Anthony Byrne UCD IS10050: Digital Judgement Group Project: Digital Resource Guide.

SOC10020: Introduction to Sociology

This is one of the four level one sociology module that is predominantly undertaken by students
doing the sociology degree and the social science degree at UCD and is taught during semester one.
As the title suggests it is intended to act as an introduction to the field of sociology and will give
students a broad overview of many concepts and theories of sociology. As with all degrees at UCD
the module descriptors are available through the UCD interface Blackboard. The module coordinator
has identified the following core textbook for this module as Sociology by Giddens and Sutton
(2017), which he has structured the module around. Whilst the module coordinator stresses that the
newer 8th edition is preferable, he also states that the earlier 7th edition is more than adequate. This
core book may be found in the James Joyce Library and may be located through UCD library
database OneSearch by a simple search. The Dewey Decimal allocation for the book is 301 GID and
falls under social sciences, a note of cation being that this book is available to ALL UCD STUDENTS
and currently the library holds no copies of the 8th edition and only holds three copies of the 7th 2013
edition, one in the 4-hour collection and two in the short loan collection, which are on the first floor
of the library in the short loan section. The International Standards Book Number (ISBN) for each
edition is listed below:

(Giddens & Sutton, 2013): ISBN: 978-0-7456-5293-1 (Giddens & Sutton, 2017): ISBN: 978-0-7456-9668-3

Resources used in this section:

Sociology 8th edition, online instructor companion site.

SocioSite Sociological and social science website.

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Anthony Byrne UCD IS10050: Digital Judgement Group Project: Digital Resource Guide.

Source 1:

Giddens, Sutton: Sociology, 8th Edition, Instructor Companion Site.

http://bcs.wiley.com/he-bcs/Books?action=contents&itemId=0745696686&bcsId=10840
Created by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Created: 2017.
Location: New Jersey, US.
Accessed: Oct 2017.

Abstract:

For those who manage to acquire or share the 8th edition of the core textbook, the publisher Wiley,
has kindly posted an Instructor Companion version online which should prove useful. This version
gives a breakdown of the various chapters, assignments, guides on how best to use, internet links
and a downloadable glossary. It shows why the exercises are constructed and how best to use them.
This Life Hack is a digital resource that should prove to be a useful addition for students taking a
module which is built around this text.

Pathway:

I had never heard of this resource prior to researching the project and only came across this whilst
general search through the goggle search engine for references of online versions of the 8th edition,
as noted during the course of the IS10050 Digital Judgement module, general searches (Browsing) is
a great way to generate ideas for projects due mainly to the width of the query and results which it
will retrieve. We typed in the following giddens sociology online 8th edition into the search engine
and on the 3rd listings page found a listing for the publishers home page, upon inspection we then
found the link to companion page, which was validated using a link checker https://majestic.com/ as
discussed during the module. This also highlighted the relevance of going beyond the first page of a
search engines listings, again this was something covered in the IS10050 Digital Judgement module.

Evaluation:

Whilst this resource is created by the publisher of the core text for this module but we will still set
out to evaluate it utilising elements from the 21st century information fluency model, which was
highlighted during the IS10050 Digital Judgement module. The page has various back links to the
Wiley home page, technical support or contact page, again the link checker https://majestic.com/
was used to validate these links. The bottom left hand corner of the page displays the copyright by
John Wiley and Sons Inc and a back link to their privacy policy. As this is an aid for the core text the
subject material is highly relevant and the internet links section produces a downloadable document
with back links to all the original resources listed in the core text. The ability to access original
references or primary sources is an essential one and has been stressed throughout the IS10050
Digital Judgement Module. The main website was created on 12/10/1994, last know update
7/10/2017, its current licence expires on 11/10/2019, has a SEO score of 86% and the registered
owners are indeed John Wiley and Sons Inc obtained all of which was by using Whois Domaintool
https://whois.domaintools.com/wiley.com. As this page was designed to assessed those instructing
introductory sociology, the high relevance of the material and we can verify its authenticity to the
publisher, we deem it a relevant digital resource for anyone taking this module.

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Anthony Byrne UCD IS10050: Digital Judgement Group Project: Digital Resource Guide.

Source 2: SocioSite.

http://www.sociosite.net/
Created by: Albert Benschop
Created: September 1996
Location: Amsterdam university
Accessed: Oct 2017

Abstract:

SocioSite is a huge repository of academic sociological information from the internet and is aimed at
sociologists and social scientists alike and contains everything from journal articles, eBooks, PDFs of
original works and Bios of leading sociologists both classic and contemporary. This project is based
at the University of Amsterdam Social Sciences, with the aim of providing a comprehensive listing of
all sociology resources on the Internet, its home page proudly states that due to The enormity and
constantly changing nature of the internetSocioSite will always be under construction SocioSite is
a toolkit for us social scientists (SocioSite About us, 2017).

Pathway:

As a first-year sociology student one of my tutors had recommended SocioSite to help me get to
grips with the modules and it is also listed in UCD Libguides, at the time I would have been happy
enough to trust it based on the fact that it was a back link from UCD but we have decided to
evaluate it for our proposed Sociology guide. It may be found by either a direct search engine query
or through UCD sociology Libguide under websites.

http://www.sociosite.net/about.php http://libguides.ucd.ie/sociology/websites

Evaluation:

Once again, the 21st century Information Fluency model was used to help evaluate the sites
legitimacy. All the subject material was of high relevance to sociologists and students alike, with
journals, eBooks, Bios of leading sociologists both current and past and PDFs of original works. The
ability to access primary sources is an essential one and has been highlight throughout the IS10050
Digital Judgement Module. On the universities page we found direct back links to UCD and other
universities, here again the link checker https://majestic.com/ was used to validate these links, this
helped add enormous weight to its credentials, this page was last updated January of 2017. Next, we
searched the About Us page, which stated that Dr. Albert Benschop a noted sociologist in
Amsterdam was its Editor in Chief, we noted a site link to email Dr. Benschop but we decided to
follow this further to ensure it was not merely someone posing as him. We then went to Albert
Benschops LinkedIn page https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertbenschop/ it clearly states he has
been the editor in chief since its inception in 1995 and has been with the university of Amsterdam
since 1973. Persons can apply to have content added but this is sent via a link for evaluation by
SocioSite. The bottom left-hand corner of the library page states SocioSite was created in 1996 and
the page was last updated January of 2017. Through further evaluation we found that the site itself
was created 12/10/1999, lasted updated 13/10/2017, its current licence expires 12/10/2018 and has
a SEO score of 73%, all of which was obtained through Whois DomainTools
https://whois.domaintools.com/sociosite.net. Taking into consideration its links with both UCD and
Amsterdam universities, the credibility of its editor in chief and the relevance of the material
displayed, we deem it a worthy digital reference point.

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Anthony Byrne UCD IS10050: Digital Judgement Group Project: Digital Resource Guide.

Bibliography:

Giddens, A., & Sutton, P. W. (2013). Sociology (7th ed.). Cambridge: Polity.

Giddens, A., & Sutton, P. W. (2017). Sociology (8th ed.). Cambridge: Polity.
SocioSite About us. (2017, October 30). Retrieved from http://www.sociosite.net/about.php

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