Volume 39, Number 5 - September/October 2015
EDITORIALFrontLines Page 4 Inserting information professional ethics, values, and procedures into Big Data necessitates getting outside our comfort zone. By Marydee Ojala Searcher's Voice Page 33 bq changes her last name to Webster and creates a new word, or neologism, "cyber-evolution." She then ponders the subtleties of how the word would be pronounced, whether a hyphen would be employed, the history of the word, and all the possible definitions that could be applied to it. By Barbara Quint DEPARTMENTSPage 8 Search Engine Update By Greg R. Notess Page 59 Conference Corral Revolutionary in Boston; Transformations in San Francisco FEATURESPage 10 With webinars proliferating and new ones coming online constantly, you may be tempted to offer one yourself. Two veteran webinar producers and presenters walk you through the behind-the-scenes basics of webinars so yours will be as successful as theirs are. By Mary Ellen Bates, Cathy Chiba Page 16 Do-It-Yourself Data and Tools Courtesy of the Government  The amount of information collected and disseminated by governments at all levels is staggering. Accomplished data wrangler Laura Gordon-Murnane not only details what's available, but also explains how to create your own datasets, analyze data, and use interactive tools. By Laura Gordon-Murnane Page 24 Still Feeling Our Way Toward Sentiment Analysis How people feel about issues, brands, and companies is the holy grail of marketing research. Tools to determine sentiment analysis are growing in sophistication, moving beyond text analysis and natural language processing to meaning extraction, latent semantic indexing, and the affective nature of text. By Barbie E. Keiser Page 29 Big Data, Machine Analysis, and Human Review: The New Synergy Algorithmic accountability is a new watchword in research circles, raising questions about whether machine-based, data-driven decisions should face human review. Library leader Terence Huwe sees an important role for information professionals in a Big Data world and makes three recommendations for action. By Terence K. Huwe Page 38 Nancy Herther harkens back to the early '70s and the beginning of the personal computer era when advances in technology were often the results of group efforts, finding similarities in the emerging ingenuity of codeathons, hackfests, and Maker Faires. Just as the open structure of the 1970s worked for the common good, Herther shows how these parts of the "share/build"—or hobbyist—movement are helping to set in motion a new wave of collaboration, open development, and technological and social advances. By Nancy K. Herther Page 50 Reimagining, Reinventing, Rethinking, Revisiting, and Revising Reference Recent books about the future role of the reference librarian and the place of reference in the library world don't completely agree but provide useful viewpoints from both the librarian and non-librarian perspective. By Georgina Devar Page 54 Making Search More Meaningful: Linked Data, Semantic Relationships, and Action Values Linked data and RDA triplet values, originally thought to be restricted to usage in cataloging operations, can prove their worth in reference as well by making search more meaningful through action-based relationship models and visualizations. David Stern makes the case for semantic coding of metadata. By David Stern COLUMNSInternet Express Page 35 On the Road: Sites and Apps for Road Trip Planning Irene McDermott shares websites and apps to put you in the fast lane for any car trip you need to map out. She starts with route planning, sharing both familiar and not-so-familiar options. And because any trip taking more than a few hours will require food, she also includes ways to find eating establishments, even for those with special dietary needs, and highlights how to avoid roadblocks or get off the beaten track with fun places to stop. By Irene E. McDermott On the Net Page 62 Searching Beyond Our Comfort Zone Rather than becoming bogged down with our standard, "tried-and-true" methods of online search, columnist Greg Notess recommends expanding our horizons and approaching questions from new angles, such as search engine marketing, visual search, and investigative reporting. By Greg R. Notess The Dollar Sign Page 65 Traveling the Tourism Route to Business Data The travel, tourism, and hospitality industries have specialized research sources and planning tools. Marydee Ojala looks at industry-oriented bibliographic databases, statistical resources, and practical tools for both business travelers and tourists. By Marydee Ojala The Open Road Page 68 Tracking Progress With and Impact of Open Access and Open Data Measuring impact of open access and open data is the million-dollar question and the elephant in the room because metrics can be difficult to calculate. Altmetrics provides some guidance, but monitoring compliance and measuring repositories require cultural changes. By Abby Clobridge InfoLit Land Page 71 What We Have Here Is a Failure to Teach Crucial to information literacy is the ability to evaluate found materials, but students' fear of failure and professors' lack of understanding about which elements of what they've taught have resonated with and been absorbed by students amounts to a teaching failure. By William Badke Control-Shift Page 74 The Twitter Tipping Point Social media, particularly Twitter, should now be the preferred communication medium for libraries. Darlene Fichter and Jeff Wisniewski describe how to maximize libraries' engagement with their communities through Twitter. By Darlene Fichter, Jeff Wisniewski Hard Copy Page 77 Recommended Reading on Library Data, Information Infrastructure and Transfer, Information Literacy, and Web Tools and Apps By Deborah Lynne Wiley Online Spotlight Page 80 Sussing Out the Truth Sometimes your "old reliable" source lets you down. That's when it's time to think about using social media and other non-traditional information sources. By Mary Ellen Bates |
