INFO 521 Mar2010 IPL Assignment

INFO_521_Mar2010_IPL Assignment Pik Kwan Rivera

I. Asian Currency Crisis

Question:

Where would I be able to find great sources on the history and

analysis of the Asian Currency Crisis back in 1997?

from:

confirm:

location: Stockton, California

area: Business

reason: For a finance paper.

school: Yes

Hello from IPL2,

Thank you for your question about the Asian currency crisis of 1997. I found a few sources that will allow you to search for additional information about the event.

I began my search by going to the US federal government site for making inquiries about numerous subjects. This site is called Search USA and can be accessed using the link below:

http://search.usa.gov/

In the Search USA website, I conducted a keyword search using the term – asian financial crisis of 1997. The site that resulted from the search is available at:

http://search.usa.gov/search?format=html&locale=en&m=&page=20&query=asian+financial+crisis+of+1997

This link is rather long and may break during loading or accessing. I am providing a shortened version to avoid this issue. The link is:

http://tinyurl.com/yljp7u4

This site provides you a number of other sources to find information about the history and outcomes from the event. These other sources include government sites including information from the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury. You will find numerous articles that will also provide additional references that you can consider for your research.

Another source that I consulted for information about the event is the Library of Congress. You can access the Libraries website using the following link:

http://loc.gov/

I performed the keyword search on the term - Asian financial crisis of 1997. The results of this search can be accessed with this link:

http://www.loc.gov/fedsearch/metasearch/?cclquery=Asian+financial+crisis+of+1997

Again, this link is rather long and can experience breakage during loading. I am providing the following shortened version for your convenience.

http://tinyurl.com/yka7yaq

This search provided a list of on-line resources you can access on the topic. The resources range in coverage from the causes of the crisis, through the transitions that countries had to make, and the lessons learned from the ordeal.

A source that I knew would provide good analysis of the crisis was the Harvard Business School. They have a school press website that I conducted a search in Google engine to find. You can access the Google engine using the link below:

http://www.google.com

I then conducted a keyword search for the term – Harvard business school press. Once in the site, I noticed the heading “China Connections – Harvard Business School” as one of the listings. I selected the heading and was directed to the link below:

www.fas.harvard.edu/~asiactr/china/business.html

Once in this site, I selected the heading “Asia-Pacific Research Center.” It’s direct link is the following:

http://www.hbs.edu/global/research/asia/center/

Within this site’s main page, I conducted a search of the keywords – financial crisis of 1997. You can access the results of the search using the following link:

http://search.hbs.edu:8765/?qt=financial+crisis+of+1997

This site provides a wide selection of research papers discussing the effects of the crisis on various parts of Asia including Korea and Hong Kong. It also provides a chronology of the crisis and examination of the management of the crisis by Asian nations.

Each of these sources is authoritative sites for information on the crisis. I hope these sources will serve your research purposes. If you have additional questions, please let us know.

Thank you for using IPL2 and we look forward to providing you our service again in the future.

Log Entry:

1. amount of time spent – Approximately 3 hours

2. sources consulted and strategies used (beyond the one used for the answer) – For this question, I consulted IPL to begin with but found that my keyword searches did not yield many results. I also consulted the site for Harvard Business School thinking that they would have extensive discussion on the topic. I accessed the institutional repository and found only a few articles regarding the subject. It may have been the specific repository section that I was accessing.

3. critique and level of satisfaction with the answer provided – I was actually very pleased with choosing Search USA for this question. It offered many sources of information in one location. This, I find, can be very helpful for students who are not very comfortable with conducting searches or who haven’t much experience doing so.

4. anything that you would do differently in the future – in this case, I felt the search was productive and the sources authoritative. This particular event, I consider still pretty recent, and felt it has not been evaluated to a very great extent. I am sure that as more years pass from the event and, in consideration of the recent economic crisis, there will be more research and resources, in the future, on the topic.

II. Distracted Driving In Maine

Needed by: 3/24/2010

Question:

Hi I am Nadine and I am from Maine and we are doing a project

about Maine distracted drivng. My group which also includes 4

more people we need more information if you could help us find

any info on distracted driving in maine that would be great! We

already have found the law for it and everything but we need more

info and we need to find on what we should add! If you could help

us that would be great! Thank you for you time

from:

confirm:

location: Maine

area: Government

reason: For are social studies project on distracted driving

school: Yes

sources_consulted: maine.gov and marvel maine

Hello from IPL2,

Thank you for your question about distracted driving in Maine.

You mentioned that you found the law discussing distracted

driving in Maine and that you had visited the website Maine.gov

for information. Recognizing that Maine’s Department of

Transportation may have additional information you can include

into your report, I visited the site again to see what I could

find for you.

Although you are familiar with the site, I am providing the link

below for your convenience:

http://www.Maine.gov

Once in the site, I conducted a keyword search using the term –

distracted driving. The listing of results contained a document

that will provide historical information about the problem of

distracted driving specifically relating to the state of Maine.

You may wish to include some of this information in your project

to give some background information and to demonstrate the

progress that your state government has made to address the

issue. This document is the 3rd selection in the list of results

and is titled “Week of June 10, 2002: MaineDOT Flash Facts.”

You can access this document directly using the link below:

www.maine.gov/mdot/safetyoffice/flashfacts/Good%20Driving%20Habit

s/Driver%20Distractions%20New.doc

Because the link is rather long and may break during loading or

accessing, I am providing a shortened version of the link for

your convenience. Please find this link below:

http://tinyurl.com/yhj82xs

Another source, that I know to provide information on

transportation safety issues, is the

National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA.).

You can find this US government site using the link below:

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/

I performed a keyword search using the term – distracted driving.

The results I received included a selection titled “Distracted

Driving | National Highway Traffic Safety ...” You can go

directly to this selection using the following link:

http://www.distraction.gov/

This authoritative site provides information on statistics,

research, state actions, and etc. relating to distracted driving.

You may wish to consider adding some national statistics on

distracted driving and compare it to the results specific to

Maine. This would provide your audience an idea of the extent of

the problem and its impact on different states throughout the

nation. What I found beneficial from this site is the guidance

they provide to individuals, parents, medical professionals, and

etc. to educate them on what can be done to prevent distracted

drivers and driving. This is available under the tab labeled

“Take Action” on the right side of the main page. You may wish

to include some of this information to also raise awareness in

your community!

Two other sources I recommend to research the topic are the

American Psychological Association (APA) and the National Safety

Council (NSC.) You can access their websites using the links

below:

http://apa.org/

http://www.nsc.org/Pages/Home.aspx

In both these sites, I performed the same keyword search that I

used in the previous searches - distracted driving.

The APA provides a list of articles that discuss the related

factors that contribute to driving distraction. You can go

directly to this list using this link:

http://search.apa.org/search?query=distracted+driving

I recommend that you specifically read articles 1-4, 6, 8, and

21. You may find additional information that you can add to your

project, including information about how different populations

(e.g. the aged, teens) experience distraction and how these

issues are being addressed.

In the NSC website, there is a list of articles and reports that

you may wish to review for additional facts and information for

your project. The direct link to this list is the following:

http://www.nsc.org/search/results.aspx?k=distracted

Some of the resources that I think would be interesting for you

to highlight in your project is the availability of tools, such

as self-help education for employers and individuals to learn

about factors that cause driver distraction and how to avoid

them. This resource is titled as “Distracted Driving Kit” in the

documents list. You can go directly to this resource using the

link below:

http://www.nsc.org/Pages/DistractedDrivingkit.aspx

Other tools you may find beneficial are fact sheets and quizzes

to raise awareness about causes and consequences of driving

distracted. These would be useful to hand out to your audience

if you have to make a presentation as part of your project.

The fact sheet is titled, “Distracted Driving Fact Sheet” on the

results page. You can access this article directly with:

http://www.nsc.org/safety_road/Distracted_Driving/Documents/Distracted

Driving Fact Sheet 2009.pdf

The quiz is titled, “Distracted Driving Quiz.pdf” on the 2nd page

of results. You can go directly to this quiz using:

http://www.nsc.org/safety_home/SafetyBehindWheel/Documents/Distracted

Driving Quiz.pdf

Because the link is long and may experience issues during loading

or accessing, I am providing this shortened link for your

convenience:

http://tinyurl.com/yfn9p8q

For your information, the following link provide the answers for

the quiz.

http://www.nsc.org/safety_home/SafetyBehindWheel/Documents/Distracted

Driving Quiz Answers.pdf

Again, to ensure that you do not have any problems opening the

long link, the following is a shortened version for your

convenience:

http://tinyurl.com/ykuxnzf

I hope this information is helpful for developing your project.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to

write to us again. Good luck on your project!

Thank you for using IPL2 and we look forward to servicing your

information needs again.

Log Entry:

1. amount of time spent – Approximately 4-5 hours

2. sources consulted and strategies used (beyond the one used for the answer) - Other sites that I consulted for this search were the Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, and National Transportation Safety Board. Having considerable experience with using these sites and with transportation safety issues, I am aware of the extensive amounts of information that can be found on topics such as distracted driving. As there are currently many initiatives to address distracted driving, there is more and more reports and analysis being produced each day to address the issue. Using the strategy of government sites also provide feedback on other agencies and research institutions that are working on the same issue and their products.

3. critique and level of satisfaction with the answer provided - I believe I provided a comprehensive look at the issue and provided the patron with sound recommendations for their project. Whether their project is to justify the need for additional action by their legislature or to provide awareness to their communities, the sources provide facts and statistics they can use to make sound arguments. By providing national statistics and information on initiatives taken by other states than Maine, they can demonstrate that this problem is widespread and has received attention nationally. Additionally, the tools that I introduced also demonstrate that this problem is being addressed by all walks of communities including parents, educators, business owners, in addition to lawmakers. By gosh, even Oprah Winfrey takes a stand on the issue.

4. anything that you would do differently in the future - in this case, I believe I am thorough without being overwhelming. Since this topic has many tenets – one can overdo recommending sources and lead the patron in too many directions. My objective was to focus my recommendations to facts that can support their argument (or change their mind to the fact that this is a big and important problem in our society at this time.)

III. Motivation For School

Question:

What are ways to motivate myself for school/academics?

from:

confirm:

location: stockton

area: Literature

reason: To apply to my school work

school: No

Hello from IPL2. Thank you for your question about motivation to go to school. I found a number of sources that discuss ways to develop motivation for school/study. These suggestions include getting interested in the subject(s) that you are studying, set achievable goals, open your mind to new ideas and people, don’t be afraid to explore and ask questions, overcoming stereotypes and prior experiences that made you believe you are not intelligent, and prioritize to keep perspective and a positive attitude.

These suggestions came from a few websites that I consulted. One source that I consulted was the American Psychological Association (APA) website. You can access their website using the following:

http://www.apa.org

I conducted a keyword search for – motivation and academics. A very good resource appeared on page 4 of the results listing. The article is #36, titled “Believing You Can Get Smarter Makes You Smarter.” You can go directly to the article using the link below:

http://www.apa.org/research/action/smarter.aspx

This article revealed that motivation can be improved in students who learn that intelligence is not static but malleable and changeable. This was found to be particularly important for students who experienced low prior achievement, female students, and who felt they could not change their intelligence level.