When is a word not a word?

When Google says so. That's when.

Okay. I'll explain. Late last night I heard about a disagreement that had occurred between Google and the Swedish Language Council (SLC) and the connotations of it made my head hurt.

The story goes like this. The SLC is the body who officially decide whether a new word is added to the Swedish lexicon. They recently gave their seal of approval to the word ogooglebar which means something that cannot be found by a search engine; literally, 'ungoogleable'.
So far, so uninteresting.
But then Google got sniffy and told the SLC that they wouldn't recognise the word in their searches. The reason they gave is that didn't want Google to be a byword for all searching. However, Google hasn't had a problem since 2001 with people saying 'Googling' instead of searching, which has led to the suspicion that Google doesn't like the actual idea behind ungoogleable. It would be like the vacuum cleaner manufacturer Hoover suddenly getting uppity about the term hoovering and insisting we say vacuuming instead.

At the time of writing this the SLC has refused to change the meaning and instead have withdrawn it from their proposed list of newly recognised words. So where does this story go next? Frankly who knows, (incidentally, the Guardian covered it like this) but it has to be a worrying development in language and search technology when the search engines think they can control things to this extent.

One more thing on the nature of ungoogleable itself. I've seen a lot of dissertation students recently and most of those sessions have gone fine.
However...

Occasionally a student will meet with me and when I ask the topic they've chosen the answer will be, 'I really want to look at the issue of social exclusion in nomadic goat herders, but I only want UK research published in the last 4 hours and the authors all have to be called Kevin'. At this point ungoogleable as a word is the least of my problems, because I can already tell that this will be impossible. But how can you tell if the research doesn't exist or if it's your research skills that aren't cutting it? Or put another way, how do you spot the absence of something?

The simplest solution is if after trying various combinations of words and phrases you still aren't having any luck then contact me. I may be able to suggest something. Just don't expect me to suddenly find loads of peer reviewed, UK based research on nomadic goat herders with exclusion issues. Well not written by a Kevin anyway.

My next blog will be in about a week when I'll be getting some old friends from university to tell you how useless I was at all things technological. They're somewhat excited at the prospect.

Hope you have a great Easter.

Funding cuts to youth clubs

Heard about this story because a friend of mine who I went to university with now works in this area. She directed me to the story in the Guardian which focuses on funding cuts in Sheffield, but surely the point is that it could be any city or town in the UK. The perception is that youth clubs are seen as a soft service as opposed to core which seems a bit short sighted to me.

Anyway, the story is here and if you're studying youth work it's worth a look. In related news, Sir Merrick Cockell, chairman of the Local Government Association (LGA) has gone on record here to highlight proposed council cuts and the likely effects this will have. It also mentions youth clubs as well as adult social care, libraries and child protection services. It makes for grim reading, but many of you require figures to back up what might happen next for assignments, so I thought it worth sharing.

The future of... well everything really

In a week where my favourite news story related to something that happened over 13 billion years ago, this seemed like the perfect time to also think about the future too. I haven't blogged about technology for a while (believe it or not, some people only subscribe for the occasional tech stuff I discuss) so this seemed like an opportunity to combine the two things.

But firstly, something about history. One of the things that librarians help to do is archive the past. We do this by maintaining manuscripts and collections, providing the public with access to all sorts of materials that can be of hugely important historical significance.

If you ever wonder if these things really matter can I recommend a film I saw last year. It details how the head librarian, along with others at the national library of Sarajevo, risked their lives again and again to save history books from being destroyed during the civil war in 1992. Their bravery quite frankly is hard to comprehend. YouTube, as so often, has provided me with the opportunity to say watch the film by clicking here. I hope you'll be astounded.


Now the technology bit. I read a great piece by John Naughton recently about how nothing lasts forever. He writes about technology for the Guardian. This is what got me thinking about the Sarajevo film and how we 'protect' the past. Facebook, as it is recognisable now, won't be around in 20 years. I'm so confident of that prediction I'm prepared to write it down. Time will naturally reveal all. I also think Google will one day be confined to history books. And that's where things get interesting. Because where will those history books be stored? They won't be on Google Books because it won't be there any more. The John Naughton article reports a meeting with representatives of Google and a librarian who was involved in the Google Books project. The librarian asked them 'what happens to all these digitised books when you're gone?' They were apparently stunned by the mere idea that Google would one day not exist.

That's the thing with librarians. We tend to ask awkward questions and expect other people to know the answers. So that's what I'm going to do now. When you buy an mp3, an e-book for your Kindle or a downloaded game for your xbox, are you thinking about how you'll access it 10 or 20 years from now when the hardware has long moved on?

The John Naughton piece is here.

If you'd like to have a chat about any of these things you know how to find me.

Australia's forced adoption past.

Back in 2011 I blogged about a film called Oranges and Sunshine, which detailed the quite astonishing undercover practice of separating babies from single mothers in the UK and sending them to Australia to be adopted. The film, which must be unique as it features the social worker as a hero, is online in full from here.

I mention this again because the PM of Australia today apologised to all the women in Australia who'd had their own children taken away from them for the 'crime' of being unmarried. It is quite frankly stunning that this went on right into the 1970's. For any of you under the age of 30, the 70's might feel like a long time ago, but to me it's my childhood.

If you'd like to hear more about this issue there was an interview on the Today programme this morning between presenter Sarah Montague and Lily Arthur who's one of the women this actually happened to.
You can listen to it here.

Ignorance-based practice.

I've decided to invent a research approach.

If Dave Questionnaire and Mary Quantitative can do it then so can I. So I've decided on Ignorance-Based Practice (or IBP for short). It's partly based on closing my eyes and pointing at things and partly based on how Michael Gove appears to construct education policy.

The most important element, as opposed to Evidence-Based Practice, is that there's no good quality research available to back up any decision I make about anything I do from one minute to the next. Using evidence to make decisions is just so 2005 don't you think? It was so much better when doctors just tried things out and waited to see what happened. Sometimes people died, but not often.
Well not always anyway.
And the alternative was about sharing something called 'best practice' which frankly sounds like something Olympic athletes should be bothered about.

So until I write my book on IBP (I think 'Ignorance is Bliss' has a nice ring to it) you might have to make do with all the evidence based stuff instead. I suppose you could have a look here if you'd  like an entertaining, enlightening, explanation of what evidence based practice is.

But don't forget to buy my book when it comes out.





 

Tim Harford: The Undercover Economist

Tim Harford is one of those people who is able to make complicated things sound simple. He presents a show on Radio 4 about statistics called More or Less. There's a whole archive of shows available here and lots of the shows mention social issues which you'll have discussed in class.

The reason I'm blogging about him now is because he wrote a piece this week on migration and welfare. You can read it here and it's great.

Bear in mind it's an opinion piece; it isn't peer reviewed and it makes no claims to be objective.

The Welfare System assignment

There is a certain assignment that every year causes ASS second years some 'consternation' (for consternation read  FULL FAT, NO HOLDS BARRED TURMOIL), but I assure you it's not as bad you might think.
Think of it as a rites of passage.

Here's four suggestions to make the welfare systems assignment more manageable...

1. Don't get hung up on the phrase 'Welfare System'; if you use "Welfare State" in its place you'll probably find.some material too.

2. The 'Ebooks on Demand' project is still running. I sat with a student this week who rented two e-books for herself covering welfare, one on Nigeria and one on China and it's really helped.

3. You almost certainly WON'T find one single journal article covering the three countries you're looking for. So don't look for it. Instead do separate DISCOVER journal article searches for three countries and then compare them yourself afterwards. You'll write a better essay as a result.

4. Marketline is a database you probably won't have used before, but it has 'country profiles' which might be useful to obtain statistics on population and social provision. They're known as PEST reports which stands for Political, Economic, Social and Technological. Go here to see previous blog posts I've written about it. It's look has changed a little, however you can still search for individual countries via the geography option.

Finally, remember that 2000 words for this assignment is quite tight, so be precise in your analysis.

If you want to see me for some further support regarding this assignment be sure to contact me soon.

Find stuff, read stuff, find stuff, read stu...

I've talked to a few of you recently about the importance of having a viable system for conducting research.

One of the things I've come to realise the hard way is that searching for materials without taking the time to read along the way tends to lead to this.


The downside is that the pile of material then looks so intimidating you want to avoid reading anything.

This then leads to the thought, 'I know, I'll do some more searching instead because that's still work.' Sort of.

So my suggestion is simply this; once you've found and saved 5 articles, stop searching and read those 5 pieces. That way, you get the benefits that increased knowledge brings (mostly importantly, increased confidence, a wider vocabulary and general encouragement) and you can prune what you don't want to keep as you're going along.

Go on. Just try it.

New report on human trafficking and slavery in the UK

The Centre for Criminal Justice have become one of those think tanks that always produce interesting and well researched reports. I don't necessarily agree with their findings, hardly surprising considering they were founded by Iain Duncan Smith, but I do always make a point of reading what they put out. That said, it would be remiss of me not to mention that they describe themselves as non-partisan, and do include contributors from across the political spectrum.

Today they've published a major report on trafficking in the UK called It Happens Here. This research has taken 18 months to compile, took evidence from nearly 200 sources and is an in-depth look at the current systemic failings which have allowed the problem to grow. The police and social workers (just for a change...) do come in for particular criticism.

I can't claim to have read the whole thing - it is over 200 pages - but for any of you who are studying child trafficking this report is brilliantly well timed. You can download the whole thing from here.  Alternatively, if you fancy making do with an overview, the Observer did a pretty good job of summing up the findings yesterday.

If you've the time however always go to the original source.

Proposed changes to how child sex abuse allegations are handled

There was a major announcement yesterday by Keir Starmer, Director of Public Prosecutions, suggesting changes as to how allegations of sex abuse should be handled. Broadly this came down to potential victims being treated more seriously from the first moment allegations are made. This is clearly a hugely important issue and any fundamental changes in the perception of victims' credibility could affect any number of areas in which you may work. 

I'm old enough to remember the investigations on Orkney in the early 90's and distinctly recall the distress that dozens of families endured when children were removed without any hard evidence of abuse occurring. I've heard it said by student social workers and others how difficult it can sometimes be to do nothing, even when you've nothing but an unsubstantiated feeling that something isn't right in a family setting.

The newly proposed guidelines suggest a definite shift back towards 'let's assume potential victims are telling us the truth', which many have suggested is a clear reaction to what happened with Jimmy Savile.

The BBC covered the story in great depth yesterday so if you need some background information I suggest that's where you go. It's balanced reporting and makes the point that although many have welcomed the proposed changes, the spectre of being falsely accused can also ruin lives.

This is a tremendously difficult issue and any of you who work with children or adults in this area have my admiration and support.

The BBC coverage can be found here.    

New statistic shows the scale of forced marriage in the UK

The Forced Marriage Unit has today released figures showing it was involved in nearly 1500 cases during 2012. There was a piece on the Today programme this morning about this issue including an interview with a spokesperson from the Freedom charity who campaign against forced marriage. Listening earlier, the debate touched on issues of child protection, domestic violence, sexuality and culture; a combustible mix indeed.

If you'd like to hear the interview then it's available here and the Freedom charity website is definitely worth a look too. If you'd like more information on this issue then I'd be glad to offer some recommendations.

The National Student Survey

I know forms are nobody's idea of a good time. My wife on occasions has resorted to filling in forms for me and giving me the pen to sign my name at the bottom, just to get the things done.
Now I think of it this is probably why she has all the money.

Anyhow. Can I ask any final year students who haven't yet filled in the NSS form to please do so?
We find that as a rule the more students fill in the form, the more accurate the picture becomes as to how happy you are.
When the response rate is lower it's possible to get a false picture. A bit like when there's a low turn out in elections and UKIP end up being taken seriously. Please don't let that happen.

So get it filled in and tell us what you think. It's how we learn to improve things.

Thanks.