which she once again extended an offer for me to visit, I found myself considering the following questions: How much is airfare to Brazil? How long would I want to stay? Which cities would I visit? What time of the year would be best to travel in Brazil? As a vegan, what food could I eat there? What interesting things can travelers do in Brazil?
Traveling is one of my favorite hobbies and plotting my next adventure is always something I contemplate in my spare time. I know that it will be quite a long time until I can afford my next international vacation, but seeing my cousin re-ignited my curiosity in Brazil and my desire to visit her sometime within the next few years. I realize that I have very limited surface-level knowledge about Brazil and that significant planning and research will need to be done before I decide to travel there. I begin any quest for answers or information by starting online. I find that searching online is the easiest route to finding what I need because it is quick and there is endless information available, as long as one knows how to filter through it.
Any time I am planning a trip, I start by searching for affordable airfare. My favorite website to search for airfare is www.kayak.com. I start by signing in to the website because members have the option of searching for flights within 3 days before and after the specific dates entered. This allows me to compare the prices of different dates and find the cheapest combination. Kayak searches all of the major airlines and displays the results in both a grid and a list so that the user can decide which format is easier to decipher (I prefer the list). I decide two weeks would be a good amount of time to spend in Brazil and begin my search with January of 2011. The cheapest option for Columbus to Sao Paolo is $924, using multiple airlines. Kayak offers a link to “Modify of Start Search Over” which is convenient if the user is comparing flight dates or destinations. I use this to search for dates in April and June and find that the cheapest option is $905, again using multiple airlines. According to www.wikitravel.com/en/Brazil, the cheapest airfares fall between February to May and August to November. Unfortunately, most airlines do not show fares for flights more than one year from the current date so I am not able to search for fares in Fall of 2011. Based on my findings on www.kayak.com, I decide that April is the best time to visit.
My next step is to find out which cities I would like to visit. I would like to know which cities offer the most activities and sights for travelers, which cities best represent the country of Brazil, and which cities would allow me an opportunity to spend time in nature. These are the qualities that are most important to me. Because my cousin lives in Sao Paolo I already know that I will tentatively spend a few days there. I once again consult http://wikitravel.org/en/Brazil, because the public contributes to writing the information and I like to read first-hand accounts of travel information and advice. I scroll down to the section titled “Cities” and read the concise, one sentence summaries of the major cities in Brazil. I decide that I am most interested in visiting Florianópolis, Manaus, and Rio de Janeiro. Because WikiTravel links to other articles, I am easily able to click on each city to learn more about it. I find that WikiTravel is a very user friendly and easy way to navigate through various topics. Although many question its authority, I have always been impressed with the information that is accessible.
I next want to make sure that April is a good time of the year to visit Brazil. I already know that because it is located in the southern hemisphere its seasons are opposite to ours. I go to www.google.com and search for “Best time of year to visit Brazil”. I scroll through my results and decide on a Frommer’s article because I am familiar with the name as a respected travel authority. I am taken to http://www.frommers.com/destinations/brazil/0813020006.html. I read that April is a great time to visit if you are traveling on a budget because it is after carnival and travelers can find low-season prices. I find the information on Frommer’s to be very helpful.
While I am still looking at Frommer’s, I notice several categories on the left side of the page that provide additional information about Brazil. One category is titled “Food allergies”. I click on the link to see if any of the information found there will answer my question about finding vegan choices in Brazil. Unfortunately this section only offers information about nut allergies. However, underneath this link I see a link for “Tips for Vegetarians”. A small paragraph tells me that Brazil is not extremely vegetarian friendly, but that I will be able to find plenty of fruits, vegetables, and salads. I am not particularly satisfied with this information because I like to make lists of vegan friendly restaurants in the cities I visit. I know that www.happycow.com offers listings of vegetarian and vegan friendly restaurants in cities around the world. I search each city that I plan to visit and find several restaurant options. HappyCow categorizes each restaurant as vegan, vegetarian, veg-friendy, or health store. They also provide an address/map, phone number, hours, price range, and customer reviews. I like the way the information is arranged in a list and that everything I need to know is found in a box with intuitive symbols and brief descriptions. I also like that customers can review the restaurants because it saves me from wasting money on less than satisfactory food.
My next step is to find out what kinds of activities and interesting things I can do in Brazil. I head back to the Wikitravel site because I really like how it is organized. I am disappointed to find that their “See” and “Do” sections are nearly blank, although I can not blame the website when it is to the public that has simply not written on this subject as of yet. My next step is to go back to Frommer’s to see what I can find there. I discover some useful information and make a list of suggested activities and tourist attractions. Next I visit one of my favorite traveler websites, www.matadortravel.com. I have an account on this website and use it often when researching possible trips. Matador is a social network of travelers that allows members to write travel blogs, share photos and advice, and connect with one another. I love to read first-hand accounts of travel experiences so that I know what to expect when visiting a new destination. I go on to read various blogs and visit the forums to gather some practical information and advice about Brazil. Matador also focuses a lot of their information on sustainable travel and volunteer opportunities, which is something I am always striving to support while traveling. I find this website to provide the most interesting information and spend a significant amount of time there browsing through various articles, blogs, and photos.
Overall I am very satisfied with my search to plan a tentative trip to Brazil. I will save all of the information I found useful so that I can access it in the future, when I hopefully will have saved enough money to make this trip a reality. I will also likely visit the library to borrow some literature about Brazil, and perhaps even purchase a guide book to take with me before I depart. As much as I love the ease of researching online, I ultimately like to have a book or two to read about the subject as well.
(All images below found through Google Images)
Rio de Janeiro
Manaus
Sao Paolo
Florianopolis
Traveling is one of my favorite hobbies and plotting my next adventure is always something I contemplate in my spare time. I know that it will be quite a long time until I can afford my next international vacation, but seeing my cousin re-ignited my curiosity in Brazil and my desire to visit her sometime within the next few years. I realize that I have very limited surface-level knowledge about Brazil and that significant planning and research will need to be done before I decide to travel there. I begin any quest for answers or information by starting online. I find that searching online is the easiest route to finding what I need because it is quick and there is endless information available, as long as one knows how to filter through it.
Any time I am planning a trip, I start by searching for affordable airfare. My favorite website to search for airfare is www.kayak.com. I start by signing in to the website because members have the option of searching for flights within 3 days before and after the specific dates entered. This allows me to compare the prices of different dates and find the cheapest combination. Kayak searches all of the major airlines and displays the results in both a grid and a list so that the user can decide which format is easier to decipher (I prefer the list). I decide two weeks would be a good amount of time to spend in Brazil and begin my search with January of 2011. The cheapest option for Columbus to Sao Paolo is $924, using multiple airlines. Kayak offers a link to “Modify of Start Search Over” which is convenient if the user is comparing flight dates or destinations. I use this to search for dates in April and June and find that the cheapest option is $905, again using multiple airlines. According to www.wikitravel.com/en/Brazil, the cheapest airfares fall between February to May and August to November. Unfortunately, most airlines do not show fares for flights more than one year from the current date so I am not able to search for fares in Fall of 2011. Based on my findings on www.kayak.com, I decide that April is the best time to visit.
My next step is to find out which cities I would like to visit. I would like to know which cities offer the most activities and sights for travelers, which cities best represent the country of Brazil, and which cities would allow me an opportunity to spend time in nature. These are the qualities that are most important to me. Because my cousin lives in Sao Paolo I already know that I will tentatively spend a few days there. I once again consult http://wikitravel.org/en/Brazil, because the public contributes to writing the information and I like to read first-hand accounts of travel information and advice. I scroll down to the section titled “Cities” and read the concise, one sentence summaries of the major cities in Brazil. I decide that I am most interested in visiting Florianópolis, Manaus, and Rio de Janeiro. Because WikiTravel links to other articles, I am easily able to click on each city to learn more about it. I find that WikiTravel is a very user friendly and easy way to navigate through various topics. Although many question its authority, I have always been impressed with the information that is accessible.
I next want to make sure that April is a good time of the year to visit Brazil. I already know that because it is located in the southern hemisphere its seasons are opposite to ours. I go to www.google.com and search for “Best time of year to visit Brazil”. I scroll through my results and decide on a Frommer’s article because I am familiar with the name as a respected travel authority. I am taken to http://www.frommers.com/destinations/brazil/0813020006.html. I read that April is a great time to visit if you are traveling on a budget because it is after carnival and travelers can find low-season prices. I find the information on Frommer’s to be very helpful.
While I am still looking at Frommer’s, I notice several categories on the left side of the page that provide additional information about Brazil. One category is titled “Food allergies”. I click on the link to see if any of the information found there will answer my question about finding vegan choices in Brazil. Unfortunately this section only offers information about nut allergies. However, underneath this link I see a link for “Tips for Vegetarians”. A small paragraph tells me that Brazil is not extremely vegetarian friendly, but that I will be able to find plenty of fruits, vegetables, and salads. I am not particularly satisfied with this information because I like to make lists of vegan friendly restaurants in the cities I visit. I know that www.happycow.com offers listings of vegetarian and vegan friendly restaurants in cities around the world. I search each city that I plan to visit and find several restaurant options. HappyCow categorizes each restaurant as vegan, vegetarian, veg-friendy, or health store. They also provide an address/map, phone number, hours, price range, and customer reviews. I like the way the information is arranged in a list and that everything I need to know is found in a box with intuitive symbols and brief descriptions. I also like that customers can review the restaurants because it saves me from wasting money on less than satisfactory food.
My next step is to find out what kinds of activities and interesting things I can do in Brazil. I head back to the Wikitravel site because I really like how it is organized. I am disappointed to find that their “See” and “Do” sections are nearly blank, although I can not blame the website when it is to the public that has simply not written on this subject as of yet. My next step is to go back to Frommer’s to see what I can find there. I discover some useful information and make a list of suggested activities and tourist attractions. Next I visit one of my favorite traveler websites, www.matadortravel.com. I have an account on this website and use it often when researching possible trips. Matador is a social network of travelers that allows members to write travel blogs, share photos and advice, and connect with one another. I love to read first-hand accounts of travel experiences so that I know what to expect when visiting a new destination. I go on to read various blogs and visit the forums to gather some practical information and advice about Brazil. Matador also focuses a lot of their information on sustainable travel and volunteer opportunities, which is something I am always striving to support while traveling. I find this website to provide the most interesting information and spend a significant amount of time there browsing through various articles, blogs, and photos.
Overall I am very satisfied with my search to plan a tentative trip to Brazil. I will save all of the information I found useful so that I can access it in the future, when I hopefully will have saved enough money to make this trip a reality. I will also likely visit the library to borrow some literature about Brazil, and perhaps even purchase a guide book to take with me before I depart. As much as I love the ease of researching online, I ultimately like to have a book or two to read about the subject as well.
While searching for this information I learned that I was most pleased with the websites I am familiar with (Kayak, HappyCow, and Matador). WikiTravel was helpful in some ways but was disappointing when I attempted to search for activities and tourist attractions. I also learned that I am very influenced by the ease of websites. If the layout is not intuitive I will not spend much time there. The age of internet research has perhaps made me a bit impatient when it comes to finding answers, but I believe web designers know this by now and arrange their websites to be user-friendly. The websites I visited tended to categorize topically rather than alphabetically, which I feel is true of most websites. In general, I was very pleased my results and excited to continue learning and researching the possibility of traveling to Brazil.
(All images below found through Google Images)
Rio de Janeiro
Manaus
Sao Paolo
Florianopolis
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Assignments 1, 2, and 3
Delicious:
http://delicious.com/alison.eakin
WorldCat:
alison.eakin
Flikr:
http://www.flickr.com/people/alisoneakin/
Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/alisoneakin
http://delicious.com/alison.eakin
WorldCat:
alison.eakin
Flikr:
http://www.flickr.com/people/alisoneakin/
Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/alisoneakin
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