Each assignment you complete for the class will contribute to your Final Project. You'll be gathering and evaluating information on your topic for the next few weeks, so pick a subject that really interests you.

1) Go to http://wordpress.com/ or http://www.blogger.com/start (or another blog hosting site if there's one you prefer) and set up a blog to use as your research journal.

2) Write a brief blog entry describing your research topic. Why is this topic of interest to you? What do you already know about your topic? What are you hoping to learn about your topic?

3) Post a link to your blog next to your name below (click edit page, type your blog's URL next to your name, then click save).

Convert your thesis statement into keywords. List keywords and possible synonyms. Attempt to convert keywords into Subject Headings or discover applicable subject headings based upon keyword searches in OPAC. List Subject Headings. Perform searches using keywords and subject headings. List a few applicable results discovered using keyword search. List a few applicable results discovered using subject heading search. Write a short evaluation on the quality of results obtained using both keyword and subject heading searches.

Apply the Evaluating Information criteria to 3 Web resources that are applicable to your research topic. On your blog, post citations for the Web sites and briefly summarize how they meet the evaluation criteria.

Using some of the tools introduced to you, locate periodical information relevant to your topic. Locate information relevant to your research in 5 articles, at least 3 of which should be from peer-reviewed journals. Post citations for each article to your blog, accompanied by brief annotations. Describe the process you used to find your articles (which databases, search terms used).

Locate a minimum of 3 monographs that are relevant to your research topic. Post citations for each monograph to your blog, accompanied by brief annotations.