Monday, January 30, 2012

Final inqury question

My inquiry process has a lot of small questions that I will hopefully use to answer a much broader question.  That question is, what is the best type of e-reader for a library user?

Concept Map


Inquiry project
Concept Map-What is the best possible e-reader for public and school library use?

Known E-readers
1.       Nook
1.       Nook
2.       Nook Color
3.       Nook Tablet
4.       Nook Touch
Prices?
File Types?
Capabilities?
2.       Kindle
1.       Kindle
2.       Kindle Fire
3.       Kindle dx
4.       Kindle touch
Prices?
File Types?
Capabilities?

·         Sony
1.       Reader
2.       All other models discontinued
Prices?
File Types?
Capabilities?
·         Apple
1.       IPhone
2.       IPodTouch
3.       IPad
Prices?
File types?
Capabilities?

Steps and Stages of Inquiry

The pathways to knowledge has 6 different steps that a user takes.  They can be done non-linearly, but I am going be linear with my project, for organization's sake. 

Step 1: Appreciation and Enjoyment

My inquiry is top e-readers.  I chose this topic because of my love for reading, mixed with my interest in modern technology.  Since I own a NookColor, I do believe that I truly know what I want when it comes to reading e-books. 

Step 2: Presearch

As state before, I own an E-reader of my own, so I have a little bit of knowledge on what E-readers do already.  However, do have some questions that I would like to answer on during the course of this inquiry project.

What types of files are best used for E-books?
What features should E-readers have that make them better than physical copies?
What types of readers would be best for libraries, both public and school?
What companies can give grants that can go towards e-readers for libraries?

Step 3: Search

E-readers are actually not that difficult to acquire information on.  Since they have become so popular within the past couple of years, more and more companies are releasing e-readers and tablets with e-book capabilities.  The best source of information for these devices, as far as software and hardware goes is directly on the manufacture's website.  For example, I can find out all the specs of my nookcolor right off of Barnes and Noble's website. Looking at the page I can see that they have just released a new update this past december, It stores 5 gigs of memory as well as having an application market. 

This information isn't limited to company websites however, there are plenty of technological blogs and tech magazine reviews to be found all over the place that also give users the idea of what a device is capable of. 

Step 4:  Interpretation

As far as interpretation goes I will be keeping plenty of notes on the information that I find and will use them to aid in the final evaluation paper.  These notes and facts I will eventually incorporate into the final synopsis and reflection of the inquiry process.

Step 5: Communication

This step will be my final paper in which I will try to answer the questions previously stated in step 2.  Hopefully it will be helpful in aiding others to determine which e-reader will be the best of use for library settings.

Step 6: Evaluation.

This step is for my own use while going through the inquiry process, as i go through the different steps I will evaluate on how I am doing and feeling as far as the inquiry goes. It will help me edit my notes as well as revise my final paper on the subject. This will probably be manifested in the posts on this blog as well.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Inquiry Assignment LIS 568 Introduction

I will be using this blog to complete the Inquiry Assignment for LIS 568.  The research model I will be using is pathways to knowledge.  My topic is top E-Readers.