memories of dissertation writing

-
Looking back to my notes on the dissertation process, I stumbled across this little gem to describe how the experience felt:

"like trying to get my arms around an elephant made of jello."

Back in 2005, that was indeed how it felt, on a daily basis.  Changing research directions and embracing new ideas doesn't feel quite the same, but a real commitment to learning probably always leads to, at some point, encountering a jello elephant.

Popular posts from this blog

ALA and the Data Storytelling Toolkit for Librarians

-
Image
So ALA sent out their email to invite members to come to ALA Annual in Chicago this year, and they selected five sessions to highlight. Ours is one of them!   As the US struggles with an onslaught of book banning like we have not seen in my lifetime, our project, the Data Storytelling Toolkit for Librarians , aims to get ahead of what we expect to come next: local battles over the existence of public and community college libraries. In fact, this battle has already begun, with some community college libraries in my state losing up to 2/3rds of their former staffing levels since the Covid-19 pandemic. We are right on time. This concern about defending libraries launched my research on understanding data storytelling in librarianship, with a pilot project in 2019 funded by the Center for Social & Behavioral Science at the University of Illinois--an article on obstacles to library data storytelling is in press with Public Library Quarterly, likely to be published in summer 2023. ...
Read more

Bad Information: What's wrong with the story?

-
New article in Information Matters is out! Here's a brief excerpt: "We all love a good story, and storytelling is a central way that human share experiences, from what happened at work or school today to the most meaningful moments of our lives. We tell stories about everything, from what we know to be true to what we fear might happen someday, and stories always involve emotional engagement. How do we know if a story is accurate or inaccurate, rational or exaggerated, correct or misleading, especially when an untrue story may be more gripping than the truth? When misinformation is spreading as people retell fake stories, stopping it requires a better understanding of how stories work and what specific information errors lead to the crafting—deliberate or accidental—of compelling misinformation stories."  https://informationmatters.org/2023/04/storytelling-dynamics-and-misinformation-the-bad-s-dikw-framework/
Read more

Data Storytelling for Librarians, Augusta Baker Series 2023

-
Image
  I was so honored this week to give a lecture on Data Storytelling for Librarians as part of the Augusta Baker Lecture Series, organized and led by Dr. Nicole Cooke at the University of South Carolina. It was a talk to support library advocacy with data. You can learn more about this talk and the whole series here: https://sites.google.com/view/bakerlectures/baker-diversity-series/dr-kate-mcdowell The main Augusta Baker lecture is today, don't miss it!
Read more