GEOGRAPHY 102: ASSIGNMENT #4, LIBRARY AND INTERNET QUIZ

	PART ONE: INTERNET ACTIVITIES

This evaluation of Internet resources involves three separate activities.
Each activity is intended in some way to complement the work you're doing
on other assignments and the insights gained from the presentations by our
CSUS librarians.

The first activity has you draw a cartogram of places mentioned on search
engines.  The second activity has you evaluate high profile websites that
are associated with geography.  The final activity sends you to websites
at important Ph.D.-granting universities.

FIRST ACTIVITY (25 points of Assignment #4's total of 100)
Cartograms are useful devices that replace the usual physical area
measurements of states and countries shown on maps with areas sized by
other quantitative measures--population, GNP, or, in our assignment,
number of mentions on search engines and data bases.

On the sign-up sheet circulating in class choose one grid square--the
intersection of a set of locations and a search engine--for your research.
Visit the search engine.  Type each location name in turn.  Jot down the
total mentions (hits/results) that each name elicits.  Add up the number
of mentions for each of the dozen or so places on your list.  Make this
grand total 100%.  Then, calculate the percentage of the grand total that
each individual location name contributes.

Using these individual location percentages create a cartogram.  Size
each area by the number of hits/results/mentions.  Submit the cartogram
and--on the reverse side of the cartogram--a brief written summary of
what you think the cartogram shows.  You may, for example, compare the
percentage each place has on the cartogram to the percentage of the
region's land or population that it claims. 

SECOND ACTIVITY (15 points)
From the following list of high profile websites associated with geography
select three.  Explore each website and its major links.

Characterize each website briefly in a paragraph that covers the site's
overall design, its ease of use, its pertinence and utility for tasks
that you as an informed undergraduate might wish it to perform.  At the
end of each website's paragraph give the website an overall numerical
rating from 1 (poor) to 5 (superior).

The website list from which you should choose:
	American Geographical Society
	Association of American Geographers
	Geography @ About.com
	Geography Exchange
	GEOSOURCE webdirectory for geography and geosciences
	INFOMINE: Maps & GIS
	Internet Resources for Geographers
	Librarians' Index to the Internet: Geography
	National Council for Geographic Education
	National Geographic Society
	Oddens' Bookmarks: Maps and Mapping
	World Factbook 2003 (C.I.A.)

THIRD ACTIVITY (10 points)
In the mid-1990's the National Research Council ranked the nation's top
research-doctorate programs in geography.  Visit NRC Program Rankings
for a list of those programs.  Or ask our friend Bill Kristie for a list.

From among the programs ranked in the top ten select any two.  Use the
Interactive Map of Geography Departments in the United States and Canada to
find locations and websites.

Go online to visit the two geography programs you've selected.  Describe
and rate each of the two websites as you did the sites in the SECOND
ACTIVITY above.

	PART TWO: ANSWERING A QUESTION

In the second part of this assignment you'll be answering a question with the
aid of Internet and library resources.  In this case the desired answer is more
than a quick "yes" or "no":

THE QUESTION (50 points)
In 1992 Stanley Brunn, then editor of the Annals of the Association of
American Geographers, asked, "Are We Missing Our 'Forests' and Our 'Trees'?"
He worried about what submissions to that importantjournal suggested about "what
we [geographers] are not studying."  He further labeled these unstudied areas
"geographies of the void."

Read through Brunn's two-page lament carefully.  Choose two at-the-time overlooked
subjects that Brunn identified.  Then, using printed and/or electronic guides
ascertain whether these same subjects have remained "geographies of the void"
during this past decade.  Focus your attention especially on the Annals,
on the Geographical Review, and on at least three other "major" geographical
journals from Bill Kristie's list.  Go beyond the simple enumeration of articles
to puzzle out any trends: did the once-ignored subjects receive any significant
attention?  Was any particular journal more likely than others to focus on the
subject?  Did the attention extend beyond articles to book reviews, essays,
letters to the editor, and the like?  Do you think the types and numbers of
published pieces would satisfy Brunn?

Write a two-page summary of your findings.  Include both quantitative and
qualitative characterizations.  Provide examples to support your contentions.

DUE ON WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29TH