Your Own Private Librarian--a personal research assistant

I read a very short article from the Education Life supplement from the New York Times over the break. It was about a new program offered by some universities, like Drexel and Yale, which pairs all freshman and sophomores with a staff librarian. The librarian communicates with the students by email to promote the library services and encourage them to come and take advantage of what they have to offer. I think this a great idea because so many students have a stereotype about librarians as being dowdy old women who care more about shelving books than helping people learn and succeed. Too many students think they know enough to get by and that googling is researching. Through this one on one relationship, the students can get to know their librarian more personally, and learn the skills that it takes to go beyond Google to the databases, bibliographies and indexes to find and use the right information that will give them an edge on their assignments. These skills will help them throughout their entire academic careers and the lives.

Choe, Jaywon. "My Own Private Librarian." Education Life: New York Times.4 Nov 2011. Web 30 Nov 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/education/edlife/my-own-private-librarian.html

Digital Books

Today , I just read a article about the digital books. It’s obvious to see that nowadays many young people even some old men choose to read a book online. Not only because it’s much easier but also they don’t have to pay for the books. Sometimes ,they just need to type the book they want in the Google or other websites like Amazon, thousands of books just appear on the screen. They don’t even have to go to the bookstore ,and spend a whole afternoon to look for their books.
But in the other side, the situation causes that some producer can’t get money from it. It’s very horrible that someone try to make money by working several months or years but finally, they get nothing. But with the development of the technology , this situation can’t be stopped and keep deteriorating. The internet can’t protect the privacy of producers. And I am so mad about it, because it’s unfair for those producers. I don’t even believe I am a private person,maybe someone already stole something from my computers. Who knows.

Anonymity

Today, our class was supposed to read about privacy issues and then write a post about them. I read about anonymity. Anonymity is a complicated thing: people don't want other people to find out things that they post so they choose pseudonyms and thus the people can't find them. This can sometimes save lives and people can be anonymous if they want to : it is in the First Amendment.
I think that being anonymous is very good: it saves people's lives and it prevents the people from judging you and it prevents nosy people from looking into what you are doing. I think that the anonymous people should have a right to be anonymous: it is protecting their information. I try to be private when I can and I don't like people to look at what I'm doing. I tend to be private. I think that this is very scary that people can see what you are doing and I don't like it at all. I think that people should have privacy and that the nosy people shouldn't know what they are doing. This can damage their lives with people gathering all their information. I have a right to keep personal information for myself and I think that everyone should have this right.

Online Behavioral Tracking

My article is online behavioral tracking, it basically says that some companies can spy on your internet use, which is really creepy. This is definitely unethical, giving us no privacy. This article definitely needs to be addressed by the law to stop companies from spying on us.

Social Networks

People have very mixed feelings on privacy when it comes to Social Networks like Facebook, twitter, and myspace. EFF talks about how those Social Networks trick you into signing the agreements. And how you can change your settings so you can still have a facebook but do not have to agree with the policies. In my opinion, I do not think that Facebook is trying to trick you. They give you big long paper on their policies and if you really don't want people to read what you are posting, then you read the paper. And you should not be posting things that you don't want people to see, because when you put something on the internet it is there forever. In conclusion, I can see where the EFF is coming from in there argument, but should you really have to be hiding the things you put on the internet from people? I think not.

Cell Phone Tracking

Chris Alman

11/1/11

Today the class was assigned to pick a topic on privacy and then blog about it. I choose the topic "Cellphone Tracking." I choose that, because everyone in the U.S. has a Cellphone. Everyone is constantly using their phone to text, look at the internet, and talk to people. This topic is important to me and to most people in the U.S. and that's why I choose this topic.

The article written by Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) said that the government were secretly going around laws and tracking our location and phone activity. That is kind of a scary thought, that someone can see every move you make. It might make people think twice about using their phone to look something up. Also they stated that a judge admitted to getting around laws. EFF said that they were trying to fight for our right of privacy. Atleast some people think that the government is a little to nosy.

Bibliography:

EFF. "Cell Tracking | Electronic Frontier Foundation." Electronic Frontier Foundation | Defending Your Rights in the Digital World. Web. 01 Nov. 2011.https://www.eff.org/issues/cell-tracking