Databases

Databases are essential for research.

Databases organize all the sources of information needed for research.
Here, information is stored, and one can retrieve information very easily.

There are several different forms of databases.

• Analytic
• Operational
• Hierarchical
• Network

(for descriptions - The UK Web Design Company)

I really enjoy the Murray State Library Database online.
Its easy to find books or papers in this database.

Recognize & Organize

The first step to being an organized person is being able to recognize when something is not organized. I usually have my dear friends let me know if my life/room/stuff is not organized. Over the years I've developed a good eye for things that need organization.

The first tool I use for organization is my calendar.

I record all of my homework assignments and weekly events in this 8.5in by 11in calendar book. I use a highlighter to highlight different activities - blue for school, green for work, pink for extracurricular. I also have a back up calendar on my computer.

I have a lot of papers. A LOT of papers. I organize these in a trusty little Mead binder.

This trusty gem carries all the material I receive in my classes. It has section dividers for each class; without it I would be as lost as an easter egg.

Organization is the key to success, its as simple as that.

"To Organize" ...or not to organize.

Sorry, I couldn't resist that one.

When I hear the words "to organize", I immediately start thinking about my dresser drawers in my bed room that need to be organized. I have an excessive amount of t-shirts that are in the drawers, all tossed together. There is no type of order to my drawers, and that bugs me. It would be beneficial and less frustrating when trying to find a t-shirt to wear if I organized these drawers. To organize these drawers would mean folding every shirt in the same fashion, and neatly laying them in stacks.

This can relate to research information. We are blessed to be living in an age where information is neatly organized electronically. The internet is a GINORMOUS source of organized information. I wish I could begin to explain how it all worked. When I search any term on Google, and organized list of sources immediately pops up. Its crazy!

Social Networking

I love Twitter.

I am extremely thankful for social networking, and the advancements social networking is making.

One reason why I love Twitter - its fast.

Every tweet is short, simple, and to the point. I have friends who have children, and when I'm away at school, I appreciate their "twit pics

" and "twit videos" they post of their kids.

Its a great way to stay connected with friends and family!

Its also a great way to do research. I follow CNN News and World Cup News (and several other news sources), and I am constantly catching updates from their twitter posts. I think Twitter is more affective then Facebook. Dont get me wrong, I use Facebook frequently, but I do enjoy the simpleness of Twitter.

its the weekend!

i am so thankful for the weekend.

(made by Ashley Lyn)

today is my best friend's (Madison Buckingham) 22nd birthday.

last night we ventured to Paducah to celebrate. she came in town from Louisville, KY to celebrate!
I am a Louisville native, and in order to know where to go in Paducah, I had to do some research on good restaurants.

I went to Urban Spoon and looked up downtown Paducah restaurants. After reading several reviews, I found the restaurant - Max's Brick Oven. It was DELICIOUS. I suggest this place for anyone wanting to venture out of Murray for the night. I had a delicious brick oven pizza, with chicken and roasted red peppers. After dinner, we walked over to Di Fritelli's restaurant for dessert. We enjoyed a delicious white chocolate brownie.

I am thankful for the Urban Spoon search engine. I suggest it to anyone looking for a great restaurant in their local area!

"Dont settle for what is handy."

This phrase applies to research.

When I am researching, it is super easy for me to get on my computer and pull up google. Also, with a search engine like Google, it is easy for me to just choose the first link that appears. This is what I classify as handy. The internet and Google are extremely handy. However, it is in my best interest to exhaust all my resources, not just the "handy" ones.

I fall guilty of taking the easy way out often. The Murray State library is stocked with books, upon books, upon periodicals, upon videos. There is a lot of great information that is published and in hard copy form. I often get lazy in my work and choose the handy source - Google. I have written some really great papers, and done a lot of great research because of my "handy" tools, but I feel like I would perform even better if I chose to step out of the internet realm.

This is me, being transparent. On my blog, for my library class. I hope I'm not the only one who experiences this!

"Practice thinking about sources."

When considering information research, this phrase means that I should practice and sharpen my skills in knowing which sources are credible and which are not. I should practice how to look for credible sources, and how to find the sources that will give me easy and quick access to the information I need. If Im doing research, I want to be efficient. If I am practicing my skills in researching for information, I will become more familiar with how to use sources, and which sources will best help me.

Practice makes perfect! That applies to everything.

Before coming to college, I used Google for every research topic. After four years of much practice, and many research papers, I now know of many sources and research avenues that give me the best information. This is the "information age", so there are constantly new additions to the research world. Students need to keep up with the changes, and must practice thinking about sources.

Meanwhile, I found this video about "How to Research a Paper" to be entertaining and helpful.

LIVE!

So, the Grammys are this weekend.

I am pumped!

Mainly I am excited because The Avett Bros, Bob Dylan, and Mumford and Sons will be performing together.

A great asset that technology provides these days is LIVE Streaming. You can watch TV shows, sports, news broadcasts, Awards shows LIVE online through a LIVE Stream. The Grammys have a live stream on the Grammy website. So even though I will stuck at my computer working on assignments due this coming week, I will still be able to catch performances LIVE, thanks to LIVE streaming.

Other websites where I can live stream events are:

• ESPN 360 (I never have to miss a UofL men's basketball game, Go Cards!)
• DesiringGod (live stream's different Christian conferences)

My favorite website to find information is GOOGLE.

It is quick and efficient. I use Google Chrome as my browser on my computer and it has never given me problems. I can type in a search term in the browser bar and it will immediately search it Google. I have results popping up as I am typing out my search. Google has several different helpful facets such as Google Scholar, Google Maps, Google Images, and Google News. The organization is awesome!

Also, the folks who work for Google are extremely creative. If you go to this website - Google Office - you can check out their work environment!

What is an Author?

Broadly defined, an author is someone who creates or gives existence to anything.

An author is important, because essentially, without authors there would be no creations.

I'd like to share a little about my favorite author. When I hear the word "Author", initially I think of the author of the universe, God. He created all things, knows all things, and has given existence to everything. He created me, and I know he has written my life story.

(hows that for cheesy).

I come across authors all day, every day. I read many blogs, and blog writers are some of my favorite authors. Some blogs I visit daily are:

• Justin Taylor
• Taza&Husband
• Of First Importance
• Ashley Lyn

“Be conscious of these little distractions, others confuse the Gospel with social and political action. If it stops with helping at soup kitchens and political involvement it’s not the true mission.” Hazakim -Evangelism

• 

  I LOVE this CD. LampMode Records teamed up with 9Marks and released “The Church - Called and Collected” last summer.

  “We understand both the seemingly controversial nature of “the Church”, especially among the Hip hop contingent, and well as the biblical imperative of the Church’s importance. We are simply offering our contribution to the conversation, fueled and on the diving board of 9Marks’ book, “What is a healthy church”, written by Mark Dever.”

  Hip-hop + solid theology. A dream come true. For me, at least.

  It was during my sophomore year of college that I dove into a research on "What is the Church?" This may seem like a broad question, and I am for certain that there are many many MANY documents/archives/articles/opinions/movies on this very topic. As a believer in and follower of Jesus Christ, (i believe Jesus came to earth, lived a perfect life & died on the cross for my sins, and rose again three days later...and that it is by grace that i have been saved through faith in this act - my savior dying for me and taking the wrath for my sin) I believe the best resource for research on the topic of the Church is the Bible.

  Thanks to incredible technology, I can access the Bible at almost any point. I frequent the Online ESV (English Standard Version) Bible. This is an incredible resource for searching anything in the Bible.

It is easy to navigate, and there are maps, articles, and commentary that are easy to access.

I spent about 5 months studying the Church my sophomore year. The Bible provided all of my answers, along with commentary and Godly wisdom from some of my mentores.

I am thankful for this research tool - The Bible!

THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND - GEORGE BOOLE

George Boole is the inventor of "Boolean Algebra" and "Boolean Searching." He known for his concepts in the field of mathematical logic, and his concepts in computer science or information science. Boole established the method of "And, Or, and Not" when selecting the appropriate options for connecting search terms to find information in search engines like Google. This information was found on the San Jose University website.

"Boolean Searching" is an effective way to search for information in a database. Boole developed the method in the 19th century, and it is based on the logical relationship among search terms. Each search term is connected by a "Boolean Operator". The three operators are "And", "Or", and "Not." "And" searches for occurrences in all of the search terms in a single record. "Or" searches for records that contain any of the tearms. "Not" searches for records that contain the first term but not the second term. This information was found in The Research Process: Books & Beyond.

Boole's system has helped the research and information age tremendously. His method has been used for centuries, and will continued to be used.