Online graphic organizing tools

The blog Free Technology for Teachers has a recent post illuminating nine freely available online tools that can be used for graphic organization of ideas or mind mapping. These can be useful tools for visual learners and can help students broaden and narrow research topics and see the relationships between different concepts. Among the tools highlighted are Wise Mapping, Slatebox, exploratree, and mindmeister. The library also has Creedo Reference (you must login to access this link from off campus), a database aggregating electronic encyclopedia articles which includes a "Concept Map" feature similarly allowing students to visually see the connections between different research topics.

Problems with Google Scholar for Scholars

Google collaborated with many academic libraries to make many scholarly material easily searchable. But as Peter Jacso from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa points out in this article, the biggest problem with Google Scholar (and also Google's Book Search) is the poor job Google has been doing with the metadata associated with these materials. When Googling, most people don't care much about metadata, but faulty metadata can provide an inaccurate picture of the value of a resource to researchers. For example, materials are often categorized under incorrect author names or assigned bloated citations counts. All of this can be a factor for ECC students or faculty who are relying on Google Scholar as a research tool. It can mean inaccurate citations or search results that favor less valuable materials. It's good to keep this in mind when encouraging students to think critically about their information sources.

Best Free Reference Web Sites 2009

The Reference and User Services Association of the American Library Association just published a list of the best free reference websites of 2009. This includes some wonderful sites with great information such as ePodunk, PubChem, and Lexicool. Lexicool is a searchable directory of more than 6000 free online bilingual and multilingual dictionaries and glossaries. PubChem is a search tool for free chemistry information which divides the information into 3 areas: Compounds, Substances, and BioAssays. Finally, ePodunk is an aggregate of easily browsable city and county profiles - a wonderful source of local data. You may want to consider linking to any of the RUSA recommended sites in your classes, and the ECC Librarians would be happy to provide in class or online library instruction to educate your students about any of these resources and more.