Copyright and Fair use

What is copyright?Copyright protects certain kinds of "original works of authorship" -- whether
published or unpublished. Copyright grants the author of the work the legal right
to determine how or whether the work will be reproduced, distributed, displayed,
or performed, as well as the right to produce derivative works based on the
original.
What is covered by copyright?
According to Title 17 o f the U.S. Code, copyright protects works "fixed in any
tangible medium of expression" in these categories:
· literary works
· musical works, including any accompanying words
· dramatic works, including any accompanying music
· pantomimes and choreographic works
· pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works
· motion pictures and other audiovisual works
· sound recordings
· architectural works
These categories are interpreted liberally. For example, "literary works" does not
refer literature of the Western canon, but anything written in a language.
Computer programs are protected as part of this category, as are personal
letters
What is "fair use"?
Copyright law allows portions of a copyrighted work to be used without the
author's permission for specific purposes. This is referred to as "fair use."
Fair use allows for portions, or in some cases the entirety, of copyrighted works
to be used for purposes such as "criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching
(including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research."

INFORMATION SYSTEM

Information systems are the software and hardware systems that support data-intensive applications. Information Systems publishes articles concerning the design and implementation of languages, data models, algorithms, software and hardware for information systems.

Subject areas include data management issues as presented in the principal international database conferences (e.g. ACM SIGMOD, ACM PODS, VLDB and EDBT) as well as data-related issues from the fields of data mining, information retrieval, natural language processing, internet data management, visual and audio information systems, scientific computing, and organisational behaviour.

All papers should motivate the problems they address with compelling examples from real or potential applications. Systems papers must be serious about experimentation either on real systems or simulations based on traces from real systems. Papers from industrial organisations that discuss the practical implementation of systems are welcome.

Theoretical papers should have a clear motivation from applications. They should either break significant new ground or unify and extend existing algorithms. Such papers should clearly state which ideas have potentially wide applicability.

In addition to publishing submitted articles, the Editors-in-Chief will invite retrospective articles that describe significant projects by the principal architects of those projects.

Authors of such articles should write in the first person, tracing the social as well as technical history of their projects, describing the evolution of ideas, mistakes made, and reality tests. Technical results should be explained in a uniform notation with the emphasis on clarity and on ideas that may have applications outside of the environment of that research. Particularly complex details may be summarised with references to previously published papers.

We will make every effort to allow authors the right to republish papers appearing in Information Systems in their own books and monographs.

Information Technology

Information technology (IT), as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), is "the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware." IT deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit, and securely retrieve information.

Today, the term information technology has ballooned to encompass many aspects of computing and technology, and the term is more recognizable than ever before. The information technology umbrella can be quite large, covering many fields. IT professionals perform a variety of duties that range from installing applications to designing complex computer networks and information databases. A few of the duties that IT professionals perform may include data management, networking, engineering computer hardware, database and software design, as well as the management and administration of entire systems.

When computer and communications technologies are combined, the result is information technology, or "infotech". Information Technology (IT) is a general term that describes any technology that helps to produce, manipulate, store, communicate, and/or disseminate information. Presumably, when speaking of Information Technology (IT) as a whole, it is noted that the use of computers and information are associated.

Evaluation

Evaluation is about using monitoring and other information you collect to make judgements about your project. It is also about using the information to make changes and improvements.

Evaluation aims to answer agreed questions and to make a judgement against specific criteria. Like other research, for a good evaluation, data must be collected and analysed systematically, and its interpretation considered carefully. Assessing 'value' - or the worth of something - and then taking action makes evaluation distinctive. The results of an evaluation are intended to be used.

There are many different perspectives and approaches to evaluation. Answering questions such as 'Why are we doing it?' 'Who is the evaluation for?' and 'What are the key issues to address?' will help you decide whether you wish to self-evaluate or to have an external evaluation. The questions will help you to think about what you want to focus on. For example, this could be:

your organisational structure and how it works
how you carry out your services or activities
how users experience the project
what changes or benefits the project brings about

Rublic

Heidi Goodrich, a rubrics expert, defines a rubric as "a scoring tool that lists the criteria for a piece of work or 'what counts.'" So a rubric for a multimedia project will list the things the student must have included to receive a certain score or rating. Rubrics help the student figure out how their project will be evaluated. Goodrich quotes a student who said he didn't much care for rubrics because "if you get something wrong, your teacher can prove you knew what you were supposed to do."

Generally rubrics specify the level of performance expected for several levels of quality. These levels of quality may be written as different ratings (e.g., Excellent, Good, Needs Improvement) or as numerical scores (e.g., 4, 3, 2, 1) which are then added up to form a total score which then is associated with a grade (e.g., A, B, C, etc).

Many rubrics also specify the level of assistance (e.g., Independently, With Minimal Adult Help; With Extensive Adult Help) for each quality rating.

Rubrics can help students and teachers define "quality". Rubrics can also help students judge and revise their own work before handing in their assignments.

Information literacy

School research is a training ground for real life.

Information literacy skills are skills you will need through your life. We are always seeking information. What car or stereo should I buy? Which college should I choose? Which book should I read next? How can I sell this idea to my boss? How can I convince the school board to act on my proposal? Information helps us reach conclusions, make our choices, and communicate more effectively. But the good stuff is often buried in heaps of junk. We need to continue to improve our searching, evaluating and communication skills in a changing information environment.

Remember computer literacy is not information literacy. For a comparison, read this article.

This summary is loosely based on a model for information skills called the Big6 by Michael Eisenberg and Robert Berkowitz. Please take time to visit the Big6 Website.

So, how should I approach research as an information literate student?

1. Defining your problem and asking the good questions

What is my thesis or problem?

What information do I need?

What do I already know?

What more do I need to find out?

2. Information seeking strategies?

Where can I find the information I need? Which are the best possible sources? Which databases are the best choices?
Which types of sources will best help me solve my information problem? Which sources do I already have?
Do I need help to find the resources or to make sure I haven't overlooked any critical sources?

3. Selecting and evaluating your resources
How can I search these sources effectively?
After reading, can I identify better keywords or subject headings to refine my electronic search?
Do the resources I found really answer my questions or offer evidence to support my thesis?
Have I carefully examined my selected sources for significant details and concepts?
Have I examined my sources for currency, relevance, accuracy, credibility, appropriateness and and bias?
Can I defend all of the resources I am considering for inclusion in my works consulted page?
Does the scope, depth and quality of my research meet my teacher's and my own expectations?
How will I credit my sources?

4. Organizing and restructuring information

How much of the information I collected is truly relevant?
Do I see any patterns emerging in the information I collected?
How can I organize this information so that it makes sense to myself and others? Do I have a strategy for notetaking?
Can I construct a visual tool or written outline to help me structure my work?
Have I solved my information problem and answered the related questions?
Do I have enough information?

5. Communicating the results of your research

Who is my audience?
How can I most effectively share this information with this audience?
Which would be the best format for communicating the results of my information? PowerPoint? video? essay? debate? speech? traditional paper?
What do I need to do this presentation? Equipment? Software?
Have I included everything I want to share?
Have I proofread, edited and truly finished my project?



6. Evaluating your work

The product:

Am I proud of the product? Was it effective?
Did I meet the guidelines or follow the rubric for the project?
Am I sure I did not plagiarize from any of my sources?
Is the best work I could have done?
The process:

Did I explore the full scope of available resources and select the best?
Did I approach the research process energetically?
Did I search electronic resources (the Web and licensed databases) using effective, efficient, strategic search strategies?

Search engine

A program that searches documents for specified keywords and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found. Although search engine is really a general class of programs, the term is often used to specifically describe systems like Google, Alta Vista and Excite that enable users to search for documents on the World Wide Web and USENET newsgroups.
Typically, a search engine works by sending out a spider to fetch as many documents as possible. Another program, called an indexer, then reads these documents and creates an index based on the words contained in each document. Each search engine uses a proprietary algorithm to create its indices such that, ideally, only meaningful results are returned for each query.

See How Web Search Engines Work in the Did You Know...? section of Webopedia.
Also see "Web Search Engines & Directories" in the Quick Reference section of Webopedia.