Insert your head here

Insert Your Head Here

Hello everyone! As you know, I missed the last workshop because I was in Ireland, where the above sculpture was photographed (it's from the campus of the National University of Ireland, Galway).

In my absence, Katie lead a session which included a demonstration by Lorie. I heard it was a good session and look forward to catching up with you all again next meeting.

In the meantime, here are two resources to pass on....

If you're struggling with time management, I've heard raves about Susan at Monsour, who is reportedly excellent at therapeutic time-management butt-kicking. "She's like a life coach!"

And if you're interested in catching a RefWorks workshop:

The following RefWorks workshops have been scheduled for October and November:

Wednesday, October 29, 4 – 6 pm
Thursday, November 6, 6 - 8 pm
Tuesday, November 11, 6 - 8 pm
Friday, November 14, 4 - 6 pm
Wednesday, November 19, 6 - 8 pm

RefWorks is a web-based bibliography management system that allows you to create and manage your own personal database of articles, web pages, and other types of information valuable for your research. In this workshop you will learn the basics of RefWorks for creating your database and importing records. You will also learn how to use the records in your database to format notes and bibliographies in the appropriate style (MLA, APA, etc.) for your papers.

Workshops are held in the Keck Learning Room, Honnold/Mudd Library. If you plan to bring your own laptop rather than use a library computer, be sure that your wireless card has been registered for the CINE network by academic computing on your campus.

To register for one of these workshops, reply to this email or email Gale Burrow (gale.burrow@libraries.claremont.edu) with a subject line of RefWorks workshop.

RefAware

A wonderful piece of information in the mailbag, from Dissertator-On-High, Katie:

Hi scholarly friends,

I went to a presentation yesterday on the libraries' new utility: RefAware.


Basically, it's a way to sign up for regular updates on publications on topics of your choice. For instance, if I want to be made aware of any new publications that deal with Paul's letters in the New Testament in a feminist way, I could set up a search strategy for that, and RefAware would email me daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, bimonthly--or never, and I justlog in periodically to get my results.

So here's how it works. At libraries.claremont.edu, you go to Quicklinks>RefAware. You have to create an account WITH A CLAREMONT COLLEGES DOMAIN in your email address. So not your Gmail account, e.g. Those of you at other institutions, see if you can access it, too! Then you create a "search strategy" you can give it a name, define the discipline(s) that you want to hear from, and give source criteria. The search is boolean, so you can do "ands" and "nots". NOTE that each line is logically separated by an OR, not an AND. So if I had a search strategy for the topic I suggested above, line one might be "Paul and Bible". (I don't want articles about any old Paul!) The next line might be "Paul and New Testament", since maybe not all the articles will say "Bible", but they might say "New Testament." Does that make sense?

You can also set up a search strategy for an author you want to keep track of. And you can make multiple strategies, obviously. You can check to see if any given publication/periodical is listed, as well. Sounds like the database is just growing and growing.

So I hope this might be helpful for you. I periodically wonder if my own work is still relevant and worry that someone else has come up with my ideas, too. This should put those concerns to rest, and keep me educated in my field, as well.

Cheers!
Katie

Kinda Speaks For Itself...

Click above to enlarge, read, and mock at will.

Archrival Archivals

In the last session, Bryan did a "show 'n tell" about his recent trip to Princeton to look at some archives for his research.

Some special collections / archives allow you to bring in only some paper and a pencil, some allow hand scanners - the one Bryan went to allowed hand-held digital cameras (no flash). After several days of perfecting his Hunchback of Notre Dame impersonation, Bryan came away from his trip with thousands of image files...and no clear way of organizing them.

So he started off organizing the pictures by creating files for each day he was at the archive: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, etc. Because there were lots of little thumbnail pictures, it was still difficult to see what was what.

We discussed a few options - printing out the pictures in greyscale, taking them to a printer, transferring them to PDFs (print first, then scan), using ZoomIt to allow for the capacity to write notes on the images. Of course, it all depends on what you need your materials for and what kind of access you want.

Bryan ended up creating an Excel sheet with columns that he filled in as he went through and read and cataloged each image. He created 7 columns at the top of the sheet, labeled:

- Photo No. (ex. DSCN9906.JSP)
- Title / What It Is (ex. Letter to John Smith)
- Box # (for later citation purposes)
- Folder (where he's keeping it in his computer)
- Description (brief description of what that document contains)

Lorie recommended FreeMind, an open source program to help you map out your ideas and keep track of their connections. She said Bryan could use it to keep track of documents and create links that would immediately take him to the originals he wanted.

Cataloging all of the pictures will take Bryan quite some time, however, once he is completed, it will be an incredibly valuable resource not only to his own scholarship, but perhaps even to the host institution where he found the archive.

The one piece of advice everyone gave Bryan: back everything up! All of it! Print it out, use an off-site backup service, get an external hard drive, whatever - save, save, save. Which is excellent advice for all of us.