Competency: 9 Internet

I selected blackweb portal site to use as my Internet selection. This Internet site is only a few years old. It was established in Florida and it operates out of Orlando and New Jersey today. The site is referred to as BWP and it appears to be proud to represent the African American heritage. "In March the entire site comes back with a web 2.0 flair." "What makes the BWP different is that we are a real Black firm and not a corporate knockoff like most of the other top African American web sites out there. No, there is no radio show full of jokes and jibes, and now, we don't have that hip hop beat backing up our site. What we do have is information. Gigabytes of information on Black web sites, businesses, new, discussions, actors, actresses, historical figures, and more."
Retrieved March, 26 2008, from http://www.blackwebportal.com/

Copyright information http://www.blackwebportal.com/services/bwp_services_copyright.cfgm

I used yahoo search engine to get to the blackweb portal site.

There are several web sites to search or browse for information relating to African Americans . BlackRefer.com - Is the largest online directory for locating Black Websites http://www.blackrefer.com/.

Competency: 8 Visual/Multimedia

Competency 8 - Visual/Multimedia

I chose still images to use for this competency. Phillis Wheatley, Richard Wright and Langston Hughes are well know authors who have made valuable contributions to African American studies.

The first image is Phillis Wheatley who "was the second published African American poet and first African American women who writing helped create the genre of American literature."

The second image is Richard Wright "African American author of powerful sometime controversial novels, short stories and non-fiction. Much of his literature concerned racial themes his work helped redefine discussions of race."

The third image is Langston Hughes "was an American poet novelist, playwright short story writer, and columnist. Hughes is best-known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance."

I searched yahoo.com to get these images and the information about the authors. I used yahoo because it's friendly and readily accessible at all times. Yahoo copyrights law are stated on their web site. copyright link http://info.com.com/copyright/details.html

work cite: Retrieved March 26, 2009, from http://www.yahoo.com/ image

Competency 7 Image

Competency 7: Image

I chose these two images because they display well known African American writers and humanitarians. Can you name them? Are you familiar with their work? These individuals who are etched on these images have made great contributions to the world of literature and humanitarian services in the United States.

These images can be found at this website http://free-clipart.net/ ICLIPART: main page - clip art - subcategories - education - classroom and activities

©1999: All rights reserved. This site is designed for Internet Explorer and an 800x600 resolution.If you have any questions or find any problems contact me at: http://free-clipart.net/email.htm

Competency 6: Building Block Search was my first search and I used JSTOR. I searched (African American writers) and got 3923 hits. My second search I entered (African American writers and Harlem or Renaissance) on this search I received 44941 hits. If I were researching for a paper I would have to Narrow my search.

Competency 6: Specific Facet Search - For my second search I searched ERIC using the Specific search. I typed in the words "Negro writers" because I wanted to how many hits I would get if I typed in something other then "African American writers". I got four hits using the words "Negro writers". My second search using ERIC I entered the words "Negro writers" and "Harlem or renaissance" and got 1287 hits. I knew I would get several hits using African American however, I did not expect to get only four hit using the word Negro.

Competency 6: Successive Fraction Search - My next search was I used LibLit. for my Successive search. I was very surprised by the number of hits I received. When I typed in (Negro writers) I got only three hits. However, when I did my second search the number of hits increased by using the Thesaurus and typing in the words African American and Harlem or renaissance; I received 310 hits. I am amazed at how the different databases give different numbers of hits.

Competency 6: Citation Pearl I used Academic Search Complete. I typed in "The Harlem Renaissance", because I knew a particular article had been published about

the Harlem Renaissance. I was able to get 869 hits. I knew this would be a successful hit.

I searched four different database using many different techniques and I received many different hits while using the same words or similar words.

Competency 5: Tagging/Cataloging

Competency 5, tagging for LS5013, has been fun. I think it's cool how a person can catalog all their personal books for free or a one time fee for life. What a great tool.

I was able to find tags about my subject area, which is literature. I found the tag literature tagged to Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I also located the tag American literature for the book The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, which was tagged under this cloud.

I found these tags using http://www.librarything.com/. The good thing about this site, I can create my own tag clouds using the words African American Literature. I could not find a tag that said African American Literature.

Related tags I copyied from the librarything site.
19th Century(32,828) 20th century(32,828) American(32,828) american literature(32,828) anthology(32,828) art(32,828) biography(32,828) british(32,828) british literature(32,828) children(32,828) classic(32,828) classics(32,828) criticism(32,828) drama(32,828) england(32,828) english(32,828) english literature(32,828) essays(32,828) fantasy(32,828) fiction(32,828) France(32,828) French(32,828) french literature(32,828) german(32,828) historical fiction(32,828) history(32,828) horror(32,828) humor(32,828) literary criticism(32,828) medieval(32,828) mystery(32,828) mythology(32,828) non-fiction(32,828) novel(32,828) philosophy(32,828) plays(32,828) poetry(32,828) read(32,828) Reference(32,828) religion(32,828) roman(32,828) russian(32,828) science fiction(32,828) shakespeare(32,828) short stories(32,828) translation(32,828) unread(32,828) world literature(32,828)

I now know there are other sites out there such as http://www.flicker/

Competency 4

I selected my RSS Feed from http://www.ala.org/, for competency 4. The RSS is ACRLog by the Association of College and Research Libraries. I thought this would be a good choice because I want to work at a university when I complete my degree. I also believe it will keep me up to date with all the last information pertaining to new technology such as databases, Metadata, and Tagging information. The link to The Association of College and Research Libraries can be found on the right side of the page.

I found a new RSS that's part of my database assignment for competency 4. The Women and social movements in the United States 1600-2000 is my new database. URL:http://alexanderstreet.typepad.com/history/rss.xml

Compentency 3 Podcast Booker T Washington

I am moving right along with my next assignment for LS5013 Information Storage and Retrieval. I am now getting ready to add a "Podcast" to my Blog site for competency three.

I was not sure how to go about this assignment in the beginning so I Googled the word Podcast. From that search it allowed me to begin surfing all over the place. Using the Google search engine allowed me to stumble upon other search engines for my topic of discussion.

I am interested in learning more about African American writers. I want to know who they are, where are they from and what contributions and impact have they made in America. When I typed in the word 'podcast" using the Google search engine, it led me to Podcast Alley.com, Babblebooks.com, YouTube.com and Video.aol.com. At all of these sites I was able to type in the keyword Booker T. Washington and come up with many successful hits.

The Babblebooks.com site was very unusual for me; the audio book was reading like a computer or something I thought some was wrong with my speaker or that particular video clip. I came to find out that’s the way it is. It is not in a normal tone of voice.

YouTube was a fun site for me. I did not know that one could get such a variety of information in one location; it was great. The site was very friendly and easy to navigate around in. It allowed me to view the Podcast with clarity and good sounds. When I typed in Booker T. Washington, it gave me a variety to choose from. It also included how many times the video had been viewed by other people. The Podcast had a share button on it so that you could send it to people such as your family and friends.
If you don’t want to send it by email it gives you the option to copy and paste the link into an email or instant message. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hsd55AK53U that is what I did I copied and pasted I also sign up for a YouTube account. It was very easy to set the account up.

The best part about this: it’s all free and very informative.

You can go directly to these search engines to get information about African American writers. http://www.youtube.com/, http://www.video.aol.com/, http://www.podcastalley.com/ and http://www.babblebooks.com/ just type in the keyword and search.

I have truly had a blast with this assignment.