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!