Knowledge Handler

Information Sources & Information Sifting Techniques

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Location: Independence, Ohio, United States

I am a retired librarian, most recently serving at Indiana Wesleyan University's Cleveland Education Center.

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Mastering Social Media

Chris Silver Smith suggests key actions for improving marketing and reputation management. These include:

  1. Be active on Twitter;
  2. Be active on Facebook;
  3. Have a substantial "About Us" page;
  4. Assist top executives in maintaining a page or blog;
  5. Have an online "Press Kit";
  6. Optimize your Google presence, including Google Maps;
  7. Encourage customers to provide online reviews;
  8. Grow your YouTube presence;
  9. Help all employees be brand representatives;
  10. Improve your customer service policies.

-DD

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Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Content for Google's Mobile Knowledge Panels

Mordy Oberstein guides web content creators in using Google's mobile knowledge panels .

-DD

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Monday, January 29, 2018

Monopsony and the Worker

Jordan Weissmann reports on a study entitled "Labor Market Concentration" (José Azar, Ioana Marinescu, & Marshall I. Steinbaum, 2017), which argues that many employees in America are working in an environment where a "lack of competition among employers gives businesses outsize power over workers, including the ability to tamp down on pay ." Weissmann contends that this should be considered when governments set economic policy, including approving the mergers of huge companies.

-DD

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Sunday, January 28, 2018

Creating Web Content

Mark Traphagen suggests that there are three ingredients to creating great web content :

  1. It is is credible, is interesting and engaging, and provides a great user experience.
  2. It aligns your business goals with the questions and needs of your target audience, and creates a bridge between the two.
  3. Bring a fresh perspective to the topic.
-DD

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Saturday, January 27, 2018

Bill Gates Interview on the Next 15 Years

Bill Gates explains his vision for the next 15 years .

-DD

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Friday, January 26, 2018

Technology and Careers

Sundar Pichai encourages all people to embrace technology , even if they do not intend to be computer programmers even technologists.

-DD

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Thursday, January 25, 2018

Information and the Second Law of Thermodynamics

Lisa Zyga writes about information and the second law of thermodynamics .

-DD

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Wednesday, January 24, 2018

How Influenza Kills

Sara Miller reports on how influenza kills .

-DD

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Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Academic Freedom, Social Responsibility, and Jordan Peterson

Tom Bartlett writes about academic freedom , social responsibility, and Toronto professor Jordan Peterson.

-DD

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Monday, January 22, 2018

Possible Racism in the Delivery of Civic Services

Tanvi Misra comments on research indicating that individuals with African American names statistically receive less attention from civil servants such as librarians .

Misra notes that "the researchers found a spatial discrepancy: The response gap was higher in the Midwest region—and in rural areas compared to urban ones."

This research is evidence for subtle racism, sometimes called microaggression. When I initially read Misra's comments, I thought there may be an alternate explanation, based on my experience working in tiny rural Midwest public libraries, where the desk staff recognizes an amazing number of their patrons by name. In most of these libraries (a) funding is extremely tight, and, (b) as a result, services are limited to cardholders. If a request for help was received from a person who is obviously not a cardholder, the staff would make the response low priority, if they responded at all. Such discrimination based on financial contribution is common in a free market system. But the original researchers seem to have eliminated the economic influence on their results by testing with a variety of ethnic names, with only the African American names reportedly receiving discrimination.

After reading the -DD

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Saturday, January 20, 2018

Mentoring

Dan Berrett and Beckie Supiano discuss the changing role of mentor in the university.

-DD

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Civil Defense Training

James Rainey suggests that people should be taught to survive a terrorist nuclear threat , as casualties from an isolated, low-yield bomb or radiation release could be reduced by more than half with minimal advance instruction. His main piece of advice is to hide from any initial flash and blast, and then minimize contact with the shower of radioactive dust particles. In a large building, avoiding the dust is often best achieved by staying indoors, preferably in a basement or an inner windowless room for multiple days.

-DD

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Friday, January 19, 2018

Mobile Phones Hijacked as Spy Cameras

Eric Auchard reports that Lebonese hackers have used victim's phones as spy cameras .

-DD

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Thursday, January 18, 2018

Creating and Editing PDF Documents Using Word

Lamont Wood instructs on the use of Microsoft Word to create and edit PDF documents.

-DD

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Wednesday, January 17, 2018

The Business of Cancer Treatment

Julia Hanna reports on work by the Kraft Foundation to improve the business model for treating cancer.

-DD

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Saturday, January 13, 2018

Corporate Success

Carmen Nobel offers tips for corporate success based on research done at Harvard University.

-DD

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Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Good News

Angus Hervey lists good things which occurred in 2017.

-DD

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Monday, January 08, 2018

Speaker Technology

David Neild reviews the audio technology for laptops and mobile devices, and suggests speaker specifications that will provide the best sound distribution.

-DD

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Sunday, January 07, 2018

Smart Speakers

Nick Routley provides information on the Smart Speaker market , including how people report using their devices such as the Amazon Echo or Google Home.

-DD

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Saturday, January 06, 2018

Technology Maintenance

David Neild suggests that we all need to periodically update or cleanse our technology tools.

-DD

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Friday, January 05, 2018

Android Security Apps

J. R. Raphael warns that security apps purchased for Android offer redundant protection to that offered by Google .

-DD

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Thursday, January 04, 2018

Windows 7 Retains Market Share

Gregg Keizer notes that Windows 7 is retaining market share even as Microsoft is promoting its retirement January 14, 2020.

-DD

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Wednesday, January 03, 2018

Inequality

Preeti Varathan shares the observations of economist Angus Deaton, who said that some forms of inequality are fair, and others are unfair, and that good public policy recognizes the difference between them.

-DD

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Tuesday, January 02, 2018

Hotmail History

Sean Gallagher reviews the technology and history of Microsoft's Hotmail , which has now been replaced by Outlook.com.

-DD

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Monday, January 01, 2018

Calendar Usage

Srinivas Rao sugests that consistently recording upcoming events in a calendar is better than creating daily to-do lists.

-DD

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