POSTING 4: Online Databases

Hey all! In this forth posting, we are required to find out what are the online databases that are suscribed by the TSL library. For instance, the meaning of EBSCHOST and Lisa Net plus, what is Dissertation Online (DOA) and lastly, we have to give a brief summary on two articles that we have found via the online databases that was suscribed by TSL. Well, without much ado,I'll proceed with my explanation.

EBSCHOHOST is one of the online databases that our varsity, the National University of Malaysia had subscribed in order to help students find information on various fields of study. Rather than spending hours searching through the internet, it's more effective to search the information through this online database. Searching through this site might be a bit difficult too, if we do not search for resources through it with a specific title, author, journal name, or subject terms. The subject that we want to search through EBSCHOST also needs to be precise in order to avoid obtaining the wrong information.

Lisa Net (CSA ILLUMINA) is also another online database that helps users in finding information. In addition, through Lisa Net, the seeker can find information through three methods which are: Quick Search, Advanced Search or Search Tools. Finding information through this site can be a bit tricky if the user does not know how to use it to find the information they need. In helping the user in finding information easily, this site provides search tips, technology search area and a date range of the information that the user wants to find.

DOA- Dissertation online
WHAT IS DISSERTATION?
It is a long essay on a particular subject, especially one written for a doctorate or similar degree; thesis (Barron).
It is also known as an extended usually written treatment of a subject; specifically: one submitted for a doctorate.

The online databases subscribed by the TSL library:

Examples:

• EBSCOHost
• Lisa Net
• Emerald Fulltext
• SCOPUS
• Oxford Journal
• ACM Digital Library
• Computer Database
• Datastream Advanced
• JSTOR
• GEMA

There are many other databases subscribed by the TSL library. These are part of the many.

Article 1: Philippines Congress opens ICT center

In a move to computerize the entire operations of Congress, the House of Representatives in partnership with Microsoft Corp. Philippines opened an information and communications technology (ICT) e-Learning Center.

The ICT center is located at the ground floor of the House's main building near the session
hall at the Batasan Hills in Quezon City--dubbed as the ICT capital of the Philippines.

Mark Yambot, corporate affairs director of Microsoft Philippines, said the center has 16 personal computers equipped with Microsoft Windows operating systems and Microsoft Office applications.

A total of 30 employees in Congress were honored in the center's launching being the first graduates of the program "train-the-trainer" computer course at the National Computer Center. The majority of the graduates also received the Microsoft Office Specialist Certificate. The employees shall serve as trainers at the ICT center.

My Reflection:
This article discusses the move by one of the mega companies in the Philippines to inculcate the use of computers in their company. By inculcating the use of computers in the firm, they can move improve their productivity, as computers are vastly used around the globe. In my opinion, by introducing the use of computers as a vital tool in companies is a very intelligent way to not only improve productivity but, also to increase the percentage of workers that are computer literate. Equipped with Microsoft Windows applications, the workers can learn how to use this application to do their work in an effective manner thus cutting time into half. In A the end resulting not only the mushrooming of tech-savvy office personnel but it can also help build a nation that can be proud of the usage of computers in daily living.

Article 2: Bridging the Digital Gender Divide

Back to Contents of Issue: May 2002

Volunteer Group prepares women for the IT Front line.
by Catherine Pawasarat

MUCH TALK HAS BEEN made of this country's e-Japan initiative, aiming to secure Japan's place as a world leader in digital technology by 2005. But who exactly is on the ground, blazing this new Japanese discipline of intanetto-do, the 'way of the Internet?' If recent statistics on Japanese women's participation in information and communications technologies (ICT) are any indication, Hiroshi, Daisuke and their ilk are traveling the information highway bachelor-style.

In a survey of 20 countries, Japan trailed in last -- behind Italy and the Czech Republic -- for the percentage of women in its ICT workforce, with a wimpy 17 percent. By comparison, the corresponding percentages were 38 in the United States, and 32 in Germany and South Korea.

Regarding Internet use, Japanese women make up a modest 38 percent of surfers here; just one percent more than Chinese women, according to World Bank data. In the EU, 49 percent of Internet users are women, and it's 50 percent in the US. More ominously for Japan's e-prospects, only 5 percent of all ICT students in Japan today are women. In the EU and US, they make up 25 and 24 percent, respectively.

Without the brains, talent and determination of more Japanese women, is Japan going to be able to pull ahead in the digital age? Without women, are Japan's digital industries going to be any fun?

Cut to DigitalEve Japan. This burgeoning Tokyo-based, nonprofit group is out to bring some onna pawa 'woman power' to digital Japan. If DEJ has anything to say about it, more and more women here are going to have a fair shot at the 1.85 million IT jobs expected to be up for grabs by 2005. In such a tech-savvy country as Japan, how did women get left behind anyway? A lot of it has to do with the glass ceiling, still very much in place years after women's lib came and went in most other industrialized countries. "This is still a man's society. Lots of jobs for women are really only geared to last until they turn 35 years old, and this is usually decided by men," says Chiharu Kawai, a DEJ member who works with software localization at an American firm in Tokyo.

THE MODEL DEVA
In February Digital Eve Japan recognized members' outstanding contributions with its DEVa awards. DEJ members voted Hokkaido-based New Zealand native Natalia Roschina as DEVa of the Year. While working in agriculture, Roschina enthusiastically helps other non-techie members make digital technology more relevant and useful in their lives. Roschina works to attract members in Hokkaido and boost online learning so that DEJ members every-where may use one of the best features of the Internet - its lack of geographical boundaries - to take part. "I'd like to get more involved in planning online DEJ events, so that any DEVa, regardless of where she is - Hokkaido or Okinawa, city or countryside - can participate and learn," says Roschina.
Unlike many of their other Asian sisters, Japanese girls never get the message that the scientific arts are a quick and sure way to success. "There's still no sense, for example, that a Japanese woman can be an engineer if she wants to," Kawai says.
DigitalEve's challenge in Japan is an issue of perception. "The main purpose of DEJ is to change women's consciousness about IT. Now a lot of women believe they can't take part in IT, and we want to transform this way of thinking," says Miki Oyama, a Web designer who's taught several DEJ workshops on Javascript and Flash.
What does DEJ do? Its Internet mailing list is the focal point: Here members (who include men) swap tips on everything from the latest digital releases to the ins and outs of HTML, remedies for a corrupted registry or comparisons of the best broadband services available.

For hands-on experience, the group offers monthly three-hour workshops on specific digital skills. These include the likes of optimizing Macromedia Fireworks, making the most of an Excel spreadsheet, creating digital video or understanding database design theory.

"Women who don't work in IT get way behind in technology. Helping them is really meaningful work," says Aki Shiozawa, an IT consultant who also manages the DEJ mailing list. Shiozawa works with computer systems for business, but says she's attracted to DEJ for what it can teach her in digital design.
Monthly DigitalEVEnings let members network, and practice Japanese and English language skills. This summer DEJ offers a series of workshops for IT beginners, starting with how to buy a computer and moving through the basics of MS Office and getting online. Judging by DEJ's growing membership, the group is filling a genuine need. After launching in February 2001 with 90 members, it boomed to 400 within a year. Around 40 percent of the members are Japanese, and the other 60 percent represent about a dozen different nationalities.

"Through translated Web content, Japanese-language workshops and other means, we're working to change the ratio so that the majority of members are Japanese," says DEJ co-leader Kristen Elsby, an information architect at the UN University in Tokyo. There's no question that more digital skills will open doors for women in Japan, especially since, amidst Japan's economic woes, IT jobs still outstrip IT-savvy workers. Japanese men -- especially those on the e-Japan initiative team -- might want to drop DigitalEve Japan an email and say thanks or, better yet, find out what they can do to help. Otherwise, Japan's IT workplace might continue to have the air of an accidental men's club. @

My Feedback:
This article tells us about the woman of Japan and the use of computers in daily living. It has come to know that most Japanese women are not as tech-savvy as their other Asian counterparts and not to mention the ladies in the US and the EU. The statistics are quite shocking as Japan is one of the most IT-savvy countries in the world. But, in order to overcome this pressing-issue, Digital Eve Japan (DEJ) was introduced. DEJ concentrates on helping Japanese women to become more tech-savvy, be it in rural and urban areas of Japan. In Japan, woman are regarded as inferior to man that’s why most women only work till they are 35. Furthermore, being computer illiterate, makes them more vulnerable in losing their jobs at an early age. But, with the help of DEJ, there is hope for Japanese women to rise up and walk side by side with their other half’s.

In conclusion, this task on finding out the various databases and also articles related to e-learning was indeed a daunting but fun experience for me. Being let lose into the TSL library without the supervision of our lecturers really made me feel discouraged and annoyed as I felt lost when I could not find what I was looking for. But, after much seeking and continuously asking the TSL lab assistants, I got the hand of it. It was actually something very simple and straight-forward. Thus, making me learn a valuable lesson -never depend on others but, strive to be independent!