This page was created by Maria Frank. 

Field Guides to Food

Prototype Instructions: Evaluating knowledge sources

Initially, written reports reviewed were selected based on their sponsorship by one of several U of M entities already known by the researchers, and who expressed interest in the cataloging process (?). All reviews were website-based. Some (HFHL, MISA) involved reviewing all resources listed under the tab entitled "Publications" / "Research" / etc. For others, the amount of publications housed on the site would make an exhaustive review too time-consuming. In the case of CURA publications, resources of initial interest were taken from the list provided in "CURA-Supported Local Food Systems Research, 2007-2012" [what is the final title of this & where is it? I've been working off the draft in the Google folder].

Maria's process for associating keywords with written resources:

First, read the title, abstract/summary (if applicable), and table of contents (or if none is available, the headings in the body of the paper). The overall topic, subtopics, and potentially the findings or recommendations of the resource are good sources of keywords.

Skim the whole resource, but don't get too bogged down in details. Remember that you are looking for general labels to apply to this resource, the big concepts it covers overall. It is helpful to ask:
What topic might a person be researching (or simply wanting to know more about) for which this resource would be helpful?
And conversely,
If a search returned this resource when a person entered this keyword, would they consider it helpful? (Does it cover the topic in enough detail or is it a passing reference to this keyword?)
Close by doing a quick read-through of existing Food Words (keywords) to see if any words cover another concept from the resource, or if a new keyword that you have applied to this resource already has a synonym or sufficiently related concept in the keyword bank that can be substituted. (It is all right to add a new keyword to the bank if you think the concept is central to the resource, particularly if it might be applicable to other resources (already reviewed or not).)

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