This document summarizes an overview for a class on using and creating social information. It discusses evaluating social media and web resources, professional communication and blogging, citations, and resources for the course. The instructor provides an overview of social information and its pros and cons. Students learn to evaluate websites and practice citing sources. The instructor describes blogging opportunities and discusses National Nutrition Month. The class covers APA citation style and practicing creating citations.

1. HNFE 3224:
USING & CREATING
SOCIAL INFORMATION
Rebecca Miller
millerrk@vt.edu OR hnfelibrarian@vt.edu
540-231-9669

2. CLASS OVERVIEW
 Touch base about research
 Evaluating social information & other web
resources
 Professional communication & blogging
 Citations
 Q&A

3. RESOURCES FOR THIS COURSE
 I’ve created several resources specifically for this
course:
 HNFE 3224 Library Course Guide
 Social Media for Nutrition and Food ePortfolio
 Basic information and resources about social media tools
(books, journal articles, etc.)
 Additionally, this will be available on Slideshare :
http://www.slideshare.net/millerrk

4. SOCIAL INFORMATION
 Information is no longer housed in just books or
journals
 Web 2.0 = user generated content
 Information can be communicated by web
pages, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, YouTube…and it’s
all easily searchable by Google

5. SOCIAL INFORMATION PROS & CONS
 Pros:
 You can communicate with all sorts of people, in all
sorts of locations
 It’s easy to publish and create information
 Your digital actions can define your professional
reputation and image!
 Cons:
 You can communicate with all sorts of people, in all
sorts of locations
 It’s easy to publish and create information
 Your digital actions can define your professional
reputation and image!

6. EVALUATING WEB RESOURCES
None of the old-timers—the professors—can really give
us much advice on sorting through and evaluating
resources. I think we’re kind of one of the first
generations to have too much information, as opposed
to too little. We’ve never had instruction really on
navigating the Internet and picking out good
resources. We’ve been kind of tossed into this and
we’ve just learned through experience we have to go on
a Web site and just raid it for information. So I would
say that despite all that’s out there, it certainly is harder
to find the right source and evaluate whether it’s
good, or not, because there’s so much—you only have a
little bit of time to spend on each source you find
[Engineering student from Project Information Literacy study]

7. EFFECTIVE SEARCHING & EVALUATING
 Scenario: you are doing some research and
stumbled across these sites:
 http://www.nutri-facts.com
 http://www.foodfacts.com/
 Are these sites authoritative?
 What are you looking at on the sites?
 Identify four reasons why you think the sites are good or bad
We will report back and discuss in five minutes:
http://www.online-stopwatch.com/online-countdown/

8. SURVEY SAYS…
Examination of these sites revealed:

9. WEBSITE & WEB 2.0
EVALUATION CHECKLIST:
HTTP://WWW.LIB.VT.EDU/INSTRUCT/EVALUATE/
 Authority
 Is the page signed?
 What are the author(s)’ qualifications?
 Is there contact information?
 Coverage
 Is the information relevant?
 How in-depth is the material?
 Objectivity
 Is there any bias?
 Are there advertisements on the page?
 Accuracy
 Is the information reliable?
 Is there an editor?
 Is the page free of silly spelling/grammatical mistakes?
 Currency
 Is the page dated?
 Are the links current?
 Is the design current, or outdated?

10. BLOGGING
 Blogging can showcase:
 Your communication skills
 Your creativity
 Your passion and dedication
 Your ability to network
 The message(s) that you want to send to your audience
 Example: http://christinasielbeck.wordpress.com/
What sorts of blogs do you follow?
Why? And how…?

11. NATIONAL NUTRITION MONTH
 I blog: http://hnfelibrarian.blogspot.com
 Communicate library, technology, and research
messages to HNFE faculty, staff, and students
 Explore library issues that may be relevant to HNFE and
other colleagues in the library field
 Allows me to digest complex ideas related to research
and library science, and offer my own opinions in a
public arena
http://www.eatright.org/nnm/

12. BLOGGING OPPORTUNITY
 Extra credit: up to 20 points
 Due February 29
 Will be posted on Notes from Newman blog, which
will appear on the National Nutrition Month blog roll
for eatright.org—an opportunity for national
exposure
 Think about this as an opportunity for promoting
your message AND promoting yourself, as an
emerging professional
 Questions or comments?

13. LET’S EXAMINE SOME BLOGS…
 http://thepaleodiet.blogspot.com/
 http://nutritionnibbles.blogspot.com/
 http://www.foodinsight.org/blog.aspx

14. APA CITATION STYLE
 http://www.lib.vt.edu/find/citation/apa.html
 Trouble areas:
 Deciding what resource format you’re looking at/for
 Web resources
 Government resources
 Others?
 My favorite online guides:
 http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
 http://library.albany.edu/cfox

15. NAME THAT SOURCE!
For the next three slides, you’ll be voting on what
type of resource a particular citation represents—
Get out your cell phones* or laptops in order to
vote
Text all answers to 37607
OR go to http://PollEv.com to submit the code
*Standard texting rates apply

16. WHAT IS THIS?
Duncan, G. J., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (Eds.).
(1997). Consequences of growing up poor. New
York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
To 37607 OR http://PollEv.com
 A book—416962
 A journal article—416963
 A chapter in a book—416964
 A webpage—416965

17. WHAT IS THIS?
Harlow, H. F. (1983). Fundamentals for preparing
psychology journal articles. Journal of Comparative
and Physiological Psychology, 55, 893-896.
To 37607 OR http://PollEv.com
 A book—416962
 A journal article—416963
 A chapter in a book—416964
 A webpage—416965

18. WHAT IS THIS?
Angeli, E., Wagner, J., Lawrick, E., Moore, K., Anders
on, M., Soderland, L., & Brizee, A. (2010, May
5). General format. Retrieved from
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
To 37607 OR http://PollEv.com
 A book—416962
 A journal article—416963
 A chapter in a book—416964
 A webpage—416965

19. CREATING CITATIONS
 In groups, create a citation for the document I’m
handing out
 I will collect the notecards and report back on any
issues or major problem areas
 Remember, great APA (and other style) resources
are available:
 http://www.lib.vt.edu/find/citation/index.html

20. PROPER FORMAT…
Mustafic, H., Jabre, P., Caussin, C., Murad, M.H., Esc
olano, S., Tafflet, M., …Jouven, X. (2012). Main air
pollutants and myocardial infarction: A systematic
review and meta-analysis. JAMA, 307(7), 713-721.

21. A FEW LAST WORDS
 Review:
 Citations
 Evaluating sources
 Blogging opportunity
 Other research for this course

22. Questions?

23. Thank you!
Rebecca Miller
hnfelibrarian@vt.edu
5004 Newman Library
540-231-9669
Office Hours:
Atrium, Wallace Hall
Mondays, 9:30-11:30 a.m.
http://hnfelibrarian.blogspot.com