180 Notes

Day 10

9/23/98

Review speech plans: dates, assessments

Project expectations

1. One-minute paper Summary

Big Points

Electronic environments offer opportunities to offer new levels of rep for readers/viewers

Automatic text summarization could be beneficial

The TOC is only helpful if reader has sufficient domain knowledge.

We can use technology to deconstruct text

Determining what levels of representation are useful and what mechanisms we use to control them are essential aspects of information science (my mantra)

Q:s

Does creating new levels of rep ADD to the time it takes to process info? Do hypertext links? How much do outlines/TOCs, etc. really help comprehension?

What are the tradeoffs in paper/electronic media?

Topic sentences not practical, can authors tag main points?

Other readings in psychology of info processing (see, e.g., card, moran & newell)

Are not HTML and printed page radically different media?

Does using color plus font size negatively affect browsing (in paper and electronic)?

Does focus on surrogates ‘steer’ reader too much?

How about a house walkthrough as a metaphor for struture?

What is a metalanguage?

Is the structure of Dillon’s text more important than its content? (no!)

Which is better, post-hoc structuration or authors as they write (see Tonfoni)

How effective is eye-tracking? Dangerous?

2. Finish discussion of Dillon

How does this help you?

As a professional: Reference interview? Online reference? FAQ? Search engine? Help?

As a citizen: Search?

What does the info specialist need to know? (based on Katz, Intro to Reference Work)

Kind of info needed (definition, example, confirmation, etc.)

How much is needed (fact, source, exhaustive)

How will info be used (research, talk, informal curiosity)

What level of sophistication is required (intro, advanced)

How much does the requestor already know (background, docs seen)

How much time does requestor wish to spend (finding, using)

3. Discuss Tibbo (group 1: Les Chaffin and Susan Dennis)

Why online reference? Archives vs libraries vs WWW

Key elements: setting tone; clarifying question; delivering info; assessing service

4. Read Crane (Group 3)

INLS 180

Style Manual Review

A. Title & Publication Info

B. Commentary on Organization of the manual (1 paragraph max)

C. Specific Guidelines

1. What is (are) the rule(s) for author names in the reference list?
2. How are citations in the text denoted (anchored)? (e.g., name and date, number)?
3. What is the ordering rule for period and quotation marks in text?
4. Choose one guideline of your choice and briefly describe

D. Why are style guides needed? What are the problems with these guides? (1 paragraph max)

4. One-minute paper