IS Virtual Digital Laboratory

Core Teaching Faculty:
D. Raber, W. Robinson, G.M. Sinkankas
C. Tenopir, P. Wang, G. Whitney
School of Information Sciences
University of Tennessee
G. Whitney, P. I.

The Laboratory
Workbench: Tools | Describing and Representing | Retrieving | Evaluating

Workbench: Tools   Resources:
Electronic Style, Turabian/Chicago Style Examples, ...

Biographies: The "Dead Germans", a collection of biographies of "significant persons" in the information sciences

The Information Environment: The Information Life Cycle, a model for interpreting the development of information; the Environment, a preliminary taxonomy of its elements based on SIS 490.

View activities by Core Courses

Describing and Representing
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Problem:
Describing an information resource   Corpus:
Problem documents (web pages that are difficult to define/describe) (this will link to a set of web documents that are problems from a descriptive point of view)

  Resources:
Collected definitions of documents: book, serial, tech report, incunnabula, etc.

  Activity 1:
  Activity 2:

Problem: Representing the content of a resource:
Indexing Corpus:
Collections of records illustrating surrogates of documents in different formats: MEDLINE records in DIALOG, SilverPlatter;

Indexing: specificity in records (local vs national needs) (linking to a set of documents that illustrate this problem)
Indexing: same item, different databases/purposes (linking to a set of documents that illustrate this problem)

Resources:
MIT Libraries explores the concept of Memory in its BI series, the Lund University resources for radiation physicists explores concepts from MEDLINE and Compendex,

Activity 1:
Activity 2:

Problem: Representing the content of a resource:
Abstracting Corpus:
A collection of abstracts from various sources illustrating different problems.

Abstracting: same item, different databases/purposes (linking to a set of documents that illustrate this problem)
Abstracting: same item, different databases/purposes - translation of titles (linking to a set of documents that illustrate this problem)

Resources:
Standards and directions for writing abstracts: RILM, George Mason University Writing Center handout, Geosociety Conference '96,

Activity 1:
Activity 2:

Retrieving
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Problem: Information Retrieval Corpus:
A collection of Web Pages that can be manipulated to show the effects of text manipulation and enrichment on measures such as precision and recall. Expanded description of the corpus.

Resources:
A local copy of Excite, other search engines

Activity 1:
Activity 2:

Evaluating
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Evaluating Resources I
Reviews Corpus:
Reviews of films, automobiles, Clarisworks,

Resources:
Sources for movie reviews.

Activity 1: Reviews and Reviewing Activities NEW
Activity 2:

Evaluating Resources II
MARC Records Corpus:
Marc Records
(a collection of MARC records, all formats)

Resources:
Activity 1:
Activity 2:

Evaluating Resources III
News articles Corpus:
News articles
(this should link to, for example, 3 months of articles from the Washington Post.)

Resources: ???
Activity 1:
Activity 2:

Evaluating Resources IV
Web Resources Corpus:
A collection of web resources that are a challenge to evaluate, such as Make it in Mankato!

Resources:
VL Resources, the Cyberhound criteria are a bit heavy on the "entertaining" aspect but otherwise useful. Note the criteria from the SUNY-Albany Library. The Widener Library has recently released the materials they use to teach students how to evaluate sources.

Activity 1:
Activity 2:

Last updated 30 May 1998. Comments, queries to Gretchen Whitney, University of Tennessee, School of Information Sciences: gwhitney@utk.edu, phone 423.974.7919 or fax 423.974.4967.

Workbench: Tools	Resources: Electronic Style, Turabian/Chicago Style Examples, ... Biographies: The "Dead Germans", a collection of biographies of "significant persons" in the information sciences The Information Environment: The Information Life Cycle, a model for interpreting the development of information; the Environment, a preliminary taxonomy of its elements based on SIS 490. View activities by Core Courses

Describing and Representing Return to menu

Problem: Describing an information resource	Corpus: Problem documents (web pages that are difficult to define/describe) (this will link to a set of web documents that are problems from a descriptive point of view) Resources: Collected definitions of documents: book, serial, tech report, incunnabula, etc. Activity 1: Activity 2:



Problem: Representing the content of a resource: Indexing	Corpus: Collections of records illustrating surrogates of documents in different formats: MEDLINE records in DIALOG, SilverPlatter; Indexing: specificity in records (local vs national needs) (linking to a set of documents that illustrate this problem) Indexing: same item, different databases/purposes (linking to a set of documents that illustrate this problem) Resources: MIT Libraries explores the concept of Memory in its BI series, the Lund University resources for radiation physicists explores concepts from MEDLINE and Compendex, Activity 1: Activity 2:



Problem: Representing the content of a resource: Abstracting	Corpus: A collection of abstracts from various sources illustrating different problems. Abstracting: same item, different databases/purposes (linking to a set of documents that illustrate this problem) Abstracting: same item, different databases/purposes - translation of titles (linking to a set of documents that illustrate this problem) Resources: Standards and directions for writing abstracts: RILM, George Mason University Writing Center handout, Geosociety Conference '96, Activity 1: Activity 2:

Retrieving Return to menu

Problem: Information Retrieval	Corpus: A collection of Web Pages that can be manipulated to show the effects of text manipulation and enrichment on measures such as precision and recall. Expanded description of the corpus. Resources: A local copy of Excite, other search engines Activity 1: Activity 2:

Evaluating Return to menu

Evaluating Resources I Reviews	Corpus: Reviews of films, automobiles, Clarisworks, Resources: Sources for movie reviews. Activity 1: Reviews and Reviewing Activities NEW Activity 2:



Evaluating Resources II MARC Records	Corpus: Marc Records (a collection of MARC records, all formats) Resources: Activity 1: Activity 2:


Evaluating Resources III News articles	Corpus: News articles (this should link to, for example, 3 months of articles from the Washington Post.) Resources: ??? Activity 1: Activity 2:


Evaluating Resources IV Web Resources	Corpus: A collection of web resources that are a challenge to evaluate, such as Make it in Mankato! Resources: VL Resources, the Cyberhound criteria are a bit heavy on the "entertaining" aspect but otherwise useful. Note the criteria from the SUNY-Albany Library. The Widener Library has recently released the materials they use to teach students how to evaluate sources. Activity 1: Activity 2: