Sunday Morning

It is a glorious fall day out there! I love this time of the year - so crisp, clear, sunny and just a hint of chilly. :-) Doesn't get much nicer than this. My daughter and I took a late afternoon walk through the Wissahickon section of Fairmount Park yesterday. It was lovely. We both love nature so much and Mimi got the added bonus of seeing lots of dogs. It was just such a pleasure to be away from my laptop, be moving and outside. Bliss!

Since the last post I have recruited a few more people, but the scheduling is still very slow going. I performed the survey and interview with two more people and so things are moving. Yay! It is a very exciting phase of the process. I just wish things would move a bit faster in the scheduling department. I am going to spend the next few days transcribing and coding. I think I might try to begin the coding process over again. See if I can recreate it with less chaos. It lacks coherence in a few areas and now that I have more data I can see some themes emerging that I don't know that I captured well in the earlier interviews. So for this week, beyond helping my online students I will work on developing the coding (and of course more recruitment/scheduling). Always lots of fun.

Ok, time to get motivated and out of the house. That fall weather is calling!

A Quick Catch-Up

It has been another fast five weeks! I defended my dissertation proposal on the 28th of August. As luck would have it I ended up with a terrible cold, complete with a raging fever just in time to prepare my slides for the defense! How lucky is that? It ended up being ok in the end, since I was well enough to have a voice for the presentation but still sick enough that I had no energy to get worked up or worried. It seems Fate was somehow looking out for me.

I am now trying to schedule participants and recruit for the few last open slots. I am doing fairly well, but most people are super busy and that means waiting another month (or more) to meet with them. In the meantime I sort of bite my nails and try not to think about how crazy busy I am going to be over the next few months. I am teaching a course which is really demanding and it is being given online and so there are no boundaries. I am teacher 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Not that this isn't the case with a face-to-face class, but the expectations of the students are definitely different! On top of all this I am volunteering a bit of time to two causes I feel strongly about: the school library and Brownie Girl Scouts. The first one is a given - I love books and kids need to enjoy being around them, too! I try to make things fun for the kiddolas when they check their books out. It is so important for lil' ones to be exposed to the library as much and as often as possible when they are young. I also want to help instill in a young girl the idea that she can succeed and lead, because heaven knows they aren't getting that message nearly often enough in most other areas of their lives! The GS do wonderful things to help girls achieve greatness and I want to help in whatever small way I can.

Ok, I suppose I should get back to work. I am transcribing an interview today, helping out at the library and hopefully getting back to the image indexing data. It never ends!

A Fast Five Weeks

Another phase of my dissertation has come and gone. I handed my proposal off to my committee this past Thursday in preparation for the defense on the 28th. It feels good to have that part done. Since I last posted I have been super busy with teaching, giving papers, submitting things for conferences, and data analysis. I managed to recruit an art historian for the pilot and the interview for that was great for seeing if there were some similarities between the two academic user groups I am looking at (archaeologists and art historians). The data analysis using NVivo was a bit cumbersome. I think that is a result of my lack of skill using the software, however. The analysis did reveal somethings to keep my eyes on as things progress. The architect group is going to be the one I have the most difficulty recruiting for. Not having a personal connection to the individuals in the group, as I do with the art historians, archaeologists and artists means the recruitment process has been slow and painful. The study is only an hour now, so I hope that will make a difference when I try to get the last participants. I didn't want to use one of my architect recruits on the pilot fearing that I might need to change the methods in response to the defense. That would mean throwing out the pilot data. Not something I want to do when I don't have enough access to the architects as it is!

The course I am teaching is going well. The students are great fun. They love to talk and they are engaged with the material (for the most part). The course is mainly focused on learning about the reference process and users' information behaviors. The readings have been a joy to read, distill and present to the class. The information behavior theories are probably the most important ones for many of them to fully understand. There are reviews of these built into the course and these really try to drive home how important the theories are to the discipline. I hope I am doing the material justice.

Alright, Mimi is away at camp this week. Hopefully she will like this one better than the away camp she went to last summer. She doesn't like competition and the program for this one sounded more like it focused on hikes and arts and crafts. Both of these things make her very happy. We'll see... Today I have a lot to do so I had better get cracking!

May-hem

How weird, it is the end of May and I feel like I have been living in dissertation limbo. Oh, yes, that's right, I HAVE been living in dissertation limbo. :-P The IRB approval for the data collection methods changes came through this past week and so I am back to recruiting. I have an interview lined up for Wednesday and that is a very good thing. Motivation breeds motivation and hopefully things will start to role once I see how the new questions work. I am feeling a bit conflicted about not including the direct observation of their searches, since it means I will loose all that rich data. Nevertheless, if the artists and architects don't seek out images in a planned manner, the observation is just going to make the study impossible. Perhaps a future study... one where I have the luxury of time on my hands.

This past month has been pretty spectacular when I think back on what I have managed to do. I have been TAing for a course and taking a course and those two things alone have sucked up a great deal of time. I have managed to do some work toward the dissertation (or should I say I have managed to get it back into my daily routine). I have lined up two participants for the study - an archaeologist and an artist. The first I will interview this coming week and the artists will be done in a few weeks. I am also going to start contacting possible recruiters. I won't know until at least next week if the data collection methods will work for this one group and it will be another week or so to know if they will work for the other group. I should have a sense of how well the data collection methods are going to work once I get these two done. If all seems to be ok, I will set dates with participants. :-) Yipee. I just hope it isn't too late to grab the faculty before they flee for their summer locations.

This summer I am going to teach a course in info science and I am very happy about this. I love the course I will be teaching -- it is right up my interest alley since it deals with the information behaviors of users. Drool. Can it get any better? I will be re-reading (some probably for the 4th or 5th time) lots of the standard literature in this area. Dissertation motivation will keep me very focused on the material and I hope this enthusiasm will spread to the students. It looks like it will be a small course in terms of the number of students. That is a perfect way to begin teaching a new course. The fall will be more challenging with INFO622. It is such an important course filled with some very difficult theoretical and conflicting readings. Plus it is online which means there are no boundaries... it is all coursework all the time.

For right now I need to work on the paper for the course I am in -- it is due on Friday. For once I would like to have it done on time!

I think I have forgotten

My mind, my way, my schedule... I have just plain old forgotten. Well, not really, but I suppose I need to think that from time to time. Escapism is a good thing sometimes. It keeps your mind from getting too freaked out. At any rate, although I haven't lost my way I have not been terribly productive as far as the dissertation goes lately. I have been busy dealing with the TA and VA courses, Research Day, and amending the IRB forms. Thankfully those forms have been submitted and I am laying in wait, so to speak. The TA'ship is taking up a great deal of time. I need to get at the week 6 commentary tomorrow so it can be posted on Friday. The VA course has an assignment due next week. I am so out of my league there! I don't have the background to do the course justice. I will muddle my way through.

There are a few other things going on right now. I am applying for a fellowship to the Stone Summer Theory Institute which is addressing the question of "what is an image?" this year. Hopefully I will get the opportunity to work with this group for a week during July. I think it will help me move things along in the study. I am running a month behind unfortunately and so I am afraid I am going to miss out on speaking to the academics before they fly the coop. I had better get on the stick! I am going to Denver this weekend for the ARLIS conference. I am giving a paper on digitization criteria. So many conferences, so little time. Ok it is getting a bit late and so I had better turn in.

SSDD = Same Stuff Different Day

Ok, so it is now just Saturday and I thought I had better keep going with the daily blog entries. If anything the daily blog entry keeps me focused on what needs to get done and serves as a real account of what I do with my days. (I am my worst enemy sometimes when it comes to thinking I am a slacker. This is usually the thing that people are amazed at--all I do. Why can't I see this? As if grad school wasn't enough angst, I have to add some of my own!) I am going to keep this one short and stick to the accomplishments and to-do lists.

Accomplishments:
1. Wrote the letter to my committee updating them on my progress and sending along my proposed data methods changes.
2. I made the IRB modifications, changing the protocol and the consent form and creating a memo with the changes and filling out the IRB amendment form.
3. Wrote up my comments in response to one of the thesauri for INFO622 and sent them off to KM.
4. Searched for the Paul Potts YouTube vid to send along to KM, too.
5. Send a b'day card to my fave former BMC benefits manager!
6. Paid a few left over bills.
7. Mailed the bills and b'day card.
8. Packed up Mimi's stuff.
9. Called M's mom about party.
10. Got presents, card and packaging for M's b'day.
11. Emailed JT and AB about the study.
12. Called the SHC about shots and made an appointment for Tuesday morning.
13. Water the plants.
14. The daily routines - read and answer emails, water the plants, make dinner and etc., Bb and iWay reads.

Must dos
1. Need to contact AC and other participants about the delay.
2. Shop for office supplies.
3. Do the things I avoided (which follow)
4. Look at the creativity reads.
5. Plan of dissertation action.
6. Look at what needs to be attacked on the diss.
7. Re-read proposal, annotated bibliography and look over stack on my desk.
8. The II db updates.

Yummy cake

Mimi and I made a cake to celebrate yesterday -- devil's food with milk chocolate frosting. Yum! We both just had a slice with some butter pecan ice cream. What a super delicious treat!!!! I am about ready for bed now that my belly is full of cake. :-) I had a busy day today and so it might be an early night. After the past few weeks it would be a real joy to get more than 6 hours of sleep. Soon, but for now I have to think about what I did today and what needs to get accomplished tomorrow.

Today:
1. Paid bills
2. Balanced checkbook
3. Did the Bb and IWay read.
4. Printed out a thesaurus.
5. Graded homework assignment 2 for INFO622
6. Met Kate and talked about 5 over lunch.
7. Did paperwork for ARLIS conference funding (heh, sort of a stupid exercise in futility!)
8. Answered a few emails.
9. Went to dr.'s office to get allergy shot.
10. Met Mimi at the park and hung out with her for a bit.
11. Watered the plants.
12. Made dinner and cleaned up.
13. Polished the silver tea set.
14. Went to the sciencetelling show at the library. What fun!
15. Ate cake! ;-)

I guess I did get something done today. It never seems like I am making progress, but I guess I could be wrong. Lol.

I suppose for tomorrow I need to focus on a few things.

1. The most critical is to make sure I get the letter to the committee outlining what I plan to do to go forward with the data collection written and set off to EA for words of wisdom.
2. Contact all the people who have said they would participate and tell them what the status is with the project.
3. Ask EA about the IRB updating -- how that gets accomplished.
4. Develop a plan of action about how I will proceed with the dissertation.
5. Peruse - read the creativity stuff for the visual analytics course.
6. Re-read proposal, annotated bibliography and look over stack on my desk.
7. Pay the few piddly things that are left over.
8. Find out about getting shots at SHC at DU.

This is plenty to do for one day. Heck, for a whole weekend.

April already?!

I haven't posted a thing for over a month. I am scaring myself! I have been flat out crazy busy for weeks now, but barely getting a thing done on my dissertation. Other things have taken over and so I have fallen into a very bad dissertation work pattern. This term I am TAing an online course (INFO622) for Kate McCain and that is sucking up about 20 hours a week. Then I foolishly said yes to teaching a half semester course on Roman art at Rosemont. I love teaching there and the students are great fun, but what little time I have needs to go to the dissertation! This is what I get for being nice (and trying to make some money... the hole is getting deeper and deeper). One the plus side, I structured the course so the brunt of the work I had to do was early on. For the next few weeks the students will give their presentations on works in the UPenn Museum.

Beyond dealing with teaching these past few weeks, I took part in a design charrette at Drexel. Cameron Sinclair came and provided the numerous teams (13 teams of 7 members) with projects to design. The team I was on investigated an archery/community center for rural communities in Bhutan. It was a fascinating experience and I learned a great deal about how images are used in the design process. The thing that struck me as most unique was how the designers searched for images of how specific materials had been used. Bamboo was a major component to our design and so much of what we looked at revolved around this material. Another thing that figured prominently were maps and images of traditional crafts (bamboo and textile weaving). Maps were used to get a sense of the topography (flat land, elevation, rivers, etc.) and population distribution (closeness to other communities, cities, etc.). The patterns of the traditional crafts were also looked at for ideas about how they might be used in the bamboo work. Other than a simple pattern for some of the walls, the information from these images weren't incorporated into the final model or design mock-ups. I did make some contacts at CoMAD and this was a very good thing. :-) Hopefully as I go forward collecting data this will work out.

Speaking of collecting data, another thing that I did over the course of the last few weeks was revisit my plan of data gathering for the dissertation. I wasn't having any luck recruiting two of the participant groups and so I proposed to change the methods. I think at this point it is pretty stable, and so later today I will send out an email to the committee about the suggested route I should pursue. Tomorrow I suppose I will append my IRB documentation and send that off noting the changes to the protocol and crossing my fingers that they accept these.

Ok, it is just about time for little missy to get out of school and so I am off to pick her up and run some errands.

Two (of me) for Tuesday

Some days I wish there were two of me. It would be very helpful! I could have one do all the errands and such and the other could do all the dissertation work. I feel like I am being pulled in several directions at once... Oh well, I muddle through and do the best I can.

Today I am going to Drexel. I need to return a book to the library and I have a meeting about TAing for a course this coming term. Busy is the understatement of my life for the next few months. I absolutely must get the proposal finished in the next few weeks. It is crazy what I can get myself into sometimes! At any rate my list for today:

1. straighten up and get myself downtown.
2. copy interesting bits and return book to library.
3. pick up ILLs at library.
4. look at dbs for other materials.
5. meet and talk about TA.
6. come home and put together syllabus.
7. bring Mimi to clay class.
8. shop and make dinner.
9. read, read, read.

Am I overwhelmed yet?

It has been a bit of time since I last posted. That isn't because I haven't been working on the dissertation, but because I have been kind of panic-stricken and busy! I went to Miami Beach last week to the WebWise conference which was excellent, as always. When I registered for the conference I thought I would be post-proposal, but that isn't the way things turned out. I should have been blogging throughout the conference, but I can't pay attention to the speaker and blog at the same time. I suppose one of these days I will be able to do that, but since my listening skills are not the highest functioning part of my senses it is a bit stressful to have to type and pay attention. The conference was very good for introducing a number of interesting projects and developments that are part of the Web 2.0 technologies. There are such good things happening out there -- the difficulty rests in finding them!

I learned about a number of very interesting things happening out there in the digital world that are humanities-based (rather than science-O-centric). There was a project on an ontology of an online encyclopedia of philosophy (InPho) hosted at Stanford that looked interesting, a NEH funded project that is working on reconstructions of ancient architecture Ashes2Art (article here: http://www.campustechnology.com/article.aspx?aid=58358), a slave trade database, Zotero, Steve Museum, TIDES (Teaching, Images and Digital Experiences), T-RACES (Testbed for Redlining Archives of California's Exclusionary Spaces), the EOL (Encyclopedia of Life) and the omnipresent Internet Archive. The IA seems to be trying to provide free and open access to content. I say bravo, but wonder how long it will be able to support all the wonderful efforts? It seems as though they are everywhere (for example, the IA is providing assistance to the EOL project). Is that a good thing? I am not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand I am very pleased to see that finally some support for free access is happening at a high level. But then I wonder about how the IA will be able to maintain itself with all of the activities it is involved with. I am crossing my fingers (and other appendages) for their success!

South Beach was an interesting place for a conference. The Art Deco architecture was a big thrill for me and of course the beach made the experience all the better. I stayed in an Art Deco hotel called the Cadet Hotel on the corner of 17th and James streets. It was cute and perfectly situated at less than 2 blocks from the beach and the convention center. I managed to get a sunburn on Friday afternoon after the conference. Geez, I spent less than a half hour in the sun. I guess my poor white skin has no tolerance for such strong sun and warm weather. It was about 80 degrees during the day and in the evenings it would drop down to the mid to low 70s.

I have been able to get lots of reading done over the course of the last week. I am nearly finished with Maxwell's QRD: An interactive Approach, and I am kicking myself since I should have read this months ago!!!! Ah well, I guess it was still useful even if just to provide a little extra support to the proposal process. The last few chapters have been very helpful in the whole design of the study as it relates to the proposal. There are a few more articles I would like to get through this week. I really need to set a date for finishing the text of the proposal. I want to get the study started ASAP! The problem with the artists and architects is an issue... harumph. I am not sure what to do at this point. I don't want to cut them from the study just yet. Ho-hum.

I need to get myself ready to go to JES for library duty. I love helping out there, but oh my I am busy!!!! I have unpacked, done laundry and cleaned house today. Tonight I will work on the syllabus for the Monuments of Rome course. If my eyes are still open after that I will work on the rest of Maxwell's book and an article (the frameworks one). Alright time to get away for the comp for a bit!

Frightful Friday

What a weird and frustrating day I had today! It was one of those days when you think that there has to be a higher reason behind all the madness. In the end I felt the purpose was for me to test and develop a higher level of patience. You see my car had some issues and it needed to go into the shop. I took it bright and early this morning after I dropped the Meemster off at school. I had several errands to run and figured I would get to them after the car was fixed--plus at the hour I was heading down to the shop not much else was open. It took them several hours to get to my car and when they did they had to order the parts and wait for them before they could work on my car. I guess I must have been less than fully functional when I left the house, since I didn't bring more than the paper I was working on and a mug of tea. By the time I left I barely had enough time to run to the market to get a few things before I had to get Mimi.

I don't know how I did it but I managed to put all the groceries away and then run and get the sweet lil' thing. She was so incredibly good after school, too. I told her I had a paper I needed to get done and that it was important for her to keep herself busy for a little while. She did it and I was so proud of her and thankful that she managed to stay focused. She painted and then played some computer games while I finished my poster submission. The changes in this beautiful kid in the past few months are nothing short of miraculous! She has gone from a whining and impulsive kid to a much more in control and happy kid (the one I remembered from when she was younger). I am so lucky to have her in my life! We had yummy French bread pizzas for dinner and I had a few glasses of wine for stress control. Who knows what I will feel like in the morning, but they sure did taste good. :-)

I am giving the list a night off... not that it isn't there in the back of my mind, but it means a bit more when it is made explicit. Ok, time to relax.

Tango-lishious!

Another crazy day in my neighborhood. Lol. But seriously I have been going since 7:30 this morning and now it is just 11 pm. I had many hangers-on type errands to run this morning and so I got those out of the way before I went to my dr.'s appt. downtown. I am sort of feeling very ambivalent towards the medical profession today. You see I have chronic sinus problems. So much so that I opted to have surgery a few years ago. Well guess what? I still have blockages and so I have been having problems lately. I don't have much confidence that another surgery will help (uhm, the last didn't really fix things did it?) and there aren't many other alternatives. I am just hopeful that the several other drugs which were added to my daily regiment will paste me together enough to be functional. I can't keep feeling like crap. Last week I had headaches for 3 days straight with nausea and dizziness. It isn't a whole lot of fun trying to work like a fiend (and needing to flex one's brain) when you feel less than fine in a region close to the brain.

I did manage to get a good bit of reading done today. Amen! I finished the Saracevic article. I found the article to be useful for expanding one's concept of what relevance means and for making a number of theories explicit. It would be a very good read for people interested in the concept of relevance as it relates to the communication of information. If I go any further in this discussion I might get myself into a corner and need to profess the various theories. The article is a bit long and sometimes a little convoluted in terms of its construction, but it offers an excellent recounting of the theoretical flavors of relevance. After this I read a short study of the Perseus digital library/collections. I didn't get much out of the article, since it didn't really report much. The study consisted of observations (think-aloud) and interviews of 6 participants using the resource for a course. 3 participants performed one task and 3 performed a different task. The researcher made some broad observations about how their searching techniques developed during the interaction with the resource.

The last paper I read was the one by Bradley on image users across various disciplines. She looked at 9 participants from several departments at the UMD and gathered information using one-on-one interviews in which they were asked (among other things) to recall their last image search experience. She reports that the task breakdown fell into these groups: presentations 5; print pubs 5; research 2, web page 1, video 1, and identification 1. The resources the participants used are a bit surprising: Google Image 7; create own image 4; search engine 4; known web site 3, Google Video 1; personal contacts 1; books 1; image CD with textbook 1; clip art 1, specialized image dbs 1. Those figures are really telling of the situation with images -- there is little professional support for visual materials. I am not saying that there is none, since there are several good resources for images out there, only that few scholars would turn immediately to Google to find their "perfect" resource. She notes that the majority of participants (8) used proper nouns ("names of people, institutions, conferences, journals, brains and geographic locations). The next largest category was topic or description searches (6) and finally by date (1). Another aspect she investigated was the participants' degree of success at finding images. This depended upon 3 criteria 1) making an exact match, 2) finding something useful, and 3) the amount of time spent. Frustrations were expressed as: image quality 4; didn't meet specific needs 3; relocating images 2, unrelated results 2, format 2, knowing where to look 1, too many results 1, too few results 1, attribution 1, authority 1. Their search success, she states, is easier to define for specific searches when compared to generic searches. The latter are more difficult in this regard because they "require a judgement call by the researcher."

After all that lovely reading I gave myself a little treat and got a few shirts and stuff for spring. Then this afternoon I had a meeting about the development of a software to provide course content. Interesting ideas and experience were exchanged. Hopefully the future will be very bright indeed for this idea which marries technology with content. Lord knows we can use some assistance. Teaching is such a labor intensive job. Few people realize how draining it can be until they have to be the entertainment committee and produce all this content and do it in an engaging way!

Ok, it is nearly midnight and I need some sleep. I have been really pushing this week and I have a long day ahead tomorrow.

Wednesday... already?

Yesterday was busy! Not that any of my days aren't but for some reason I was running for most of the day. I did some emailing in the a.m. and got myself downtown to print and copy things. That was a good thing. There are several other things that need to be copied, but since the journals have just been moved to the lower level in Hagerty it isn't really feasible to do everything. A few items are AWOL, so I will return to this task after I go to the WebWise conference next week. I copied several articles from a visual literacy resource I had IIL'd and I copied a bit of a dissertation which also comes from the vis lit discipline.

I was also able to give Jenn the articles and the CD I burned for her which was on my list. ;-) I didn't get any of Caswell read, but I did read an early article (1975) on relevance by Saracevic. It gives a nice history of the term relevance and situates it among the discourse of several disciplines (philosophy, logic, and info science). Another source I was reading through is a nice little book edited by Jana Varlejs titled Information Seeking. It is a bit old (1987), but the several articles in the book are interesting reads (by Belkin, Saracevic, Kuhlthau, Varlejs, and Vandergrift) about information behaviors. I need to seek out more recent literature on the subject, but for now these early things are keeping me busy. I tend to like to read early things since it sets the stage for the later research. I can often see the progression of ideas more easily by doing this -- plus it gives a sort of genealogy to the research.

I have been trying to get more participants involved. Hopefully the research gods will smile favorably upon me soon. I do need the artist and architect participants. Eeeep. I will keep trying. It is difficult not being discouraged at their lack of interest. I don't want to drop them from the study!

Ok, so I have about 3 solid hours to work today and I will spend it reading. But here is the complete list of things that need doing:

1. Read: rest of Saracevic, Varlejs, Bradley.
2. Do annotations!
3. Clean my desk - it feels a bit claustrophobic with all the stacks.
4. Call sitter about next Wednesday and Thursday.
5. Shopping.
6. Camp and Miami call.
7. Poster blurb for conference.
8. Smile!

Tomorrow:
1. Appt. downtown.
2. Read!
3. Rosemont
4. Bala meeting.
5. Finish poster blurb.
6. Cobbler for boots.
7. Bank for deposit.
8. Recruit!

Moon-day Madness

Today was one of those major time sucks! I managed to get myself involved in a volunteer position that should have only taken an hour out of my early morning today. But guess what? I was there for three hours. Eeeep. It is for a good cause, so I suppose I should not be so twisted about it... but I need those hours back. Mondays are tough for me since I sort of run back and forth between the school where my daughter goes and home several times. Today was a bust between the running back and forth and the late afternoon doctor's appointment. Yee-haw!

I managed to send out a few feelers for artist participants today and I suppose I should be happy about that. I read a bit of the Maxwell book on quantitative research methods and design and I will try to get back to that before bed. I have so much reading... no wonder my stomach is churning! I have no time to do it all. I need to get stapled to my desk tonight and work for several hours. I can do it. Tonight I will finally skim/read those vis lit resources so I can bring them back tomorrow. The VISOR I bibliography needs to be perused, too, since I need to know what to copy tomorrow at the library.

So tomorrow:
1. Copy articles.
2. Order others, if needed.
3. Give Jenn the CD and the file.
4. Read more of the Caswell book.
5. Try to get more participants.
6. Camp and Miami call.
7. Annotations.
8. Smile!

Ok, time to be busy doing something more along the lines of reading. I will be back in the morning for the daily dose.

A good ending

Yesterday ended well on the research front, thankfully! I went downtown last night to meet up with some lovely ladies for dinner and drinks. We were done by 8 so I headed over to my office to get some work done on the references in the VISOR I report. I managed to get quite a few of the entries printed and ordered those things that I didn't have access to through ILL. The library closed fairly early last night, so I didn't have time to do the photocopying of non-e available things. I did manage to picked up a book from the 'berry I was interested in looking at on qualitative research methods, however. Finally, I nearly completed the reading in Poole's Theories of the Middle Range last night. I am on the methodology chapter, which I think is going to be enough for my needs. Middle range theories are those that fall between completely detail oriented practice-based ideas and the abstract uber concepts, and they are developed using grounded theory methods. Glaser and Strauss' Discovery of Grounded Theory is one of the two books Poole mentions as being most important to his ideas about theory. Now this is a nice thing since I had planned on using grounded theory for my model construction.

I am still having difficulties with recruitment. Blah. It is so funny that the artists and architects have no interest in participating in the study. I have sent emails out to other people who might be helpful in recruitment so hopefully the participant god/desses will shine down upon me soon!

It is nearly noon now and I don't have too much time to work today, but I thought I might at least skim through the rest of the visual literacy book I ILLed and take some notes. There are some interesting ideas in several of the papers in the book that I think might help with the cognition and perception areas of my dissertation. If I can get through those I will be a very happy woman.

The list:
1. Skim/read/annotate pertinent parts of the visual literacy materials.
2. Update my web page.
3. Work on the SIG-AH web site.

Ok, time to get cracking!

Aaaaaaaaaargh!!!!

This week has been so difficult and unproductive! I am now at home trying to get some work done and failing mostly. It is a snow day for little missy and so there is no way I can get more than 1 minute of silence. Help! I lost most of yesterday to cleaning out my email box, dealing with lingering issues and fighting a terrible headache. I NEED to WORK. Uhg. My head isn't much better today for some reason. I can barely concentrate even when I am graced with silence for a blissful minute.

Between Wednesday and yesterday I did:

1. Read the rest of VISOR I.
This is a remarkable report -- very thorough and detailed account of the various processes influencing image retrieval. It is similar to what I hope to do, but I think it lacks clarity. I say that with some hesitancy, however, since it isn't that the writing is unclear. It is more that the report doesn't present the major aspects of the theoretical model it develops in a clear manner. Everything is inter-related, which I can understand but this tends to muddle all of the various dimensions and tends to make the model seem very weak. I will need to think more about this. What makes a good theoretical model? Isn't it simplicity and clarity? While models by their very nature gloss over the details, their strength lies in their ability to distill the phenomena down to the critical elements. I think the model itself does this in the VISOR I report, but the discussion isn't able to maintain this simplicity.
2. Found R. Bradley's paper and printed it out.
3. Added some research method references to my bib.
4. Ordered several research methods volumes.
5. Sent an email about the SIG-AH web site.
6. Looked through the camps for Meems.
7. Got our prescriptions.
8. Went to the dentist.
9. Got school supplies for the Meemster.
10. Wrote more recruitment emails and gave EA a rundown on my progress.
11. I read more of the Herbert Poole book Theories of the Middle Range. This has been a truly fascinating read, more for the historical story surrounding the development of the disciplines of library and information science than for how one goes about constructing theory. I haven't gotten through more than the first few chapters, so it might show up later on in the book.

Today I am going to try to get myself downtown for a few hours so I can print some of the articles I need for the research methods. I am feeling so much pressure to get back to the writing phase, but I need to go through lots more literature in the meantime. Arrrgggggghhhh! Ok so today I plan to:

1. Go through the VISOR bibliographies and print, copy, order or borrow the items on the list.
2. Try to recruit more participants.
3. Email the several participants who have asked me about the project or responded to my email.

To the shower!

Please give me a push!

Ack, I feel like I have fallen into the hole of Hell! Well, ok, it isn't this bad, but honestly it is now Wednesday morning and I feel like I haven't accomplished anything. In reality I have, but it isn't the right kind of make you feel great and gets you extra motivated type of accomplishment. Monday and Tuesday I was being a full-time mom, so that obviously has some impact on what I am able to get done. Monday was pretty dreadful, since little wiggle pants was full of energy and requests from the entertainment committee. Yesterday was a bit better and I was able to get through nearly the remainder of the VISOR I report. I will finish that today in between meetings and train rides. Heh. It is always some distraction to keep me from reading, isn't it?

Yesterday's accomplishments:
1. Send several emails to prospectives about participating.
2. Emailed a participant respondent.
3. Read VISOR I report.
4. Called Dr. Judy's office to make appts.
5. Called for Meemster's prescription.
6. Tried to call about newspaper. (I have no patience for hold!)
7. Called about focus group participation.

It seems like there were a few other things in there, but I suppose this is a good start. I guess I am just feeling pressure to get the lit review and methods section fleshed out... and this alongside trying to get a second pilot participant is making me very uneasy. I suppose I need to feel that unease to keep me motivated. I am really getting that pit in my stomach, need to get moving type of feeling these days. I just feel I am at a standstill. Grrrrrrr.

Anyway, so today I have to go downtown for a few meetings. The majority of the day is my own, nevertheless. I should use the motivation I feel right now to get busy. I am going to cut my blog short today to do just that. My list is below and as you can see there are too many things that are lingering, lingering, lingering from last week. I will do much better today! I can do much better today. :-)

1. Read the rest of VISOR I
2. Add annotations for VISOR I & II.
3. Find R. Bradley's paper!
4. Send an email to SIG-AH re: web site.
5. Summer camp for the Meemster.
6. Read/skim the visual literacy stuff.
7. Go get prescriptions.

Procrastination and Lost Time

The past few days I have been thinking a lot about how time just seems to fly by me. I am a fairly driven person when it comes to my work, but for some reason the past week or so has been very unproductive. It isn't that I am not doing anything, more like the work I am doing isn't accomplishing much. I don't have the tangible proof of my efforts that reflects the amount of time that has passed. I feel like I am flittering away my time doing things that don't much matter. Like surfing the web (for personal and professional pleasure) and doing less than critical things like housecleaning. I rarely take a day off, but I know these forays away from my dissertation are distractions I shouldn't give into. When I do give in they tend to drag me into a psychological black hole. That makes it nearly impossible to find any joy or motivation in the work... this, eventhough I love the topic. I can understand why people get stuck when doing their dissertations and why so many go unfinished.

So Friday I had hoped to get something done, but it didn't materialize. I suppose I did a little bit of reading of the VISOR I report, but I had hoped to get through the entire thing. I wrote a few emails in the morning and then had to go downtown for a sinus CT. As a kind of treat I went shopping and bought some cheap clothing. When I came home it was nearly time to get the Meemster. I did work on a group project for an online course I am taking for much of Friday night and part of Saturday, too.

Saturday I got the Meems ready for her dad and did the taxi driver thing. I got home around 1 I suppose and after eating lunch and working on the group project I worked on trascribing the observation I did for the pilot study. The recording was 1.5 hors and it took me about 6 hours to transcribe the entire thing. I felt delerious near the end! I suppose the wine had something to do with that. After this I was toast and so I watched a movie... Volver. It was a wonderful, although sort of strange movie. I thought it was a comedy, but it was a very dark one. The actresses were just fabulous -- Penelope Cruz was so lovely and believable. I love the fact they had her wear a fake fanny! I thought her fanny was fabulous with the extra padding.

Today I woke up at a nearly illegal hour. Since the past week has been a little lite on sleep I don't feel dreadful about the extra hour or two I spent in bed. Blissful sleep. I didn't get too much done today beyond bathing and cleaning. I have about an hour before I will need to go play taxi driver again, so I think I will try to finish the VISOR reading. Having just one goal in mind might make the whole thing easier. I also need to annotate the transcript with the non-spoken information that I gathered from the observation. It is so much data. 14 pages of single spaced text. Eeeeek. At least tonight is just inserting things like the number of images displayed in searches. Ok, to work... I need to get back to the list I made up on Thursday eve bright and early tomorrow morning. Tomorrow... I will loose most of the day to the Meems. Hopefully she will let me have a few hours to work.

Sugar in all its glorious forms

Happy Valentine's Day! Yes, as the title states, I received lots of sugar in many forms today. Hooray for sweeties!

It is getting late in the day but as I promised myself, I will keep up the newly formed tradition of blogging as my daily writing routine. Today was very busy and I actually managed to make a great step forward on the dissertation front. I conducted the first pilot study observation and it went remarkably well. It took about an hour and a half and was entirely fascinating for several reasons. The first of these is that the participant was so forthcoming with nuanced information about how she was searching for images. A number of people shut down when they are in the process of performing some task (even when prompted to use the think-aloud method) but this particpant was wonderful at indicating why she chose specific images and why certain ones were not useful. From just this single observation, I can see some coding patterns evolving. Quality (size, clarity, color, angle, etc.), availablity, representativeness (of concept), complexity (of searching multiple places and tasks involved in creating the presentation), cataloging/indexing, and trustworthiness come to mind at the moment. I will transcribe the observation and insert my notes alongside her commentary. My feeling from having sat through the observation is that the data is incredibly rich! Even with my knowledge of the processes and the topic she was preparing for, the experience was eye-opening and intriguing. Yes, there are days when I absolutely LOVE what I do!

So after I performed the observation and administered the questionnaire, I went to visit with some people in an attempt to recruit more participants. I have a lead on an architect and perhaps an artist... I need to send a few emails in the morning for these. This afternoon I heard back from one of the archaeologist participants about her ability to take part in the study. She is an adjunct and only teaches one course a year, although her daily work requires images. I am not sure what I should do in her case. I think I will investigate a bit more with her to see when she is teaching. It might be that she will be teaching during the study and so then I think she would be perfectly suited to the study. Recruitment is tiring! I ran into someone I know socially yesterday at my local CVS and asked about participation. It is certainly a bit wacky to be doing this all the time. Thankfully, I believe in the research and its possible outcome so it keeps me going.

I need to get back to the reading. Grrrr. I have an appointment downtown in the early afternoon tomorrow, so I think I will have at least an hour of train time to read. If I am super good in the morning I should have another hour or two. I need to get through this material! Ack! My plan of action for tomorrow is to:

1. send emails off to prospectives.
2. read the rest of VISOR I and add annotations for VISOR I & II.
3. find R. Bradley's paper!
4. send an email to SIG-AH re: web site.
5. call Dr. Judy.
6. make some decisions regarding summer camp for the Meemster.

Ok, I have my list. I am going to climb into bed and do some reading before I sleep.

A spoonful of sugar

It is Wednesday and I have no idea where my week has gone. I feel like I have been running since I woke up on Monday morning and yet I don't seem to have anything to show for it. I have been trying to get some reading in, since there are several things that I need to include in the updated lit review for the proposal (and because these sources offer important information). There are several lines of inquiry that I have been looking into and these are the literature surrounding visual literacy and visual anthropology. I need to look a bit into the theories surrounding cognition and visual materials, but much of the most important aspects seem to show up in the visual literacy sources. I am also looking at theoretical model construction and research methods so I have my plate quite full at the moment.

I am running the first pilot study meeting tomorrow morning and so I have to prepare. It has been so long since I have done one of these I need to:
1. go over the manual for the digital recorder I have.
2. get new batteries for the recorder.
3. print out the questionnaire.
4. bring a pad of paper and several writing implements.
5. bring an extra copy of the consent form.
6. look over my notes about performing observations.

Ok, since I only have about an hour before I need to get Mimi from school I am going to try to fit in some reading.

A Daily Dose of Writing

Since my last post mentioned a certain particular craziness that preceeded my defense I have been trying to find the time to get back to write about it. Of course now that I have a stack of books to read that is nearly a foot high it is the PERFECT time to do this. I am rationalizing this post as my daily writing habit, so I don't feel so guilty about posting to my blog... as a matter of fact, it might be useful to make this my daily writing space until the time comes that I need to be writing the text of the dissertation findings. I am straying a bit from my initial purpose of posting to the blog, but humor me here. I will post again about the crazy 4 days in Rome finishing the prospectus to meet the deadline!

A few days ago several of the post candidacy stage doctoral students were asked to talk about our experiences getting to that stage to a group of 1st and 2nd year doctoral students. It was an interesting reflection on the process and the varied experiences of each of us. One of the doctoral candidates spoke on how to choose your dissertation committee and the various things you want to avoid (such as putting 3 non-tenured members on it is probably not in your best interest). Another spoke on how you present your research within the proposal defense. His point was that since you have the most knowledge about your topic and what you are trying to achieve, attempting to cover up weaknesses in your methods/questions or the like may come back to haunt you later on. The proposal is a contract between you and your committee to carry out the research in the manner you have outlined. If you end up not being able to get the type of answers you need because you futzed with your methods or you saw inconsistencies prior to the defense and were not truthful about these you could find yourself in a very sticky position. I spoke about time management and the work invovled in writing the problem statement and the lit review.

TIME
I found that it took me about six months from the time I began working on my annotated bibliography until I had something that was useful to the development of the problem statement and the lit review. It took another six months to get the problem statement and lit review in a form that was ready for the committee to look at. Of course throughout this second six month period I expanded the annotated bibliography with materials which were more specific to the questions I was trying to answer.

TIME MANAGEMENT
The most useful thing for me was to set aside specific hours of the day that I needed to be writing, reading and thinking about my dissertation. I have been working 9-3 daily. It is a brutal schedule to maintain long term but I know if I want to finish I have to stick to to. If I have a meeting to attend or other things that need to be done during those hours, I make that time up outside my normal working hours. This means some very late nights... when I find my energy level flagging I do the picky work that doen't need lots of mental fortitude to complete. All of these tasks need doing and so I just try to pick the most appropriate task to my capabilities at that moment. Also, don't put things off just because you don't feel like it. Alright, I should re-word this to: try to limit procrastination because you will find yourself doing just about anything to keep from working on your dissertation! You are going to find yourself "stuck" (read Disnertation Hell post) and you will be kicking yourself about the time you frittered away playing chuzzle, chatting, or what have you. Prepare for getting "stuck". Find tasks that need doing. Keep a list of these handy, and work on them when you reach this/these point(s). You are still being productive and this will make you feel so much better... nevermind getting you back on track since productivity breeds productivity.

Above all else WRITE about anything that has to do with the dissertation on a daily basis. I do this for at least an hour a day every day except for the occasional Sunday. It can be as mundane as "I hate sitting here working on my dissertation when it is so beautiful and I haven't seen the sun in months..." Like any activity, your body needs to get used to writing, focusing, thinking. You are excersizing a whole bunch of different body parts when you write your dissertation. You need to remember that it is going to take some time to get used to this new routine. The routine will become ingrained if you keep at it and you might find yourself getting uneasy if you haven't had that chance to do your "Daily Dose of Writing."

MODELS
There are three types of models that I used to get me through the prospectus phase. The first model was merely looking at other dissertation formats that had some similarity to my topic. Sometimes just noting what others have done with their problem statement and literature review will help you along. Other times you will want to look at how they organized their thoughts. They were a great source for beginning steps into writing my dissertation. The second type of model were the theoretical constructs that have been used within the domain. Even those that aren't close to my dissertation have been brain food... what is possible, what works, what is less successful, the level of specificity, etc. All of these help me to think about where I might go with my dissertation. The final models I have used have been the people who surround me. My committee obviously is molding my dissertation in a certain direction. Other researchers working in my area have also exerted an influence over what I am doing. Getting yourself out there and talking to these experts in your area is a wonderful experience. They are nearly as excited about your material as you are and they have experience that you can call upon. Plus, it is good for one's visibility.

FUN
Finally, I have enjoyed the work involved (for the most part). Yes, the hours are long and the work is sometimes tedious, but I LOVE my topic. I feel very strongly about my research. I have a firsthand knowledge of the difficulties image users experience and I want to help them. I don't know if you can get fired up about a dissertation topic that you have no personal interest in.

I am sure I have left off a dozen other things, but these came to mind as I wrote. Alright, I have written for an hour and so I have done my daily dose of writing. :-) In all honesty, I will be taking notes on this stack of books next to me for at least 3 more hours. This was a very good brain warmer activity, nevertheless!

Its Official...

... I am a doctoral candidate! This very happy event happened last month. The defense itself was pretty easy going. The worst part for me was giving the presentation, since it seemed so pointless. Ok, your dissertation committee has read what is sent to them and so they obviously have heard all of what will be included in the presentation before. It was just so dull and unnecessary for me and for them. I knew the literature, what I am trying to accomplish with the research study and I had some ideas of what I might find. All of this was clearly visible in what I had sent to them to read. After the presentation the committee members each asked a question (or several) and then we had a sort of pow-wow about how to make things better / stronger / tighter, other things that I might want to look at, how to proceed forward and the timeline I should try to follow. Contrary to how defenses are usually discussed, I found the whole experience very supportive.

The story of how I got to that point is the real story and so I will blog about this another time. It was a fairly wild ride for a month or so before because of time constraints. Weeeeeeeee!