First weeks

First weeks impressions

This blog is part of my MLIS and this module deals with ICT trends and applications in libraries and my own interaction with the course.

I am a faculty librarian at a university and therefore this course was particularly interesting to me from the start since we are continually striving to improve our services to our users. I offer a service to postgraduate students in four departments and  being a postgraduate student myself makes it possible for me to put myself in their shoes. I have already experienced the same anxiety that new postgraduate students are confronted with. Most of us have not studied for a few years and it was overwhelming at first. Tools like Turnitin, which I am familiar with, but have never used are becoming a reality. I have just completed a Mendeley certification course at work which means that I also train students in the use of reference managers. Having had to use Mendeley myself opened up a whole new world for me. We received our topics for our essays early in our course, mine being "Generation Y and how have libraries accommodated them". Working in an academic library allowed me to gather as much information as I could. What an information overload I had! At first it felt that as long as I do "research" by finding information I am making progress. Then I realized that it will be impossible to read all the books and articles and I had to start filtering. I realized that I have made some crucial mistakes since I started with my essay.:

• I should have read, read, read to get a clear background
• Plan and organise a framework
• Evaluate my information
• Do not procrastinate!

 

CoyotePrime , 2011

 http://coyoteprime-runningcauseicantfly.blogspot.co.za/

Therefore writing the essay was the hardest thing I had to do in a very long time, but it was a very valuable experience and I have learnt from my mistakes. The more I am working on my essay the more I am learning about myself as well as my profession. Each time I read an article my knowledge and my understanding of ICT trends and applications widens. I have also realized that writing academically in a language other than your mother tongue can be a daunting task. Once again I have learnt that reading as much as you can from the literature not only gives you background information on a certain topic , it also improves your vocabulary. To sum up I can just say that this was indeed a much needed learning curve for me and I would like to thank Dr Zinn for her patience.

So back to the first weeks.

We started off with Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and Mobile technologies in the library. I was quite amazed by the tools available to librarians and I realized how exciting and creative a library can be in offering and marketing its services. We are working in an environment where change is the name of the game and we are privileged to have access to these tools and to be a part of this changing environment. DIRT ( Digital Research Tools) was one of the tools our lecturer introduced us to and which I think can be very useful. It is a registry of digital research tools which researchers might find very useful..

My initial feeling of this module was one of information overload. I am learning so much in such a short time, and there is so much to draw from, that I am drowning in information, and not able to pick the relevant stuff from the not so relevant. I also don't take easily to creative writing, so starting to writing this blog is a real stretch, but I feel I am making progress.