Categories Pursuing the PhD

105 posts

News/thoughts related to getting a PhD in the library space

Thoughts on the Fall Semester by an LIS PhD Student

Kyle Jones shares some reflection on his first semester at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Library and Information Studies (LIS) doctoral program: http://thecorkboard.org/a-reflection-on-the-fall-semester/ With good timing, a friend recently contacted me about his own interests in pursuing a PhD in library and information studies.  Knowing that I had just wrapped up my first semester and wanting to hear specific parts of my reflections, he sent me a few questions to answer.  Happily, he allowed me to turn these questions in to a reflective post for all to read. What has taken you by surprise? I was very much used […]

Motivations of Scholarly Bloggers

Kyle Jones sent this to me: http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2962/2580 Kjellberg, Sara. “I am a blogging researcher: Motivations for blogging in a scholarly context” First Monday[Online], Volume 15 Number 8 (14 July 2010) Kjellberg conducted in-depth interviews with researchers who blog for the study. Take a look at the findings and discussion for some strong evidence for sharing and blogging the research process online as a researcher. Part of the conclusion: The analysis brings out at least three motivations for being a blogging researcher: the blog helps the researcher share with others, it provides a room for creativity, and it makes the researcher feel […]

Congrats to Dr. Margaret Lincoln!

http://alfocus.ala.org/videos/i-love-my-librarian-award-ceremony Ten winners of the inaugural Carnegie Corporation of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Award were recognized at a ceremony hosted by the New York Times December 9. The award, administered by the ALA’s Public Information Office and the Campaign for America’s Libraries, recognizes public, school, and college librarians for service to their communities, schools, and campuses. Among the ten is my dear colleague and fellow UNT doctoral graduate: Margaret “Gigi” Lincoln, Library Media Specialist, Lakeview High School, Battle Creek, Michigan Checkout the video! A big congrats to Gigi! (Via ALAFocus which highlighted Gigi’s picture in the mailing – very […]

My Dissertation Bound

  My Dissertation Bound, originally uploaded by mstephens7. I just received three bound copies of my dissertation from ProQuest. For those who might be interested, you can download a PDF version here: stephens-mfinal TTW Contributor Lee LeBlanc provided these links: http://www.scribd.com/doc/6355946/Stephens-Mfinal http://pdfmenot.com/view/https://tametheweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/stephens-mfinal.pdf From the conclusion: While Gorman (2005) defined a blog as “a species of interactive electronic diary by means of which the unpublishable, untrammeled by editors or the rules of grammar, can communicate their thoughts via the web,” I believe the biblioblogger’s potential role is one of bibliography. Wilson (1979) wrote: “… a complete bibliographical job involves all four […]

Reinvention – Free Range Librarian Style

Haven’t had a reinvention post in a while. I was tickled to read about Karen Schneider’s new position with Equinox. As of June 23 (just in time for ALA!), I’m the Community Librarian at Equinox, the support and development company for Evergreen, the premier, industrial-strength open-source integrated library system software. What, you ask, is a Community Librarian? It’s a chief blogger, presenter, evangelist, community liaison, birds-of-a-feather organizer, strategist, branding specialist, user-experience person, project management advisor, and whatever else happens to need doing. (I wrote the job description, and I think that hits the high notes.) After sixteen years in LibraryLand […]

Putting Wikis into Play

This weekend marks the conclusion of one of my classes this semester at Dominican University’s GSLIS. Internet Fundamentals & Design traces the history of the Net, features some simple Web page coding, and covers a whole lot of Web 2.0 exploration, including group presentations on how to implement new technologies in libraries. Yes, group projects, the bane of college students everywhere, are part of the course as well. Heck, we work in groups in libraries, we might as well get folks used to it in library school. What’s struck me in the last few semesters I’ve been teaching is how […]

A Long Overdue Note of Thanks

A post that is long overdue. I want to extend public thanks to Jennifer Graham and Scott Smith for the invaluable assistance they provided me as I finished my dissertation. In a way, it’s also an acknowledgement of how powerful these informal blogging connections can be. In the space of a few months Jennifer and I both suffered losses. I could hardly breathe some days as the summer slipped away. Requests for formatting and clarification came from the University Reader at UNT when I least expected it. Jennifer and Scott were there for me — to assist and offer support […]