Web Searching & Social Media Applications (KL-WSSA)

This course will introduce participants to effective and efficient methods and strategies for locating relevant information, participating in social networking and organizing information.

Today the internet is a great potential source of information and a tool for collaboration, but unless you have the navigational skills to search it effectively, many high-quality information resources will stay buried beneath the glut of garbage that makes up the bulk of its content. There is a variety of search tools that will allow you to find the information you are looking for faster and more efficiently. Unfortunately most people are unaware of these tools, and waste valuable hours looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack. This course will show you how to stop wasting hours online and start searching faster and more effectively.

According to the recent McKinsey Global report on building the web 2.0 enterprise, organisations are increasingly using web2.0 tools and technologies such as wikis, blogs, social networks etc. To improve internal and external knowledge collaboration and information exchange. These “social media” allow knowledge workers to build knowledge communities, build web based information repositories, exchange information, and collaborate across organisational boundaries and distance with colleagues, customers, business partners and even competitors. An important component of this course is to show you how to apply web 2.0 tools and techniques to enhance collaborative knowledge creation, sharing and use in your organisation.

Outcomes of the programme

At the end of the course participants should be able to:

  • Locate information using Virtual libraries and Subject Based Information Gateways
  • Describe the characteristics of search engines that influence success in searching
  • Select search engines according to the characteristics of the type of search to be undertaken
  • Develop and implement a suitable search plan, refine it in accord with search results to achieve high relevance and precision
  • Select and use specialized search services to find materials in the “deep web”
  • Evaluate the quality of information and reliability of information sources discovered in searching
  • Create references for web-based materials
  • Outline the characteristics of social networking techniques and personal information management
  • Describe the characteristics of Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 technologies and how they influence social networking and personal information management
  • Set up and use social networking, social bookmarking and personal information management applications
  • Set up and use collaborative writing techniques

Facilitators

Prof Peter G. Underwood
Dr Gretchen Smith
Dr Ben Fouché

Duration of the programme

This course is offered as a 3-day Workshop