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Google Lab

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A.    Using Google search for book by title (pick any title).

I chose to search for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, which is one of my favorite books

B.    Learn more about the book; identify the library from which you can borrow the book.

I was happy to see that the New York Public Library chose it as one of their Books of the Century. It was originally written as a memoir, but Betty Smith’s editor encouraged her to write it as a novel in order to flesh out some of the main characters and to make it flow better.

By looking in the bibliomation catalog, I found that four copies of this book are available from the New Milford Public Library as well as two copies of the book on CD-ROM/

C.    Using advanced search in Google Books search for a popular magazine; provide the information on how to subscribe to the magazine.

I chose to search for Wired Magazine, a popular magazine for those interested in technology.  I used the advanced search and entered the search terms “Wired Magazine” in the search window for ‘Find results with the exact phrase”. Although a paid advertisement for Wired Magazine was at the top of the results page, I went ten pages deep into the results and still did not reach a result for Wired Magazine. All the results were either referring to Wired Magazine or having to do with wire. I clicked on the advertising link for Wired Magazine and was taken to a window where I found subscription information. A year’s subscription is only $10 and you can sign up online from the link at the top of the Google books result page.  

I was curious so I again used the advanced search for magazines and entered Time Magazine in the search window for ‘Find results with the exact phrase”. Again, all the results were for other magazines that referenced Time Magazine but no Time Magazine link on the first 6 pages of results.

Since many of the results for both of my searches were the New York Magazine, I tried a search for it. I employed the same search yet this time, all the results on the first six results pages were for the New York Magazine. Interestingly enough, when I just entered Wired Magazine in a simple Google search with no limitations, the first two results were for Wired.com.

I was surprised at the poor results of the search, especially because I used the advance search and limited the search to exact phrases.

D.    Find Scholarly publications using Google Scholar, provide the full bibliographic citation for any scholarly article on Public Libraries

Using Google Scholar, I found the following article through PubMedCentral at the National Institute of Health website.

Wood FB, Lyon B, Schell MB, Kitendaugh P, Cid VH, and Siegel ER. Public library consumer health information pilot project: results of a National Library of Medicine evaluation. Bull Med Libr Assoc. 2000.  Oct; 88:(4) :314–22. [PubMed].

E.    Using Google Images locate a picture of Chukky Okobi



Getty Images. (2007). Chukky Okobi [Digital Photo], Retrieved
March 14, 2009, from: GoogleImages

F.     Using Google, locate a website sponsored by a university or college that offers information about Asperger's Syndrome.

I used the Google search terms: Asperger’s + college support groups and found a link to Asperger Help Desk College Page at http://www.aspergerfriends.com/AspergerHelpDeskCollegePage.html

From there I clicked on a link to college planning for students with Asperger’s.
The link took me to the University of Southern California Marshall. There I found
this article:

PREPARING TO BE NERDY WHERE NERDY CAN BE COOL:
COLLEGE PLANNING FOR STUDENTS ON THE AUTISM SPECTRUM
By  Lars Perner, Ph.D.
URL: http://www.professorsadvice.com/

G.    An instructor has suspicions that the following phrase from a student paper was plagiarised from an online reference work. Use Google to identify the source of this phrase.

"Although only 14, Adams became interpreter and secretary to Francis Dana, U.S. envoy to Russia."

Document the steps you used to identify the source of the phrase and give the full citation and the URL of the document.

This search was simple and straightforward. I copied the quote, did a basic search and it was the first of three results. The plagiarized quote can be found at MSN Encarta, in the encyclopedia article, John Quincy Adams,

Citation:
"John Quincy Adams," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2008
http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

URL: http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761577199/john_quincy_adams.html