Introduction

Hi folks.

My name is Rebecca Hedreen, and I work as the Distance Education Librarian at Southern Connecticut State University, in New Haven, CT. I was a distance student myself, getting a Master's in Education from University of Phoenix in their online program. I experienced for myself the difficulties in doing research online, though I did have a university library available to me locally.

In this presentation, I'll take you on a tour of some of the tools I've discovered that make doing research, online and mobile, a little easier. My Online Research Toolkit site is a collection of reviews of these tools, all written with the needs of the academic in mind. These tools are loosely clustered into 5 categories: Searching, Note Taking, Citation, Collaboration, and Presentation.

I hope you enjoy the tour, and find at least a little of the excitement that I feel in this new, mobile, 2.0 world of ours.


Online or Mobile Research Audio

What do I mean by online or mobile research? Have you ever found a great site that would be perfect for some project, but you're not at your own computer? What do you do--email it, make a printout, scribble down the URL on a scrap of paper? What if you could save the link to a folder that you could reach from any Internet computer? Maybe even save a copy of the page itself? Wouldn't that make doing research for your project, where ever you happen to be, just a little bit easier?

That was my first introduction, while I was taking online classes, to "Web 2.0" tools, in the form of a link saver called FURL. It didn't matter if I was at home, where I did most of my classwork, at work either in my office or on the Reference Desk, or even attending a meeting or conference off campus--I could get to those references I'd saved from any web computer.

That was several years ago. Now the web is filled with new tools that allow you to save, create, and share materials. You can use these tools to do your research online, save and share your search results, collaborate with colleagues and classmates around the world, and create the fruits of your research, whether that's a typical academic paper or a presentation like this one.



Web 2.0

Exactly what is Web 2.0? Well, no one knows exactly what it is, because it's still developing. But some hallmarks are definitely ease of sharing and the ability to communicate with other users, forming a decentralized network of information; not being tied down to a particular computer, or a particular platform; and the lack of a hierarchical "this is what you should do with this information" sort of structure.

Whatever it is, a lot of the tools are perfect for someone who is on the go, collaborating with people who they don't see in person very often, if ever, and can't always be sure that the computers they are working with have a particular set of necessary software.


Research Tasks

I've split up the process of "research", meaning library research or searching the literature, into 6 segments: Setting up, Searching, Note Taking, Citation, Collaboration, and Presentation. Setting up is what you will need to use the tools I talk about. Searching is discovering and evaluating the resources. Note Taking covers everything from saving links and citations to annotating your finds. Citation covers methods of proper citation and avoiding plagiarism and copyright infringment. Collaboration, being a hallmark of Web 2.0, has the tools to work with others, even if you never see them. And Presentation tools help you present the fruits of your labors, including papers and slide-type presentations.


Setting Up

The first, and most important tool is, obviously, Internet access. You can't do online research if you're not online. This could be at home, work, public libraries, Internet cafes, wireless hotspots, or more than one of the above. You'll need a web browser that handles javascript and Flash, so if you use AOL or a similar ISP that provides only a basic web browser, you might need to install Internet Explorer, Firefox, Netscape, or another fully featured web browser. Some school and public library computers might use non-standard browsers, so check on the capabilities before you depend on access through them.

Second is email. In order to register for some of these tools, you will need an email account. Get a web based one (Yahoo!, Google Mail, Hotmail, etc.) if at all possible, so you can check it from anywhere. Email is also essential for collaboration, and is also handy for emailing files and notes to yourself. The best types for this work will be able to accept large attachments, like PDF files of articles, and have a reasonable amount of online storage, so that things don't bounce because your inbox is full.

The third tool is a library card. If you are doing academic research, you are most likely associated with a school, college, or university library, but public libraries often have great collections of online resources, too. While there is a lot on the open web, you will find a wealth of resources in the subscription databases accessible through your libraries.

You may also find that a USB drive (a.k.a. thumb or jump drive) or similar storage device is useful. Even if you can't use it on all the computers you use, you can back up your files often enough to prevent disaster if a server fails or a provider goes out of business. There are also some very useful applications that can run directly from the USB drive, so you don't need to install anything to the main computer.


Searching

One of the biggest advances in online, academic searching has been the explosion of open access materials. Open access is just what it sounds like, free, open access to the articles and other materials. As a business model, revenue comes from author fees, advertising, grants, or other sources besides subscription costs. Open access articles often enjoy wider readership and faster citation rates, without any reduction in quality. The Directory of Open Access Journals specializes in worldwide peer reviewed and scholarly journals. Some of the journals are searchable, but all are grouped by subject. There are also open access repositories, and one of the biggest is Oaister (O-A-I-ster), which indexes, among many other things, the online dissertation and thesis collections at MIT, University of Virginia, and several other large schools.


Note taking

[del.icio.us] A major problem of mobile research, that's research on more than one computer, is how do you save your results so that you can get to them from the next computer? If you bookmark or save to Favorites on one computer, you can't get to it on the next. And printing has it's own problems, like organization, environmental issues, and sore shoulders. But online bookmarking services allow you to keep your Favorites online. One of the best known is del.icio.us. That's de[dot]icio[dot]us. Anything that you can link to, you can save to del.icio.us, plus an annotation of up to 256 characters, and as many keyword tags as you want. That includes permalinks in online databases if you follow a guide like the one I have linked here. You can also annotate books by linking to the page within a library catalog or online bookstore. The tags allow you to associate links for particular assignments, as well as topical, subject related tags. You can search within your own links, plus the links that everyone else has saved. Just remember that everything in del.icio.us is public, though that isn't true of every online bookmarking service. There are hundreds of online bookmarking services, social and private, with different features, so don't be afraid to try a few out.



Collaboration

One of the recent trends in higher education has been the inclusion of group projects into many classes. Working with classmates on a project is a challenge, and even more so if you can't meet in person very often, if at all. Luckily, collaboration is a big movement in Web 2.0, and many of the tools I cover on my Toolkit site have collaborative aspects. Chatzy is an online chat site, like thousands of others on the web. But unlike many, you don't have to host and monitor a permanent chat site, or go to a public chat room to discuss your assignment. Chatzy allows impromtu set up, and all you need to join is the URL. No registration, or even email needed. It is possible to set up a permanent chat room as well, and you are invited over to mine if you want to say "Hi". Don't worry if no one else is there, the chat history stays around until someone clears it (so please don't until the conference is over!)


Citation

If you're writing academic papers, you need to cite sources, in some standardized format. If you use MLA or APA citation styles, the Landmark Citation Machine can simplify your wrestling with periods and colons. Just decide what type of thing your source is, and plug the information about the source into the form. MLA and APA citations are generated automatically. You might need to do some minor modification, like I did for the bibliography at the end of this presentation. I changed minor things like re-capitalizing words in the middle of titles (like Web 2.0) and fixing the problems with irregular names, like Lanman, a single word username.



Presentation

I used a bunch of presentation tools to create this presentation, including an online word processor, a blog for the presentation itself, and a service called Odeo for the audio. But I'll concentrate on the word processor right now, since nearly every academic project will require some word processing. There are several online word processors available right now. Writely is the one I'm using most at present. It was just bought by Google, which has one benefit of probably remaining free, but one big disadvantage of being closed to new registrations while Google shifts it to their servers. You can type right online or upload a document, and then save it in a variety of formats or publish it online to a blog or to the Writely server. The handout and transcript for this presentation are available as Writely online documents. I have had some issues with formatting when I save as MS Word files, but they added several new formatting options just before the Google purchase, so those issues may be fixed. PDF is another saving option, free while the beta test is active. The original plan was to make PDF saving a premium, subscription service, but Google may have other plans. You can also collaborate by adding the emails of your collaborators to the document, and Writely sends out invitations.

An example toolkit

I've actually listed two example toolkits here, one for a standard academic paper using searching, note taking, and an online word processor. The other is for a project that involves interviews. I'm assuming that the interviews were recorded somehow, so that the desired clips can either be edited and linked, or even cued and played into a phone or microphone. This is just to give you an idea of what might be needed for particular projects.


Disadvantages and Precautions

Servers go down, businesses go out of business, and free beta trials end. One major disadvantage to using these tools is that you do not have ultimate control over your own data. The company could decide to market the tool as a paid service and close your free access. They could sell the tool to another company. They could suddenly close up shop and leave you hanging. You should prepare for the worst by backing up your files regularly. Look for export features in these tools. Luckily, Web 2.0 applications generally work with standardized, common formats, so you will likely be able to export your files in a format you can read with other tools. This is one of the cases where the USB drives are marvelous.

Even if the worst doesn't happen, you will have times when you can't access your data. It's the price we pay for the convenience of wide access. Your backups can serve in this eventuality, too. Just remember what you added, so that, when you get your online access back, you can update your online files as well.

I should also say something about security. You should not consider these services to be particularly secure, even though they do have passworded access. So don't use them for anything that is sensitive or confidential.


The Online Research Toolkit site

My site is an ongoing effort, and I'll keep going as long as I can find new services and I have any time and energy for the project. Hey, I'm honest! I'll try to keep the tools updated with news about beta tests, service changes, and the inevitable disappearances. If you find errors, or needed updates, please let me know. And if you find a cool tool (or make one), let me know that, too.

I hope you enjoyed the tour and that you visit my site for further updates. The URL for the site, and the RSS feed, are linked from this slide.

The next slides are links to the tools and a bibliography, with no audio. Thanks for joining me, and welcome to the world of online, mobile research.


Software used in this Presentation

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Bibliography

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