information retrieval

Information, information everywhere

Gillian Maguire 2 Comments

To me, one of the most important parts of being a Librarian has always meant helping people to find the information they want, either from the library they are in or from another source using skills learnt  to search the resources available.

Since the advent of the Internet  and the World Wide Web everything has changed. There is so much information available it is difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Yesterday I was sent this link which reports on an example of the new skills that Librarians have to learn now and how these can be shared.

http://digital.vpr.net/post/greene-navigating-internet#stream/0

The librarian says:

…it’s no longer a question of there not being enough information out there, but of there being too much. “There’s more filtering in the librarian’s job now,….People need help discerning good solid sources from the rest.”

The report goes on to describe a group tutorial of searching for information and sorting out what is appropriate and what is not, lead by a librarian. All involved were very pleased with the results.

I am not sure how much of this sort of help is available to those studying and researching Conductive Education. It is not a subject with much academic interest or publication and most of what is available on-line is not of the best quality.

Meeting users’ needs was an  aspect that I really enjoyed when I was working as a librarian in Conductive Education and my knowledge of the library holdings and methods of searching usually bore the right fruit.

I hope that I can still do this with my knowledge of the subject,  limited physical resources, the virtual library catalogue, and connection to the Internet.

Docstoc is closing down

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Yeasterday I found out by chance that Docstoc, an internet site for storing and sharing documents for free is going to close down on 1 December.

http://smallbiztrends.com/2015/09/intuit-acquired-docstoc-now-shutting.html

I made a search to see what items on Conductive Education had been uploaded to the site and found that these had already been removed and were now unavailable. Perhaps they have been moved by their owners to another site.

I also received an email from someone who is offering a similar service (though it seems to be mainly legal documents and papers on offer) and I thought some of you might be interested in investigating this.

Jamie Swift wrote:

As you may know, Docstoc, which was a fantastic online document resource for small businesses and organizations, is closing down permanently on December 1st. Our startup, formswift.com, thinks we can serve as a quality replacement for many of Docstoc’s document productivity tools with the free resources below:

http://formswift.com/free-legal-forms

http://formswift.com/sample-business-plans

http://formswift.com/swot-analysis-guide

I hope this helps, and I look forward to hearing back from you!

Cheers,

Jamie

Jamie Smith

Content Associate, FormSwift – A SaaS startup helping businesses and organizations go paperless

Email: jamie@formswift.com

Do have a look and see if this meets your needs.

On Conduction’s website there is a Document Depository which contains items on CE that are not available anywhere else, such as papers, presentations and articles. If you think your document might be a good candidate for inclusion please do contact me.

 

New online information service goes live today

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Yesterday a posting on Andrew Sutton’s blog drew my attention to a new information service which looks to be very useful to those looking for particular items not available online.

http://www.conductive-world.info/2015/05/excellent-new-online-resource.html

Special Needs Jungle were offering to help access journal articles via Patient INFORM:

So, you’ve found a medical article or research study that’s behind a paywall?

Well, submit the details as indicated below and we will see if we can get it released.

http://www.specialneedsjungle.com/request-an-article-via-patientinform/

This service started today and I have joined up and submitted a request for an article from Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology.  The form  supplied  asks for author, title, journal, date and the URL of the article on the Internet. 

Special Needs Jungle have responded with an email saying: 

Thanks for using our patientINFORM article request system.

This confirms that your request has been received.

We’ll email you when we hear back if that article is available to be accessed  (not all are) and we’ll send you the link.

I will now wait for further news which may take up to six days. 

On further investigation I discovered that PatientINFORM  works with medical journals only, which  may limit its usefulness re items on Conductive Education.  A   list of the publishers and journals  involved are on its website at

http://www.patientinform.org/participating-journals-alpha/

For the past five years I have been compiling the Virtual Library catalogue of items relevant to Conductive Education that are  freely available online either in full or just an abstract, and also those that need payment .

http://e-conduction.org/virtual-library-new/

This new service  is available to individuals only.

The resulting information can be printed off but  cannot be circulated to others in any way ( for copyright reasons, I assume).

 I hope that it can complement my catalogue nicely.

Virtual Library catalogue update

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Some more items have gone into the Virtual Library catalogue over the past week or so. Quite a mixture!

 

Conductive Education for motor disorders
A.A.Dunk
1988
Letter in journal

Buddy Bear Trust Conductive Education Independent School, Dungannon ; report of an inspection

Education and Training Inspectorate
2013
Report

OCNWMR Level 3 Certificate in Conductive Education (QCF) Qualification guide
OCN
2013
Course guide

Conductive Education Waikato Unit education review
ERO New Zealand
2013
Report

Handbook Conductive Education; together constructive conductive
Helga Keil-Bastendorff, and others
Grundvig Project report
2012

Conductive Education; a glossary
Consortia EqualRehab
2012
Book produced within the European Commission’s
Lifelong Learning Programme

Just do it!
Edited by Andrew Sutton and Gill Maguire
2009
Book extract

Last year in Hong Kong
Andrew Sutton
2011
Book extract

[A review of] Conductive Education for children with cerebral palsy by Ludwig, S [and others]
University of York Centre for Reviews and Dissemination
n.d.
Research review

[A review of] effects of Conductive Education intervention for children with a diagnosis of cerebral palsy: an AACPDM evidence report [by Darrah, J., and others]
University of York Centre for Reviews and Dissemination
n.d.
Research review

These and another 450 items can be found in the catalogue on Conduction’s website  at

New additions to the Virtual Library catalogue

Gillian Maguire Leave a comment

I am almost back to normal now after the hacking of my blog and have managed to enter some more items in the virtual library catalogue, 27 to be precise.

 http://e-conduction.org/virtual-library-new/

Please note that not all items are freely available so some of these  can only be obtained in full by making a payment or via a subscription to the publication concerned.

You will see that there is quite a mixture of journal articles, blog postings, letters, reviews etc.

Review: Anita Tatlow: Conductive Education for Children and Adolescents with Cerebral Palsy. Enquiry into Theory and Practice.
O. Surtees
2007
Book review

The development of Conductive Education in Germany
PHOENIX GmbH, Bundesverband der Konduktoren e.V.
2011
website doc
Pető András orvos, a konduktív mozgásterápiai képzés megalapozója (Andras Peto, physician, founder of the conductive movement therapy training)
Anon
2005
website document
Review of Essential Skills in Demand Lists; Special Education Teachers nec (Conductor (Conductive Education Practitioner)) (241599)
NEW ZEALAND. Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
2013
Website document

Review of selected physical therapy interventions for school age children with disabilities
S. K. Effgen and I. McEwen
2007
Review

How effective are programs based on conductive education? A report of two studies
S. Bochner, and others
1999
Journal article

National Institute of Conductive Education
Ofsted
2013
report

H3 Conductive Education visa
Kerosky Purves & Bogue
n.d
website document

Evidence-based perspective on CP rehabilitation –reviews on physiotherapy, physiotherapy-related motor-based interventions and orthotic devices
H. Antilla
2008
Dissertation

Amended articles of association in a unified structure
International Pető Association
2004
Website document

Conductive Education: a critical appraisal
A. V. Pedersen
2000
Journal article

Correspondence: Conductive Education [BMJ]
I. Gáti and others
1989
Journal correspondence
Parental perceptions of a short conductive education programme
K.G.Lie and M. Holmes
1996
Journal article
Parents’ conceptions of intensive group training. The case of cerebral palsy
P. Ödman, and others
2009
Journal article
Conductive education using Wii Sport for individuals with disabilities
Z. Zilard, and others
2012
Journal articles
Promoting communication and socialisation in music therapy for children with cerebral palsy
Hong Ching Kho
2011
Thesis
Effectiveness of physiotherapy and conductive education interventions in children with cerebral palsy: a focused review.
H.Antilla, and others
2008
Journal article
Intensive training in group for children with cerebral palsy: evaluation from different perspectives
P. Ödman
2007
Dissertation
Hong Kong Conductive Education source book [a review]
E. Kinnear, and others
1996
Book review

Conductive Education
A. Brereton
2010
Blog posting
Taking a look at Conductive Education
S. Frank
2010
Website document

Disability fears and fears of the disabled in Hungary
D. Varga
2013
Blog posting

To Hungary with love
David Bryan
2014
Blog posting

The development of the verbal regulation of behaviour in cerebral palsy(multiply handicapped) children
R. Burland
1969
Journal article

Is Pető Institute next in line to be nationalized?
B. Novak
2013
magazine article

Introduction [ to Conductive Education for children and adolescents with cerebral palsy]
A.Tatlow
2007
Book excerpt

Independent conduct
K.Gold
2004
magazine article

To find out more about these just go to

 http://e-conduction.org/virtual-library-new/

and enter the autor’s name or words from the title into the appropriate search boxes.  

A Help page for using the catalogue  is available at

 http://e-conduction.org/virtual-library-help-new/

 

Success with the Pető Institute catalogue

Gillian Maguire Leave a comment

Bea Toth has kindly put me right about this and I have now been successful in doing an author search.

Before  entering another name, I needed to end each session of searching, not just delete the name in the search box, then  go back to browse and then insert  Pető, András rather than András Pető and I then got the three records up.

I will now explore other options of searching the catalogue  and see how I get on.

Perhaps there are notes to help with searching but I haven’t managed to find them yet.

 

Searching the Pető Institute library catalogue

Gillian Maguire Leave a comment

After comments received about accessing  the  catalogue of the  Pető Institute library, I have tried again but am  still not getting results for András Pető as author despite trying the way suggested by Bea Toth on Andrew’s Facebook page. 

I have  used the browse option, put in his name, and asked it to search for him as author and still get nothing. It is difficult to believe  that there is nothing catalogued written by the man himself.

I have done this in both the English and Hungarian language versions.

I also  asked it to search  for András Pető using all the fields offered, e.g.  author, title, publisher  and this  resulted in  a list of items that  contain the word Pető. Still none with him as an author.

I had no problem with  searching for material by Mária Hári.

I know how difficult it can be to search unfamiliar catalogues (and re-wrote the help page for the virtual library to make it easier to access the information held), but I would have thought that I could find my way around the Pető Institute library catalogue without any problems.

All suggestions on overcoming this are  welcome

 

New additions to the virtual library catalogue

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I have spent some time last weekend adding new material to the virtual library catalogue and the 17  items are listed below. Some have no date as I was unable to find one but all contain as much information in their entries as I could find.  Just go to

http://e-conduction.org/virtual-library-catalogue/

and enter authors or titles in the appropriate column to find out more and be directed to the documents.

 

Konduktiv pedagogikk og rehabilitering
Ingvild Frøysang
no date
CE in Norway

Improving the writing composition of students with motor disorders
Henriett Pinter
2010
Conference presentation abstract

Conducting achievement
Melanie Brown
n.d.
magazine article

Conductive Education
Rainbow Centre for Conductive Education
n.d.
magazine article

Look what I can do
Charlotte
2008
child’s experiences

What is Conductive Education?
Carson Street School
2012
Leaflet

Conductive Education services
Special Education resource Unit (South Australia)
n.d.
Leaflet

Conductive Education for children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder; experiences from Austria
Monika Weiszmann
2011
Powerpoint presentation

Effect of the Bobath technique, Conductive Education and education to parents in activities of daily living in children with cerebral palsy in Iran
Hamid Dalvand
2009
Journal article

8th World Congress Rhythm and balance; congress programme
Organising Committee of 8th World Congress
2013
Conference programme

World Congress 8 abstract book
International Pető Association
2013
Abstract book

Conductive Education BA (Hons)
Birmingham City University
2013
Course information

The evaluation of the Conductive Education program and the Cognitive Stimulation program in a home for children with developmental disabilities in a rural area of South Africa
Anne Mathot
2010
Thesis

Brain retraining hope for motor-disorder victims: campaigner
Anon
1999
news item

Conductive education course set to close
Anon
2011
magazine news item

Sen o Ameryce
Ada Prochyra
2013
magazine interview

Ausschnitt Studienaufbau Bachelorstudiengang Heilpädagogik-Schwerpunkt Konduktive Pädagogik
Evangelische Hochschule Nürnberg
2014
Degree course information

To find these and many more go to

http://e-conduction.org/virtual-library-catalogue/

Libraries, what are they for?

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 Ever since I was a child I have used libraries for pleasure and information. Most people of my age that I know do the same. But how many other people actually know what they are for, and use them for this? Even students seem to struggle at times.

  • Libraries are depositories of information which is organised and arranged to make retrieval as easy and quick as possible.
  • Their contents are listed in a catalogue which can be searched to indicate whether and where information is stored.

  • Librarians are professional people trained in organising such information, helping users find what they want and establishing the location of such material in their own library – or elsewhere.

This is put beautifully in this excerpt from Libraries are Essential:

 There is much more to doing real research than typing a few words into a search engine such as Google. Librarians are trained to do high-level research, which supports scientists, doctors, lawyers, professors, writers, government officials, and other important professionals every single day. Without the aide of librarians, all of these people would be making decisions without having all of the relevant knowledge they need on their topics.

 http://www.librariesareessential.com/why-are-libraries-essential/

Conductive Education libraries

 Libraries and librarians may seem an easy target when financial cuts are to be made, which means that valuable resources are not being exploited to the full. Conductive Education publications are limited in number and new, accurate material can be hard to find. Five years ago the Foundation for Conductive Education decided that it could no longer prioritise the expertise of a professional librarian for its library and recently the Pető Institute lost its librarian (I do not know whether a replacement has yet been appointed. Would not this be public information deserving of prioritisation?). Who is maintaining and developing these libraries now?

 I do not know.

SAHK in Hong Kong has a library but I do not think it is open access as the others are. A few years ago a ‘mobile’ library was established to be used by all the conductors and centres in New Zealand. Again I do not know if that is still a going concern.

As far as I know there are no other collections of any size other than personal ones.

The Virtual Library of Conductive Education

 In 2009 I started collecting information on items on the Internet and catalogued the details in the Virtual Library catalogue. This now  has a new format and an updated help page.Yesterday I spent time entering further details of material available on line into this catalogue.

 http://e-conduction.org/virtual-library-new/

I will post occasional lists of yet more items added here on this blog.

Other sources of information

Information about Conductive Education is now accessible via e-conduction’s website which acts as a knowledge portal leading people to blogs, books, unpublished material, and conductors’ workplaces:

 http://e-conduction.org/

Previous postings on libraries and information:

http://e-conduction.org/ceinformation/librarians-are-always-happy-to-help/

http://e-conduction.org/ceinformation/new-year-new-library/

http://e-conduction.org/ceinformation/232/

 

 

 

 

Doing a project? New book available to help

Gillian Maguire Leave a comment
 I have found out about a new book for those doing a research project . This is A Beginner’s Guide to Doing Your Education Research Projectby Mike Lambert and more can be found out about the book and its author at

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beginners-Guide-Education-Research-Project/dp/0857029819/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1350480170&sr=1-1

I know students can sometimes struggle with doing this part of their course and it can be quite intimidating. In this book all aspects of doing a research project are covered by  simple explanations and helpful suggestions. Planning, doing, writing up, choosing the subject, completing the literature review, for example are all covered.

If I was still working in an academic library I would be suggesting this to students to borrow – or even buy.

More can be found out about the book and its author at
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beginners-Guide-Education-Research-Project/dp/0857029819/ref=sr_1_1?