Subject/Object » Scholarship

JSTOR Upgrade

Steven Chabot — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:29:46 +0000

I stumbled across the nice JSTOR upgrade today. Looks much better than their older version, very easy on the eyes.

Winter Updates #2: Publishing a Research Project

Steven Chabot — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:57:32 +0000

Quick on the heels of my book reviews I am working on, this semester I decided to take on a practicum class, which is like a mini non-required Co-Op, because our program does not have a Co-Op program (yet, more on that in a further winter update).

After absolutely falling in love with Information Literacy after taking the class last semester, I approached a librarian at another campus who teaches a credit course in IL (which is a big deal for the conservative University of Toronto).

Opposed to working there directly, she proposed a research project based on the assessment of her students in the course. Working with the TA of the course, the three of us are publishing a paper examining the old tests and assignments, trying to understand why, after a semester of study, students continually fail to understand Boolean searching, and constructing search statements.

I am completing the literature review and a part of the content analysis coding. Of all my work this semester, this may be my most time consuming, contributing to the probably the three busiest months in my life.

However, it will also most likely be the greatest learning opportunity I will have had in these last two years. I feel really confident when I say to prospective libraries that I have detailed empirical knowledge with the IL needs of todays undergraduates. Plus, to be academically published, can’t complain about that.

Winter Updates #1: Writing Book Reviews

Steven Chabot — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 01:58:37 +0000

It’s been a long time since I’ve had something substantial to say. This goes along with me not really being interested in reading blogs and keeping up with the debates there–both in the library blog sphere and in with my feeds in general. This is not the first time I have gone through these periods of decline, and I know I am not the only one who has blanked on their blog writing.

However, there have been a lot of positive developments in my career over the last few months, and I hope to deal with them in the next few posts.

First of all, I have submitted myself to some book review editors, and I currently have two books I am reading for two different journals. The first is an academic examination of blogs and the blog sphere for The Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship. The second is a collection of unpublished writings by Kurt Vonnegut for Library Journal. The second is only the standard 200 word review, but the first is a substantial one thousand words.

I really should have tried to finish the longer one over Christmas, because now it is getting in the way of school work, but I have decided to work a few hours less this semester to fit in writing, school work and applying for jobs.

It is great to finally have a change to publish my writing. And, hopefully, I will have a peer-reviewed paper to add to them, which I will talk about in my next post.