Subject/Object

This semester I gave myself a challenge: I was going to do all of my reading for this research project I am doing on my computer. No printing whatsoever. I was going to take notes right on the computer, and I even got a great piece of Mac software called Skim which has wonderful markup functions (I recommend it despite my failure at using it).

However, I can’t do it anymore. I feel lost. I have all of these readings which I can’t keep track of. I read half way though one reading, find an interesting reference, and because I am already on the computer I do a quick Google Scholar search for the paper, leaving me all turned around from where I was. I am trying to take notes, but it just isn’t as convenient to me as having the articles right there to consult.

Plus, I have to start writing tomorrow, and I am already anxious about the prospects. Flipping back and forth between the reader and my LaTeX processor seems like a nightmare. If you don’t know how I work (maybe I’ll take a picture next time), let’s say it looks like an printing press exploded. I like to make piles of materials on the floor, with each pile standing for a different part of my argument, so I know exactly where to turn to. When I am done with a paper I place it in a final pile so it doesn’t get in the way again: this way I know I have cited everything I wanted to.

The thing is, I am a digital native. I have this blog, a Flickr account and I use Facebook. I have been chatting and writing online since I was 13 or so. However, I think that the process of reading and writing for the university is so tied up with the medium of print that, for me at least, I have to work in a print world to be continually successful at it.

So, I figure I can just suck it up, buy an extra stack of paper, and print them when I get home. Actually, the prospect is exciting me. Perhaps I can reward myself with a filing cabinet, now that I am writing things that actually interest me and that I will want to keep.

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.