Week 9.3 Summarizing

From the Biography of James Madison at http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/jm4.html:

Madison made a major contribution to the ratification of the Constitution by writing, with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, the Federalist essays. In later years, when he was referred to as the "Father of the Constitution," Madison protested that the document was not "the off-spring of a single brain," but "the work of many heads and many hands."

White House.gov's Biography of James Madison

James Madison was a major contributor to the creation of the Constitution, but was known to point out that he was not alone in the creation.

Week 9.2 Paraphrasing

From the Biography of James Madison at http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/jm4.html:

Madison made a major contribution to the ratification of the Constitution by writing, with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, the Federalist essays. In later years, when he was referred to as the "Father of the Constitution," Madison protested that the document was not "the off-spring of a single brain," but "the work of many heads and many hands."

According to the James Madison Biography at White House.gov some of the main additions to the Constitution were the Federalist essays that Madison wrote along with John Jay and Alexander Hamilton. (whitehouse.gov)

Technorati Thing

Technorati Profile

Week 8.2

book:

Berkin, Carol. A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution.New York: Harcourt, Inc., 2002.

The Author Carol Berkin, is a according to the book jacket, an American History Professor at City University of New York and Baruch College. She also bares a striking resemblance to Tilda Swinton.

The Publisher, Harcourt, inc is not one i'm familiar with. According to the website, they are a global education company and they have unparalleled values.

Having a 2002 publishing date, makes the book, fairly current, which would keep it up to date with modern topics.

Week 8.3

I "ping'd" Technorati. I also signed up with them. I probably didn't need to do that. I just did.

Week 8...

from the Belmar Library, searched in the history research section:

Berkin, Carol. A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution.New York: Harcourt, Inc., 2002.

Jewell, Elizabeth. U.S. Presidents Factbook.New York: Random House Referance, 2005.

Madaras, Larry and James M. SoRelle Taking Sides: Clasing Views in United States History - Volume One.Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2009. (wow! the future!!!)

and

Johnston, Robert D. National Geographic: Making of America. Washington D.C.: National Geographic, 2004.

Week 7, Post 2.3 MetaEureka Review

Strengths
Simple.
Downloadable Desktop toolbar. (Award Winning)
Handy help section.
Weaknesses
Simple.
Most of the more advanced functions onlyavailablewhen you download the toolbar.
Toolbar is not Mac compliant. Boo!
Search Engines and Directories Searched
from what I can tell, only Google.
Databases
Internet only.
Operators
Default operation
Search operators supported math, boolean
Proximity or exact phrase proximity
Truncation or stemming no
Wildcard no
Other

Case Sensitivity
None.
Stop Words
the usual seem to work.
Advanced Search Function
Only when you download the toolbar.
Limits
Date NO
File type no
Field searching no
Language no
Family filter yes
Domain or site no
Other


Sorting
seems to sort by top Google choices.
Display
Number of hits no
Open in new window or tab same window
Cached pages no
Clustering no
Thumbnails no
Suggestions for refining/narrowing search no
Spell check yes
Sponsored results identified no
Update date no
Other


Help Function
Yes, quite helpful for showing how to properly search.
Special Features
Seems like the only Special Features are with the downloadable toolbar.

This was by far the worst of the 3 I reviewed. It's pretty basic. Unless you download the toolbar. Which is not complant with Mac Users. Which I am.

Week 7, Post 2.2 Mamma Review

Strengths
Catchy ironic name
Ability to fine tune searches by focusing on or filtering out key words
Ability to save searches
Separates out searches by engines and directories
Weaknesses
Low results, only shows top 10 per search engine
Some might not like how it separates out the searches by engine
Not related to popular mid-90's Nickelodeon show
Won't let you continue to check for results unless you sign in to an account
Runs.. Very... Slow...
Search Engines and Directories Searched
By Default:
Google
Yahoo
Ebay
Amazon
Ability to add:
Overstock
Buy.com
technorati
MSN
Alexa
And the Ability to add any other
Databases
Web
Shopping
News
Operators
Default operation
Search operators supported Math, Boolean
Proximity or exact phrase Proximity
Truncation or stemming yes
Wildcard yes
Other

Case Sensitivity
There are no issues with case sensitivity
Stop Words
All of the ususal stop words seem to work fine.
Advanced Search Function
I couldn't find any kind of advanced search.
Limits
Date NO
File type NO
Field searching NO
Language NO
Family filter NO
Domain or site Yes
Other


Sorting
Sorts out pages by search engine or directory by the top 5 choices.
Display
Number of hits no
Open in new window or tab new window
Cached pages no
Clustering no
Thumbnails no
Suggestions for refining/narrowing search Yes
Spell check no
Sponsored results identified no
Update date no
Other


Help Function
none. There is a blog that shows updates, but has not had a new feature since June 15.
Special Features
Creator Blog
Join the Community
Ability to give feedback

Mamma was a fairly basic Metacrawler.

Week 7, Post 1

From Google:

Searched: "James Madison Museum"

Result: http://www.jamesmadisonmus.org/
First result.
relevance: 5.

Searched: James Madison Historical
Result: http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/jm4.html
first result.
relevance: 5.

Week 7, Post 2.1 Allth.at Review

Strengths
Catchy ironic name
Ability to fine tune searches by focusing on or filtering out key words
Ability to save searches
Separates out searches by engines and directories
Weaknesses
Low results, only shows top 10 per search engine
Some might not like how it separates out the searches by engine
Not related to popular mid-90's Nickelodeon show
Won't let you continue to check for results unless you sign in to an account
Runs.. Very... Slow...
Search Engines and Directories Searched
By Default:
Google
Yahoo
Ebay
Amazon
Ability to add:
Overstock
Buy.com
technorati
MSN
Alexa
And the Ability to add any other
Databases
Web
Shopping
News
Operators
Default operation
Search operators supported Math, Boolean
Proximity or exact phrase Proximity
Truncation or stemming yes
Wildcard yes
Other

Case Sensitivity
There are no issues with case sensitivity
Stop Words
All of the ususal stop words seem to work fine.
Advanced Search Function
I couldn't find any kind of advanced search.
Limits
Date NO
File type NO
Field searching NO
Language NO
Family filter NO
Domain or site Yes
Other


Sorting
Sorts out pages by search engine or directory by the top 5 choices.
Display
Number of hits no
Open in new window or tab new window
Cached pages no
Clustering no
Thumbnails no
Suggestions for refining/narrowing search Yes
Spell check no
Sponsored results identified no
Update date no
Other


Help Function
none. There is a blog that shows updates, but has not had a new feature since June 15.
Special Features
Creator Blog
Join the Community
Ability to give feedback


Allth.at seems to be fairly stable. It tends to run a little sluggish at times. Of the 3 I reviewed I would probably recomend this one the most.

Week 6, Post 2

Ok, lets do this thing.

Allt.at (www.allt.at.com)

Keywords: james madison AND constitution

search Strategies:

date: 10/2/2008

number of hits: at first, it shows the top 5 of each search engine, but their is an option to see up to 10.

relevance of hits (1-5):4, not bad.

Results: www.fff.org/comment/com0204.asp

Mamma at (www.mamma.com)

Keywords: James Madison AND Constitution

Search Strategies:

Date: 10/2/2008

number of hits: 34

relevance of hits (1-5): 4.5

Week 6 (already?), Post 1

Typically the default search engine i've always used has been google (www.google.com).  This is mainly because it is what is built into Safari's Web Browser.  Prior to this I was an avid Yahoo!(www.yahoo.com) user.  This was only because that was what they taught us how to "use" the internet, way back in the late 90's when I was in High School.  Back then, the internet was still new, and taking an internet class was, edgy.  

new post.

I think i'm, as i figured would happen as the research went on, that I'm going to amend somethings.
A more refined topic to why the articles of confederacy failed and the birth of the constitution. at this point i'm feeling that perhaps I don't need the is the constitution still relevant today.. that might be.. too much. But then again, this could change during the writing process. The writing process itself will tell me what I need and don't need. Even if I still don't really beleive or understand how that works.

Week 5, Post 2. (now that's more original.)

Periodicals

From EBSCO:
This actually sounds like something I would read that wouldn't be for an assignment!

Cohen, Robert. "Was the Constitution pro-Slavery? The Changing View of Frederick Douglass." Social Education 72.5 (Sep. 2008): 246-250. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation].
22 Sep. 2008 .

Also from EBSCO: (Search Articles AND of AND confederation) + CONFEDERATION, 1783-1789, page one, 9th listing.

Swindler, William F. "Our First Constitution: The Articles of Confederation." American Bar Association Journal 67.2 (Feb. 1981): 166. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 25 Sep. 2008 .

Week 5, Post 1. (need more creative post titles!)

I actually used an article in my last post, so here is a book:

From Prospector:

Locke, Jefferson, and the justices : foundations and failures of the US government / by George M. Stephens ; preface by Newt Gingrich. Stephens, George M. New York, Algora Pub, 2002 Referance Works:


Referance Works:

From Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia via EBSCO

Works Cited

"MADISON, James." (n.d.). Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 25 Sep. 2008 .

Works Cited

"CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES." (n.d.). Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 25 Sep. 2008 .

WEEK 4, POST 2.

From the Red Rocks Library:

Freedom: A History Of US

Author Joy Hakim.

Oxford University Press, 2003.

From EBSCO:

Ferrarini, Tawni Hunt, and Mark C. Schug.. "HIstory Matters: An Institutional Approach Examination of the U.S. Constitution." Social Education 71.2 (Mar. 2007): 57-60. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. 22 Sep. 2008 .

From Jeffco:

The U. S. Constitution A to Z.

Robert L. Maddex

CQ Press, 2002.

Jeffco-Belmar Library

Week 4, Post 1.

("American Constitution" OR "US Constitution") +History -"Bill Of Rights"

+History of the +("U.S." OR US OR "United States" OR American) +Constitution

"Articles Of Confederation" AND "John Locke"
James Madison AND "Father Of The Constitution"

WEEK3, POST 3

My basic question is this: 

How the Constitution was created out of the failures of the Articles of Confederation using the ideas of John Locke and is it still relevant today?

Keywords:

Constitution

Bill of Rights

Law

Government

ordinace

physical makeup

the nature of something

establishing 

Created

made

thought

mandated

outcome

Failures

not working

default

deliquency

oversight

crash

Relevant

applicable

material

Basic LOG

Government > Law > Constitutional > Constitutions > United States > Constitution of the United States > Bill of Rights >

So far from using this, I've started with The Yahoo Directory, Dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster.  I feel like I came up with some good word choices, like oversight, which I didn't think of before. The Yahoo Directory seemed to work well for helping to find a Ladder of Generalization as well as some helpful links to, mostly (obviously) government sites.

WEEK 3, POST 2.

The problem with my research topic is that Colorado doesn't have a sufficient Colonial History Museum. This is mostly due to the fact that Colorado isn't a Colonial state. The Colorado History Museum might be a place to start, but again, that really won't do much for me.

Another suggestion given to me was to actually go to the Capitol building to perhaps, interview or set up an interview with somebody about the constitutional impact on Colorado, or their thoughts... Maybe a senator, or something, but that probably would be an out of reach goal, especially considering that this is sort of a big election year (maybe). 

Another Idea, is The Government's website. I'm sure I'd be able to email somebody at some point about it.  Again, somebody that would be easily attainable.

WEEK 3, POST 1

At this point I'm not quite sure if I need to modify my topic. Of course that doesn't really mean anything. It just depends on what mindset I'm in. Some points it seems like I need more, other points it feels like I've already got too much, and I need to trim it down a bit. At the very least, I do know now that I am not going to focus much of my topic on the Bill Of Rights, specifically, because another student is doing that topic for his report. I don't wish to make things redundant.  Ironically, as I have written the first part of this a few days ago, and the second part, well.. now, the other student, Matt, who is doing the Bill Of Rights, has given me some suggestions as to help.  In actuality, his ideas are good, and might give more structure to the overall topic.  I think I need to work on setting up a formal outline pretty soon.