eLit2006

The 5th International Conference on eLiteracy, will be held from 28th to 30th June 2006 at Loughborough University. For more details see here.

Lifelong Learning Conference

This is just a quick link to the 4th International Lifelong Learning Conference at the Central Queensland University in Australia.

Photo by Yazdan Mansourian: Manchester City Hall, June 2005.

Literature Review

If you are going to do a literature review and you need a simple and succinct instruction to develop an authentic review you might need to see this site. Although it has been written in a very simple language, I found it a profound introduction about writing literature review. For example, I like the ten reasons that are presented here as the reasons behind any literature review. Based on this site these reasons are:
“Provide a context for the research, justify the research, ensure the research hasn't been done before (or if it is repeated, that it is marked as a "replication study"), show where the research fits into the existing body of knowledge, enable the researcher to learn from previous theory on the subject, illustrate how the subject has been studied previously, highlight flaws in previous research, outline gaps in previous research, show that the work is adding to the understanding and knowledge of the field, help refine, refocus or even change the topic.”
If you manage to develop a review which is able to address these ten points then I would say this is a perfect review.

Photo by Yazdan Mansourian: Cambridge, Trinity College, April 2006.

Vivisimo

I know Google is the most popular search engine and almost everyone uses it to search the Web. Of course, there is no doubt about the efficiency of Google in providing Web users with an easy and quick answer to any kind of questions. However, the quickest answer is not necessarily the best answer. Sometimes it might be the best but not always. The problem is you never know what else exist on the Web that could be retrieved by the search tool for you. Anyway, what I am trying to say is “do not use only one search engine all the time”. It might be worth trying alternative tools occasionally. Who knows it might work better. There are other search tools which are very good. Vivisimo is one of them.

Evaluation of Information

If you are looking for a simple but useful checklist to evaluate the authenticity of journal articles there is a good example here.

Encyclopaedia of Digital Libraries

A new encyclopaedia of digital libraries is being developed at the Nanyang Technological University. According to their website this encyclopaedia will cover ten major areas as follows:

“Historical and Theoretical Foundations; Design and Development; Information Processing; Content Management; Security and Privacy; Users, Interactions and Experiences; Case Studies and Applications; Use and Impact; Digital Library Education; and Future Trends and Development”. For further details you can have a look here.

Poster Competition

Yesterday I was at the Northumbria University in Newcastle to participate in a poster competition for PhD students from several universities in the north of England. The event was organized by Yorkshire and North East Hub of the UK GRAD Programme. There were 80 participants from different universities. I also had taken part in the last year even in Leeds. My poster’s title was “The Hidden Territory of the Internet”. It was a good chance to see other PhD students and talk with them about their research topics.