Subject Directory

I went with the INFOMINE for the subject directory.  I all so looked at many others on the list.  The difference between this and a regular search tool is that the subject directory is created by real people who read, select and add websites to databases.  The databases are also smaller. The regular search engines like Yahoo! send out bots or programs to collect websites for their databases. 

What I found in the subject directory was a concise list of information.  A lot of it was in alphabetical order, it was written by scholars, had data that could be back up by facts and automatically highlighted key words.  It was very open to Boolean operators.  I put in a search phrase and no cites came up.  I just put in a parenthesis and 50 cites popped up.  The  advance search tool was amazing.  You could search in fields by author, keywords, full text, subject, myinformine.  Then you could search the subject in categories like MapsGIS, PhySciEngrCS, Ejournals, just to name a few.  You could go deeper to limit the search, display options, browse options, and more.  I am astounded at the difference and how much easier it was to obtain detailed information on a subject.  This is a great tool and I will use the subject directory in research that I will be doing in the future.

Metasearch Tool

I chose the Metacrawler for the metasearch tool.  I used Organic Food and Health benefits for this search as well to get a comparison.  When I put in the stemming, Boolean operators, truncating, and phrases, it greatly reduced down the number of cites listed.  It had a lot of advanced options.  Five of those options were:

1. Language Options- There were at least 10 languages listed
2. Domain Options- You could chose what ever you wanted
3. Search Filter-  The choice to remove all or some of explicit content
4. Bold Search Terms - The key words would stand out on all  pages
5. Recent Researches - This tracks and displays your 15 most recent searches

Search Tool

I selected "bing" as my search tool.  For my search I put in Organic Food and it's health results.  I got a million cites so I tried to use Boolean operators, stemming, truncating and phrases and it did not reduced down the amount of cites to any manageable amount to look through. Then I went to the Advanced Search and there were a lot more rules to follow when it came to using the operators on this search tool.  You had to get the operators "just right" in order for it to work which was a hassle. So then I had trouble getting any cites to come up.  I finally got some but they were more opinion than fact.

Some of the search options that were available were:
1. Images of organic food
2. Up to date news stories on organic food
3. Local shopping in this area for organic food
4. Video's about organic food
5. Maps on how to get to organic farms in the local area

Summary

This activity was even more in-depth than the last one.  It really brought to light the tools at your disposal when searching for a topic.  I chose ProQuest as my database.  After I re-worded my search statement there were a lot more cites that came up on the subject I am pursuing  I needed to add more and different words to get to the topic I was looking for.  Some words did not work at all and no cites would appear.  Then after changing to another word it would make all the difference. I went to the Advance tab to get even more cites listed.  There were some cites which were more current but did not necessarily have the information I was looking for.  So I chose the cites based on the information relevant to my topic and its reliable sources.

Article from Newspaper

Jeffrey Zaslow.  "Moving On: Plugged In, but Tuned Out: Getting Kids To Connect to the Non-Virtual World. " Wall Street Journal  6  Oct. 2005, Eastern edition: Wall Street Journal, ProQuest. Web.  19 Jul. 2011.

I chose this article because it talks about kids who are linked up with all of the different technology, but they are lacking in human connection.  It goes on to explore what it means to teens when they have a human communication with their parents.  How does that make them feel versus getting a "text" message.  It relates to the social aspect of my question.

Article from Scholarly Journal

Zheng Yan.  "What Influences Children's and Adolescents' Understanding of the Complexity of the Internet? " Developmental Psychology  42.3 (2006): 418. Platinum Periodicals, ProQuest. Web.  19 Jul. 2011.

I chose this article because it is a study that was done affecting the internet use and the social complexity of  the internet on elementary and middle school students. How the use of the internet affects these children can play a role in their social behavior.  It can help us understand what kind of side effects we can expect from constant internet use.

The three criteria are:
1.The academic discipline is Developmental Psychology.
2. It has an abstract summary.
3. It covers case studies and reports the research.

Popular Magazine

Sue Ferguson.  "The wired teen. " Maclean's  29 May 2000: Platinum Periodicals, ProQuest. Web.  19 Jul. 2011.

I chose this article because it gives an opposite view as to teenagers increasing their social skills via the internet.  It talks about the freedom of being able to express oneself as a teenager with out the confines of being judged.  It compares and contrasts some of the pros and cons.