Some things read this week, 15 - 21 April 2007

I've been reviewing my rss feeds this evening and came across a post by author "Mark" who calls his blog, "Off the Mark," well, ok, but the post is about what he has read this week: Some things read this week, 15 - 21 April 2007. Seems like a fabulous way to keep your bibliography up to date and your annotations work from becoming overwhelming at the end of the semester.

I had originally conceived of this blog as a way to keep track of what I was reading and finding interesting on the Web, but with the time I need to devote to CIP Collectanea, I find I'm worrying a lot less about this blog. Additionally, this semester, which is 2 weeks from conclusion, was not at all about papers. It was about projects. No really interesting readings that were not way on the practical side, not the kinds of things that have a lot of relevance to the themes I'm interested in pursuing as I get to focus on research more. So, it's been like a little break from writing. Sounds good, except that I like writing. I have to be a lot more careful about what I take in the future. I really didn't have a choice about these 2 courses given that I was in the MSIS program and they were both required for my degree and my fellowship (digital libraries concentration), so there's nothing I could have done differently, but that is not the case now. Now that I am in the Ph.D. program, I really need to choose only courses that allow me to tailor what I learn to what I need to learn, for example, do research that is of interest to me, using what I'm learning in the class. Research methods courses are supposedly designed this way. We'll see. I have my first one this summer, starting end of May.

So, Mark's post was a pleasant reminder that I probably ought to go through the readings from this semester and see if any of them should make it onto my bibliography, end note, which I'm not all that impressed with yet, or noodlebib, which I really love, but which has its limitations. In either case, they are tools for documenting, but my blog is a tool for sharing, and that seems a lot better to me. Thanks Mark!