Two upcoming talks I'm giving this weekend (ALA and IRE)

A Public Service Announcement for librarians, reporters, and editors...  

I'm giving two different talks this weekend.  If you find yourself at either event, please come up and say hi!  (It's great to meet SRS readers in the real world.)  


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Saturday, June 24, 2017
American Library Association (ALA)  

where:  Chicago Convention Center, McCormick Place, W180

time:  1PM – 2:30PM 

title:  “What do you need to know? Learning and Knowing in the Age of the Internet”

abstract: What does it mean to be literate at a time when you can search billions of texts in less than half a second? Although you might think that "literacy" is one of the great constants that transcends the ages, the skills of a literate person have changed substantially over time as texts and technology allow for new kinds of reading and understanding. Knowing how to read is just the beginning of it -- knowing how to frame a question, pose a query, how to interpret the texts you find, how to organize and use the information you discover, how to understand your metacognition -- these are all critical parts of being literate as well. In this talk I’ll review what literacy is in the age of Google, and show how some very surprising and unexpected skills will turn out to be critical in the years ahead. 

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Sunday, June 25, 2017

Investigative Reporters and Editors Conference (IRE) 

where:  JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge.  Grand Canyon 11-13 (conference room)

time:  9 - 10AM

title:  “How to become an instant expert using Google: Advanced search methods” 

abstract:  It's happened to you--you need to do a story on a topic that's completely outside of your experience.  Surely there's someone more qualified?  The answer is usually NO.  Now what?  Now you have to come up to speed on that topic ASAP.  In this mini-course I'll show you the strategies and tactics I use to learn a domain as rapidly as possible.  You won't be an expert, but you'll have a bunch of tips and methods to get to competence quickly.  I can't make you pass the PhD exam in quantum physics, but a little knowledge about learning and Google search strategies can get to through that story.