Friday, October 10, 2008

Competency 6d: Citation Pearl in BIP

I have a favorite book by Lawrence Lessig to use called The Future of Ideas. I put the title in BIP and clicked on the result. I then clicked on the subject heading that appealed to me the most - intellectual property. I got 2957 results about enforcing copyright in multiple languages, which I find to be counterproductive to my research interest. Clicking on Internet Law and Legislation gave me 313 hits, and the 3rd hit is another book by Lessig. I decide to revise my search by adding a second keyword. I open the advanced search and add culture to the keywords. 10 results and here are my favorite hits:
  • Handbook of Internet Politics Author: Chadwick, Andrew et al. Publisher: Routledge ISBN or UPC: 0-203-96254-0 (Active Record) Format: E-Book Date: Aug 2008 Price: N/A Market: United StatesLC Class #: HM851.R6795 2008 Dewey#: 320.0285/4678 ISBN 13: 978-0-203-96254-1
  • Cybercrime: Vandalizing the Information Society Author: Furnell, Steven Publisher: Addison Wesley Professional ISBN or UPC: 0-201-72159-7 (Active Record) Format: Trade Paper Date: Dec 2001 Price: $31.99 Market: United States Availability: Available for Order Dewey#: 364.1/68 ISBN 13: 978-0-201-72159-1

I can see using the Citation Pearl growing approach for research or position papers where I'm looking to find a group of authors who share my preferred opinion on an issue or topic. I can also imagine that this method would be very useful for quickly generating sources for an expository paper by choosing a book or an article which I already like quite a bit (such as Lessig's above) and then using a "More Like This" tool. Candidly, I think this method would be a great idea to use for generating a birthday gift idea for someone who is hard to shop for. Simply search for an item which they already own and look for "More Like This!"

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