- We launched findingDulcinea in 2007 with a mission of helping people find authoritative and comprehensive information online.
- In 2009, we introduced SweetSearch, a Search Engine for Students, which leverages the power of Google to search only our whitelist of credible resources.
- Today, we announce that findingDulcinea will be fully relaunched in August under a new name: SweetSearch2Day.
- Best of all, we are including a heavy dose of one new ingredient: YOU!
We invite all librarians, other educators and information professionals from around the globe to become a SweetSearch Ambassador. In this role, you will contribute posts that spotlight the very best online resources about a topic.
Unlike other efforts to harness librarians and educators to create a pool of vetted resources, this one will:
- Benefit from editorial oversight that ensures consistent, high quality;
- Be accompanied by a brief narrative so the user knows in advance what they’ll find there;
- Rank highly in SweetSearch, the best place for students to start their research, and will, in time, rank high in Google;
- Be very actively promoted.
Initially, we are seeking 25 educators to ensure a smooth “on boarding” process. We will then grow this number once the initial group is working smoothly.
What We Ask of You:
- Commit to submitting at least three posts in the first year.
- Each post should emphasize authoritative resources that provide a comprehensive, balanced view of a topic.
- You will also write a short introduction to the topic and a description of what the user will find via each link.
- The posts could be from any of the categories on the website; an example of each is linked to each category, albeit one written in the narrative-heavy style that we are moving away from (also note the examples are somewhat dated and thus contain broken links):
- 2Day in History
- 2Day’s Biography
- Netcetera (a catchall for any other educational post)
- Web Guides (a comprehensive look at a topic) (here is a very thorough one on a narrow topic and a much shorter one)
- Research Skills (a look at narrow slices of effective online research skills)
- Changing the World (advice or resources on taking effective action to solve social problems)
- As seen in the examples above, the number of links appropriate for each post depends upon how broad the topic is; for 2Day in History or Biography, it may be 7; for a broad Web Guide, it may be 35.
- Write about what you love! Our website promises links to the best resources about a topic, and the more knowledgable and passionate you are, the more likely it is that you will know about the very best resources.
- For example, if you are a proud Alaskan, you could contribute a post with resources about Alaska’s history, or one about its natural resources, or its geography and topography. If you are passionate about ballet, you could write a post about the history of ballet; another post about how to become a ballet dancer; and also some biographies of notable people in ballet history.
- Generally, the narrower the topic, the better. For example, a guide to the most authoritative resources focused narrowly on The Battle of Antietam or “Child Soldiers in the American Revolution” would be invaluable to educators and students, more so than a broader guide to the Civil War. Similarly, a guide to “Chemistry” will be useful but a guide to “The Structure of the Atom” could be priceless, as it will offer more specific, and difficult to find, resources.
- If you find that the topic was covered on findingDulcinea, you are invited to copy and paste it into a new post in order to update, refresh and put your own touch on it before submitting it. When updating old findingDulcinea articles, we typically retain the narrative portion.
- We welcome you to repurpose content you have published elsewhere, as long as you have the legal right to do so.
- We’ll provide guidance on how to select resources, as well as personalized training, but we imagine you are well-versed already in the concepts we’ll discuss.
- We believe that with any large group of contributors to a project such as this, editorial oversight is essential to ensure consistent quality. Thus, we expect to request edits to many of the guides, but we do not foresee taking a “heavy handed” approach.
What We Offer You:
- Fulfillment from knowing you have contributed to a priceless resource that will enhance digital literacy for a generation of students, and help counter what many are calling the “post-truth” era.
- Your biography will appear on everything you contribute, and it will link to your social media accounts, your blog, your school website, etc.
- Free access to our upcoming online course about teaching online research skills, to our upcoming premium newsletters, and to any other digital product that we create and own full rights to.
- Bookmarks and other swag.
- Other consideration that we haven’t conjured up yet.
If you have any questions, write to Mark E Moran [at] Gmail [dotcom]
If you’re ready to sign up, complete this Google form and we’ll be in touch!
Thank you!!
Mark E. Moran
CEO, SweetSearch, Inc.
