URVASHI VAID PRESENTATION

1 What were your expectations prior to attending this event? What did you know about the topic before you attended the event?

I was expecting that the program will be all about LGBT population. I expected that I might gain more knowledge about them. Before I attended that program I knew little about LGBT population that they are not treated equally.

2 How was the information presented? Did the information presented at the event differ in any way from what you had learned or believed in the past? How?

Urvashi Vaid talked about the history of LGBT population and talked about some movements that took place to provide equality for LGBT population. Nope, the information presented at the event did not differ in any way from what I had learned or believed in the past. I knew that LGBT were discriminated, but they were protesting for equal right.

3 What was one thing that you learned from this event that you did not know, or had never heard, before?

 I did not know about Urvashi Vaid and that she was LGBT activist.

4 Did the personal, professional, or academic background make the speaker an authority on the topic? Why or why not?

Yes, the personal, professional, or academic background made the speaker an authority on the topic because she has good knowledge about the population. She is a lesbian, has worked as LGBT activist and she is a lawyer.  She is a member  of that population so, she knows better than other heterosexual person.

5 What can you take away from this presentation to assist you in your Alternative Viewpoints paper?

From this presentation, I got more idea that about people protesting against discrimination of LGBT population.

6 If someone in the class had the opportunity to ask a question, how did the speaker respond? Was their answer satisfactory to you? Why or why not?

Some audience asked few questions about her presentation, the speaker responded well. Yes, her answers were satisfactory to me.   She tried to explain more understandably.

Archive, special collections & digital collections/ research 101

Assignment 22: Blog Entry: Have you ever done original research before?  Based on what you learned in IM 204 or your own experience, what makes original research different from library research?  How does library research support or guide original research?  What are the pros and cons of library research, compared to original research?  What critical thinking skills are involved in both types of research?  What critical thinking skill, in your opinion, is the most important for library research?  For original research?  Why?

Nope, I have never done original research before.  Original research is totally different from library research. In original research, one should go to the field for research, should deal with people of that specific population. One should develop the right research design and ask right questions to the people who are connected with that population. Such research gives more accurate data than library research.

Before doing original research, library research support or guide researchers by giving some information about them and helping them to create list of right questions which will give accurate result after research. Compared to original research, the cons of library research are there is lots of information, so that it is difficult to get the accurate result for my research. I should know all the possible words to search something like for the word gay I should know the possible term like “homosexual”. I should have the good knowledge about the keywords and truncations. For e.g. use the word teen* for teenagers. All the researchers used different terminology to express their feelings. However, the database has particular descriptors. When both of them don’t not match then it will be difficult to search for accurate result.

  The critical thinking skills involved in both research are observation, interpretation, analysis, inference and evaluation. For library research evaluation, interpretation and analysis are applicable. For original research evaluation, observation and inference are more applicable.

checking in

Assignment 20: Blog Entry: “Checking In.”  What successes and challenges are you currently having with your semester research project, and preparing for your presentation?  What other successes and challenges are you having with other research projects for your classes, or everyday research?

The challenges I am getting now is while doing the library research, there is lots of information, so that it is difficult to get the accurate result for my research. I should know all the possible words to search something like for the word gay the possible term is “homosexual”. I should have the good knowledge about the truncations. For e.g. use the word teen* for teenagers. All the researchers used different terminology to express their feelings. However, the database has particular descriptors. When both of them don’t not match then it will be difficult to search for accurate result. Other than these, there are no difficulties in doing research about my population.

Government documents and Statistics

Assignment 19 Find some statistical information about your research topic from a government document and a scholarly journal article.  Does each resource indicate how the data was collected and/or analyzed?  Why or why not?  Please list the resources that you used for the assignment in APA format.

Yes, both government document and scholarly indicate how the data was collected.  It has included citation after each data.

The list of the resources that was used for the assignments are

Minnesota Legislative Reference Library (2012, April 2) Resources of Minnesota Issues  Same- Sex in Minnesota. Retrieved from           http://www.leg.state.mn.us/lrl/issues/issues.aspx?issue=gay

Shulman, J. L., Gotta, G., & Green, R. (2012). Will Marriage Matter? Effects of Marriage Anticipated by Same-Sex Couples. Journal Of Family Issues, 33(2), 158-181. doi:10.1177/0192513X11406228

websites/ copyright, fair use, and open access

Assignment 17: Blog Entry: What is your definition of “intellectual property”?  What is an “expert’s” definition of intellectual property?  What examples of intellectual property, from academic or everyday life, can you name?  How does the concept of intellectual property change when it can be manipulated and shared?

My definition of “intellectual property” is the creative work done by people. “Intellectual property” is any kind of creative work of the mind. It can include invention, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs. The examples of intellectual property can be a photograph, pictures or paintings. The concept of intellectual property can be changed if we do proper citation or create a license in “Creative Common” to use others intellectual property.

Google 101

Assignment 14: Blog Entry: During Google 101, what did you learn that you did not know before?  How has this changed your opinion about Google, or looking for resources online?  How will you use the new Google tools (or online research strategies) in doing other types of research, whether for school or for “real life” situations?

I did not know that we can find scholars and blogs in Google. I thought information in Google was written just by random people, but I was wrong. After knowing more about Google, I will use Google tools like Google scholar, Google blogs and Google books for my other researches, whether for school or for “real life”.

newspaper and blogs (assignment 13)

Assignment 13: Blog Entry: Review the semester research assignment questions.  Based on the research you have done so far, how many questions can you answer?  Where do you need help? 

After researching a lot, most of my questions were answered. I mainly need help to find accurate resources while doing library research.

newspaper and blogs

Assignment 12: Blog Entry: There is some debate over whether or not blogs are legitimate forms of scholarship or news.  Based on your experience with blogs, what is your opinion about that, and why? Please provide a link to an entry on your research topic from a particular blog to use as an example to prove your point, and explain why the entry illustrates why this blog may or may not be a legitimate form of scholarship or news.  At the end of your entry, list the APA works cited entry for this blog, as well as any other resource you have used for this journal entry.

According to my experiences, I think blogs are legitimate forms of scholarship or news because people write blogs only on contemporary issues. Their blogs can be read by all the people in the world, and can evaluate his ideas. http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2011/09/gay_marriage_amendment_minnesota_state_fair_poll.php

This blog entry has mentioned about the current attitudes of Minnesotan and how they are supporting same sex marriage. It has included that Minnesotans are on the march to support gay marriage. They are ok to legalize gay marriage. The people who have been rejecting same sex marriage are getting low day by day. The survey taken place to get the views of the people found that about 66.5 % of the people were for the gay marriage and about 30% were against of the gay marriage.

M Mike. (2006, Sep. 6). Gay marriage ban voted down at the State Fair. (Web blog post).     Retrieved from http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2011/09/gay_marriage_amendment_minnesota_state_fair_poll.php

I think I should learn more about the present situation of gay people, their current problems they are facing now, the efforts that can done in the society to accept the fact about such population and to start to treat them equally. Even after such progess,people still have those narrow thinking about gay people. As I believe that America being the land of freedom, people`s desire of sexuality should not be restricted by any laws. These people also should be given equal health benefits and other benefits as other spouses in the land of America. I assumed that even if same sex marriages bills were passed in some other states. Still they are totally deprieved of all the facilities, which should should be granted to a married spouses. I heard that even anything wrong happens to anyone, then the other spouse will lose the right to take action on the behalf of other spouse then their family member will take power from that spouse and can deprived him/her to take care of their spouses. I learned about of this from a video where there were two men married to eachother and said that they are happy now but if any of them went sick or something wrong happened then both of them willl be separated and they will lose their power to decide any action for the betterment. No matter how open we have been thinking but when it comes in the topic of LGBT any intellect will stop for a wile and try to think twice before they speak. Since whole the society is against of this population, I might not find alot of resources about these topic and most of the readers will not be satisfied from my viewpoints.

I choosed PsycINFO which was found below the link education, psychology, recreation and sport.Subject specific database provided more relevant results for my topic. We can narrow down results in Academic Search Premier by using the keywords to find the articles and using the Boolean logics like "and", "or" and truncation"*".  We can narrow down the topic in subject specific by the same way as we did in Academic Search Premier by using the Boolean logics and truncations. When I tried to find the resources on my topic, I could not find in the first place so, I started to use other synonym, homosexuality. There I knew that additional synonyms can filter the resorces well and give you more accurate result than before. In Academic Search Premier, I found only two but in subject specific databse  I found  around 200 articles based on my topic. Of the relevant article that I have found, most of them were available via Findit  through other dtatabases. Since working with databases, my research questions had not remained same till now because I am interested to learn about LGBT people and their efforts that have been done till now to give equality to LGBT populations in the society. However I am getting challenges to get reources on the subject matter.

I found an article for my reasearch from a population magazine"New York Amsterdam News". The title is "Gay teens struggle for acceptance". It has citation as

Blandino, K., Brandini, M., Driskall, S., Gregoire, J., & Vasquez, D. (2004). Gay teens struggle for acceptance. New York Amsterdam News, 95(46), 16. I found a scholar journal "Tolerance in the United State". It has citation as SCHAFER, C. E., & SHAW, G. M. (2009). TOLERANCE IN THE UNITED STATES. Public Opinion Quarterly, 73(2), 404-431. The article of the magazine was 2 pages however the scholar journal was 29 pages. In the magazine article, there was image. In scholar journal there was no images but full of charts with the numerical values. Both of them were speaking for the rights of LGBT.

Based on my review of the Academic Search Premier feature, those features were advanced. These search give you the advanced result and save you time to get  through bunch of other useless resources. You have a full control over your search engine and chose only those topics which is useful in the piles of other resources. Yeah I have used Academic Search Premier for another class. I used to write research paper for my English class. I go to the SCSU webpage. Click on "Library" and by the next of  "Books and Videos". I clicked on the "Articles and Databases". I wrote the topic of my research and  clicked on advanced search and got the results. Yeah I have used  "Databases A -Z" to do research on another class. I have used Jstor for my reseach paper. After I clicked on "Aritcles and Databases", there was a titile called "looking for another databases search". U nder that title there were three options "Databases A-Z", "Database by Subjects" and "Newspaper and current events". From those option I choose "Databases A-Z", I clicked on the alphabet "J" and clikced the option "Jstor". I wrote the name of my research topic and clicked on advanced search. Since it has the most trusted academic research I dont think I have any fear for using this database to do reasearch.

After researching about these population, my assumption about this population has changed totally. I used to think that when they find themselves different than they might not be able to accept the fact and try to commit suicide. But  when I found out that they are struggling against such attitide and working their best to be successful. I have found that though they were treated unequally in few centuries back but now they are trying to protest against it. They are contributing a lot to provide them equal services as other citizens.

After learning about encyclopedia and wikipedia, the pro and cons of each type of the resources are:
The informations are not accurate. Any one can edit the webpage and give wrong information about the topic but still it is little bit useful to use it as the background informations. I found 2 print encyclopedias on my topic. I went to the library webpage and type homosexual an encyclopedia. I collect the call number and searched in the refrence section. I found one E-encyclopedias on my topic. I went to library webpage and went to references and facts. I  typed "gay people and social acceptance" and I found it. I think encyclopedia is more appropriate for my research presentation becuase they are little bit accurate than wikipedia.

The topic of my research is gay people and social acceptances. I am looking for both general background information and more specific  information on my topic. To locate my book, I went to the website of SCSU and clicked on the library. In the rectangular box. I typed the name of the book. I looked the option to overview what is written.I wrote the name and the call number. I went to library and looked for the same call number and got the book. I was successful at the first try because  the call number helped me to look for the book. There were not any Ebook availabke in OPAC. I like reading Ebook because it is portable even in your pocket. You can have lot of Ebooks in your computer. I got a moble device that allow me to read an Ebook. It was totally different than reading the traditional book. The best thing is you do not have to carry big bulks of books.  You can access to your book any time and anywhere you like.

vulnerable population

I think I should learn more about LGBT populations over the course of this semester. This is the population that has  lots of social and political negligence. They are struggling against of the society for their existence. Many people are fighting for equality between LGBT population and other. I assume that these people are not treated equally even today. I learn about LGBT population from other people talking about them. The most difficult challenges that I will have after doing this research population is there might lot of argument form the readers view point about my study.

Critical thinking

Critical thinking is the process of thinking, the subject matter is judged  whether it is true or false. I heard this term when I was taking Phil 194 class. According to a statement by Michael Scriven and Richard Paul for the    ( presented at the 8th Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking and Education Reform, summer 1987), critical thinking is the intellectually  disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/ or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experiences, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.
http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766. The experts identifies a particular process that one must engaged in to think critically. The connections between critical thinking and IM 204 research strategies are both try  to evaluate information as a path to belief by reasoning or experiencing it.