Yep, back to the grind again and I had feedback from the University Ethics committee with a raft of recommendations. Grits teeth and smiles sweetly....
Anyway, they are a necessary evil and I can understand the need for a process. Being a student studying an NHS related course I cannot however see the need to go through not one, but 2 ethics processes. Let's learn to share perhaps, chaps? The supporting forms are almost identical for a start. Trust me, I'm now an unwitting expert. There must be some mileage in an online one-size-fits-all-for-NHS-and-University-applications; a collaborative effort for certain (I'm thinking information focused here) courses. I know a couple of fellas who could knock up a web form in no time!
Forgive the frustration but please let's not forget that on non taught Masters we all have day jobs too, so time is VERY precious and we'd *much* rather spend it on actual research rather than form filling.
So after spending the best part of 5 months following bureaucratic processes (I kid you not) I am now looking forward to the completion of chapter one, and on to chapter 2. Ah the literature review, I know I should be good at this given that I've spent the best part of my working life working alongside librarians, but I can;t say that the prospect fills me with the joys of spring.
Speaking of which, NUFC continue the habit of a lifetime and continue to spectacularly underwhelm. When will it end? The 12th of Never by the look of things. Actually what is the 12th of Never where did that come from, apart from that awful song?
Will we even score a goal? Something has to break surely, but at least Baye and Faye are on their way back from the African Cup of Nations which is an almighty relief.
Onwards and upwards as they say....
Oh this week's resource gem for all you NHS types out there and people who just like gory photos... is the wonderful David Rothman's list of medical wikis. There's some good collaborative developments and sharing going on out there and the list gets longer by the week.
Thursday, 31 January 2008
Saturday, 19 January 2008
Discovery of great library resources for referencing AND Kevin Keegan!
Well, I had my first draft of Chapter 1 of my dissertation returned from my supervisor, in super quick time (thank you so much for that!) with some really useful comments and suggestions on it, so I am now digressing from implementing the changes as I type!
One thing that I am pretty rubbish at doing is referencing (I know, shocking for someone who works with librarians, but hey) so I had a look on Sheffield University's Library web pages and came across some great resources for anyone who has started to type up parts of their dissertation.
Have a look at: http://www.shef.ac.uk/library/libdocs/lit.html. The 'Harvard referencing guide' is great to just print off and refer too as you type, and the 'Citing electronic sources of information' guide contains guidance on referencing mailing lists, emails, and bulletin boards which are not contained in the dissertation module guide. I hope you find that useful.
Aside from that, Kevin Keegan has returned to Newcastle United and today is his first game in charge. I think few saw this coming to be honest but I think it's a great appointment. I do have a couple of reservations as I would with any manager, but for his sheer understanding of NUFC well, what can I say other than 'welcome back to your spiritual home, Kevin'! I am sure that the style of football will change for the better from the insipid offerings that we endured (in person!) at Derby and Stoke away, so for that alone, the Toon Army will breathe a sign of relief!
HOWAY THE LADS!
One thing that I am pretty rubbish at doing is referencing (I know, shocking for someone who works with librarians, but hey) so I had a look on Sheffield University's Library web pages and came across some great resources for anyone who has started to type up parts of their dissertation.
Have a look at: http://www.shef.ac.uk/library/libdocs/lit.html. The 'Harvard referencing guide' is great to just print off and refer too as you type, and the 'Citing electronic sources of information' guide contains guidance on referencing mailing lists, emails, and bulletin boards which are not contained in the dissertation module guide. I hope you find that useful.
Aside from that, Kevin Keegan has returned to Newcastle United and today is his first game in charge. I think few saw this coming to be honest but I think it's a great appointment. I do have a couple of reservations as I would with any manager, but for his sheer understanding of NUFC well, what can I say other than 'welcome back to your spiritual home, Kevin'! I am sure that the style of football will change for the better from the insipid offerings that we endured (in person!) at Derby and Stoke away, so for that alone, the Toon Army will breathe a sign of relief!
HOWAY THE LADS!
Sunday, 6 January 2008
Post Xmas, back to MSc and supporting NUFC
Happy New Year to one and all.
It's been back to the grind for me and I have started to write up chapter one of my dissertation which encompasses the overview, what I'm setting out to achieve, the organisational context etc. As always, I find that writing these summaries helps me to focus on the aims of my dissertation.
I also started Ch 1 of the dissertation as the University still haven't made a decision as to whether my dissertation needs their ethics approval. Of course everything shuts down for Xmas within academia so no-one is about to make any decisions. Note to self and and anyone else interested; this will also happen again at Easter!
Today I am off to Stoke City v NUFC in the hope of a decent win for us. This of course is by no means guaranteed but we retain our blind faith, at least for the moment!
It's been back to the grind for me and I have started to write up chapter one of my dissertation which encompasses the overview, what I'm setting out to achieve, the organisational context etc. As always, I find that writing these summaries helps me to focus on the aims of my dissertation.
I also started Ch 1 of the dissertation as the University still haven't made a decision as to whether my dissertation needs their ethics approval. Of course everything shuts down for Xmas within academia so no-one is about to make any decisions. Note to self and and anyone else interested; this will also happen again at Easter!
Today I am off to Stoke City v NUFC in the hope of a decent win for us. This of course is by no means guaranteed but we retain our blind faith, at least for the moment!
Sunday, 9 December 2007
A win at last!
Image by Paul Thomas UK found on Flickr.com
I can't write about Web 2.0 stuff all the time, so I'm very happy to report that my great passion (or stupidity depending on your view point) for Newcastle United FC has been duly rewarded with a well fought win.
This follows on from a great draw with Arsenal midweek. Here's hoping that the Toon are turing a corner...
UKSG Web 2.0 seminar Nov 07 London
I went to an excellent seminar hosted by the UK Serial Group, where the emphasis of the day was focused on Web 2.0 and what it means to library and information professionals.
The seminar had a range of speakers, most of whom were excellent, and I learnt a great deal.
Here are my highlights from some of the presentations. Full details of the programme and links to individual presentations can be found at: http://www.uksg.org/event/web20
The threads of Web 2.0
Leigh Dodds, Chief Technical Officer, Ingenta
* Gartner Hype Curve which is a graphical representation of the maturity, adoption and business application of technologies. See: http://www.gartner.com/pages/story.php.id.8795.s.8.jsp for details and follow the links to see the graph.
* Successful communities and social networks often spring from those communities which exist in real life.
There are real people in there?: blogging, IM and more in Worcester
Paul Williams, Library Systems Manager, University of Worcester
* Worcester achieved success with their blogs by altering the tone of the blogs to suit different audiences.
* Worcester were using an RSS aggregator to view collections of blogs
* Feedback has been that blog usage has helped raise information resources awareness as opposed to being used as a tool to alleviate information overload.
Web 2.0 and distributed services: good things for everyone
Mike Ellis, Eduserv
* I really liked Mike's presentation, he really seems to understand things from the user perspective.
* References to check out - Tom Standage, Victorian Internet
* Web 2.0 is about people and content, not computers
* Web 2.0 can be perceived as dangerous, but it is also powerful because it empowers users. We do face challenges around authority, voice, moderation and brand etc with web 2.0
* Embrace the user and the concept of Web 2.0, it's happening anyway. Web 2.0 is all about loosing some element of control.
* Users are the single most important thing about your site bar none.
The adventures of LASSIE: libraries, social software and distance learners
Jane Secker, Learning Technology Librarian, Centre for Learning Technology,
London School of Economics and Political Science
* This was a very interesting presentation and the LASSIE project is worth a look at: http://clt.lse.ac.uk/Projects/LASSIE.php
* The LASSIE project was set up to investigate how social software might be used to enhance distance learner's use of libraries
* Large numbers of US University libraries are using blogs as a means of communication
* Many publishers are now offereing RSS feeds and you can even get library applications in Facebook now.
* The LASSIE team have found that blogging was a good tool for publicity and as a research tool for reflection etc. They found that maintaining a 'light hearted' style to blogging got more responses.
Themes of the day
The theme that I noticed coming through loud and clear from this seminar was that Web 2.0 is not about technology, it's about people and content and allowing people to connect to one another. I thought that Richard Willis'(Talis) statement that Web 2.0 is 'more of an attitude than a technology' neatly summed up the feeling of the day.
Many of the presenters outlined the importance of reaching out to end users and providing them with information where ever they may need it; the days of expecting people to visit your website are over.
All in all a very informative day with a great range of speakers and plenty of scope for thought.
The seminar had a range of speakers, most of whom were excellent, and I learnt a great deal.
Here are my highlights from some of the presentations. Full details of the programme and links to individual presentations can be found at: http://www.uksg.org/event/web20
The threads of Web 2.0
Leigh Dodds, Chief Technical Officer, Ingenta
* Gartner Hype Curve which is a graphical representation of the maturity, adoption and business application of technologies. See: http://www.gartner.com/pages/story.php.id.8795.s.8.jsp for details and follow the links to see the graph.
* Successful communities and social networks often spring from those communities which exist in real life.
There are real people in there?: blogging, IM and more in Worcester
Paul Williams, Library Systems Manager, University of Worcester
* Worcester achieved success with their blogs by altering the tone of the blogs to suit different audiences.
* Worcester were using an RSS aggregator to view collections of blogs
* Feedback has been that blog usage has helped raise information resources awareness as opposed to being used as a tool to alleviate information overload.
Web 2.0 and distributed services: good things for everyone
Mike Ellis, Eduserv
* I really liked Mike's presentation, he really seems to understand things from the user perspective.
* References to check out - Tom Standage, Victorian Internet
* Web 2.0 is about people and content, not computers
* Web 2.0 can be perceived as dangerous, but it is also powerful because it empowers users. We do face challenges around authority, voice, moderation and brand etc with web 2.0
* Embrace the user and the concept of Web 2.0, it's happening anyway. Web 2.0 is all about loosing some element of control.
* Users are the single most important thing about your site bar none.
The adventures of LASSIE: libraries, social software and distance learners
Jane Secker, Learning Technology Librarian, Centre for Learning Technology,
London School of Economics and Political Science
* This was a very interesting presentation and the LASSIE project is worth a look at: http://clt.lse.ac.uk/Projects/LASSIE.php
* The LASSIE project was set up to investigate how social software might be used to enhance distance learner's use of libraries
* Large numbers of US University libraries are using blogs as a means of communication
* Many publishers are now offereing RSS feeds and you can even get library applications in Facebook now.
* The LASSIE team have found that blogging was a good tool for publicity and as a research tool for reflection etc. They found that maintaining a 'light hearted' style to blogging got more responses.
Themes of the day
The theme that I noticed coming through loud and clear from this seminar was that Web 2.0 is not about technology, it's about people and content and allowing people to connect to one another. I thought that Richard Willis'(Talis) statement that Web 2.0 is 'more of an attitude than a technology' neatly summed up the feeling of the day.
Many of the presenters outlined the importance of reaching out to end users and providing them with information where ever they may need it; the days of expecting people to visit your website are over.
All in all a very informative day with a great range of speakers and plenty of scope for thought.
Tuesday, 27 November 2007
Research methodology
I've found trying to sort out what method of research I'm going to use quite difficult. It seems odd doing research about how to research....
Anyway, my literature searches finally came off (thanks in no small part to some excellent training that I received from a colleague at Pennine Acute Trust a few years back) in that I found this interesting piece by Bonnie Kaplan who suggests evaluating health informatics systems through use of the '4Cs'. The 4C's are:
communication
care
control
context
and Kaplan's approach considers how an information system 'fits' within an organisation, taking into consideration the 4 parameters above. The 4C's help us to assess the take up of systems through the consideration of social and professional, as well as technical factors. All very interesting and it made sense to me!
For more details see:
Kaplan, B (2001). "Evaluating informatics applications-some alternative approaches: theory, social interactionism, and call for methodological pluralism". International Journal of Medical Informatics 64, 39–56
Anyway, my literature searches finally came off (thanks in no small part to some excellent training that I received from a colleague at Pennine Acute Trust a few years back) in that I found this interesting piece by Bonnie Kaplan who suggests evaluating health informatics systems through use of the '4Cs'. The 4C's are:
communication
care
control
context
and Kaplan's approach considers how an information system 'fits' within an organisation, taking into consideration the 4 parameters above. The 4C's help us to assess the take up of systems through the consideration of social and professional, as well as technical factors. All very interesting and it made sense to me!
For more details see:
Kaplan, B (2001). "Evaluating informatics applications-some alternative approaches: theory, social interactionism, and call for methodological pluralism". International Journal of Medical Informatics 64, 39–56
Monday, 26 November 2007
My Bibliographic tool of choice...
... is the excellent Zotero which is a Firefox add-on.
If like me, you do a lot of searching of online resources, Zotero let's you automatically save resource details by clicking on an icon in the browser URL field. The resources which can be added in this manner are not only journal articles and book information, but news articles, blog postings etc.
If the resource that you have found cannot be automatically be added to Zotero, you can easily add resource details manually.
Zotero also allows you to tag your resources and make notes easily, and it will create a bibliography for you too although Harvard is not one of the export formats.
Other features include a search facility which is very handy if, like me, you keep forgetting which resources you have already found!
For more information see: http://www.zotero.org/
If like me, you do a lot of searching of online resources, Zotero let's you automatically save resource details by clicking on an icon in the browser URL field. The resources which can be added in this manner are not only journal articles and book information, but news articles, blog postings etc.
If the resource that you have found cannot be automatically be added to Zotero, you can easily add resource details manually.
Zotero also allows you to tag your resources and make notes easily, and it will create a bibliography for you too although Harvard is not one of the export formats.
Other features include a search facility which is very handy if, like me, you keep forgetting which resources you have already found!
For more information see: http://www.zotero.org/
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