Welcome to Study Hall! The Internet can be a great resource as long as you know how to use it. Here you will find tips for effective web research to help you get the most out of the Internet.
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Maya
Cyber Defender & Databank Supervisor
Because of her unquenchable thirst for knowledge, Maya started out as a librarian. While she loved her job, she wanted to do more to help protect people.
Since Cyber Villains such as Ms. Information and Elvirus can corrupt websites and the information on them, Maya teaches people to protect themselves by using caution when visiting websites and avoiding sites that are not trustworthy.
Give me a fish and I eat for a day. Teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime
- Chinese Proverb
Anything chocolate
Interests:Browsing bookstores, baking
August 26 2008
Finding Reliable Sites: Watch out for False Information
Sometimes even seemingly reliable Web sites can unintentionally contain false information.
News sites occasionally have false reports, either because the journalist didn't do their homework to properly verify if something was true or not before releasing it, or they were intentionally tricked by a hoax.
Some encyclopedia sites like Wikipedia allow anyone on the Web to contribute content to them, and they rely on other users instead of experts to verify or correct the information. Since the information can be incomplete, biased, or just plain wrong, they will post disclaimers to warn people about it.
To avoid using false information in your work, you should always double check your Web research against as many sources as possible, especially information from sites that contain disclaimers about their content. Refer to the Research Tips and Finding Reliable Sites sections for more good Web research habits.
posted by Maya
topic: Finding Reliable Sites
August 12 2008
Research Tip: Is it better than information in other media?
While it can be easy to find information on the Web, sometimes it's not the highest quality information available. When researching a topic, you should always check the whole range of media available, including books, newspapers and magazines, interviews, films and videos, and audio recordings.
The Web is best for shallow research on a broad range of recent topics like current news and trends, new discoveries, and people's opinions. You can also easily find a variety of multimedia for your topic; Web sites frequently contain many different types such as images, text, videos, and interactive applications. However, in-depth information on older topics can be much harder to find on the Web and you're probably better off exploring other media like books.
posted by Maya
topic: Research Tips
August 4 2008
Summer Reading: Week 9
How is your summer reading coming along? If you haven't registered yet, please do so at the Carnegie Library's site so you can track all of your progress this summer.
Last week I discovered something amazing while doing some Web research. Scientists have actually made a “living computer” by developing a way to use bacteria to make computations just like a computer does. Instead of computer bugs, they are creating bug computers!
Scientists have genetically engineered E. Coli bacteria to use their DNA to solve a classic mathematical puzzle, known as the burnt pancake problem. DNA molecules have an amazing ability to store and process massive amounts of information. Consider that all the information you need to create an entire human being is contained with just one single strand of DNA. Scientists have tapped into this ability to store and process information by genetically altering the bacteria’s DNA to solve the puzzle. You can read a few news stories about it at Gizmag, NPR, and e! Science News.
The future of computers is looking more and more exciting. With this amazing new development, we could soon see super-fast computers that take up almost no space at all, or even computers that can learn and evolve. What do you think is in store?
This is the last week of the summer reading program, and to celebrate we have a brand new mini-game in the Fun Stuff section, Catch the Computer Bugs. Test your skills at catching computer bugs, and don’t forget to log the time you spend reading Web sites this week!