Tag Archives: searching

Artificial intelligence and libraries

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I found another tiresome article about how the library is more than books. It mentioned several kinds of new technology in libraries. One especially caught my attention. One library has its own robotics lab. So I wanted to see if any other libraries did. My search for “robots in libraries” instead turned up eye-opening information about artificial intelligence and machine learning. As it turns out, the topics of robots and artificial intelligence are not as unrelated as it might seem. Artificially intelligent robots may actually become library patrons someday! If rubbing shoulders with them seems too much like science fiction, artificial intelligence already poses social benefits and threats. Libraries will have to learn to deal with both.

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What happens when you need to look it up?

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I wrote this post for anyone who doesn’t know everything off the top of their head. You have to look things up from time to time, don’t you? Once upon a time, we all looked up addresses and phone numbers in a phone book. We probably all still have them. You can still use print to find a wide variety of information, but nowadays, you most likely look things up online more often. What happens between you typing your search query and the results appearing on the screen?

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How search engines and library catalogs work

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You know how to use a search engine. Decide what keywords you want to search and type them into the search box. Then see if the results returned the information you expected. Do you know how to use a library catalog? Even though you will probably see a single search box like a search engine’s, if you expect it to work the same way you will be frustrated. That single search box is not the only way to search the catalog. It’s not even the best way. If you see a link to “advanced search,” click on it. Once you understand the difference between a search engine and a catalog, “advanced search” will return better results with a lot less trouble. Search engines How does a search engine work? When you type your search, the search engine’s automated procedures have already performed two important tasks.

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Something old and something new in a recent research project

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I concede: Real research can be done using only web sources. Just not much. Since this month is Earth Month, I want to look back at the first Earth Day in 1970 for one of my other blogs. Can I find enough information on the web to write something about it? Sure. And I’d produce a post every bit as disappointing as an online article I wrote about last fall, which appears to have started out as an undergraduate honors paper. So I had to use some very old research methods. Along the way, I found a new piece of technology.

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Bad news from a good undergraduate paper

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Ever since I came across an online article claiming Benjamin Franklin as America’s first environmentalist, I have been looking for information that I can use in one of my other blogs. I just took notes on another online article called “What Would Ben Franklin Do? Influences of America’s First Environmentalist “ by Lauren Siminauer. At the time of publication she was “finishing her bachelor’s degrees in biology and psychology at the University of Virginia.” I have written quite a lot about research, sources, and using the library for writing term papers. Since Simenauer has gotten one of her undergraduate papers published online, it makes a good opportunity for making specific comments about how how an undergraduate student did her research—and how she should have.

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