Dissertation progress slows to a halt

Swapping the pen for the paintbrush. Image c/o Markus Rödder on Flickr

I can’t believe that over six months have passed since I first started work on my dissertation.  Six months in and where am I?  Well, my proposal has been accepted.  That’s a good thing.  I’ve done a fair bit of reading.  That is also a good thing.  I think I am pretty much where I expected to be on my schedule.  This is, again, a good thing.  I’m not yet sure exactly how I am going to gather my data.  This is most definitely not a good thing.  I’m sure I’m not a million miles away from where I think I should be, but at the moment it seems a lifetime away.  My progress has also been hampered by other recent developments.

In the next week or so we plan to move house.  I say plan.  We will be moving unless anything really drastic goes wrong.  This means, of course, that most of time is going to be spent packing, decorating and, er, unpacking.  I am rather hoping I only lose a couple of weeks out of it.  I have already started on the painting and once that is done it is just a case of shifting our stuff (easier said than done).  There are bound to be teething problems, but hopefully nothing so major it will seriously impact on my studies.  However, once we are in things should take a turn for the better.

Before my daughter was born I had a room all of my own for studying.  It is no coincidence that when I did have a room of my own I got an awful lot of studying done.  The birth of my daughter coincided with a massive drop in study time.  Not really a bad thing of course, but nonetheless it had an impact.  Our new house, however, has an extra bedroom which means at last I will once more have a quiet little space in the house just for me!  And then, hopefully, I will once more pick up the pace and get my dissertation completed in no time.  That’s the plan anyway.  What’s the betting something else crops up in the meantime and knocks back my schedule still further?  I’d say 3-1 on.

Two down, dissertation to go…..

Now the work really starts.....

Yep, finally, at long last I have completed my two option modules (Digital Discovery and Marketing of Services) and they are printed out sitting in envelopes waiting to be sent off.  It has been so long since I last sent any assignments off that I had almost forgotten how good it feels.  And it does feel good.  These option modules seem to have been loitering around on my desk for some time now….perhaps because I have been nervous about starting my dissertation.  But here I am, ready to embark on the final piece of the library studies jigsaw.  I thought the day would never come!

So, now I am indulging in a bit of light reading, trying to get an angle on my chosen topic that I can turn into an interesting piece of research.  My chosen topic?  Well, I have decided to examine the digital divide within the UK.  The digital divide is something that has always interested me, both globally and locally, and I felt that personal interest should be an important consideration when embarking on something that is going to be all-consuming over the coming year.

I’m actually really looking forward to the challenge that this next stage provides.  I hope that at the end of it I am going to be able to produce a piece of work that reflects my own passion and enthusiasm for the topic.  Failing that I hope I produce something that gets a reasonable mark!  I think I have got to the stage now where just having the qualification will be something.  I’ve long got past the idea of proving anything to myself, now I just want to get it under my belt and focus on the many other wonderful things that seem to occupy my time at the moment.  I think I am quite possibly suffering from study fatigue!  Possibly not a good way to embark on a dissertation!

Anyway, expect me to document some of my experiences and thoughts as I work towards completion of my dissertation (alongside my more general observations about libraries from time to time).  Hopefully they prove useful to someone, even if that someone is only me!

Dropbox

Throughout the duration of my course I have found that I have had to use several different computers in different locations to work on assignments.  Sometimes I would use my computers at home, other times when I am at work or, when we go away, using the computer at my in-laws’ place. Usually this has meant remembering to carry a USB stick (or some other portable device) around with me…not an easy task at the best of times…particularly when it means remembering to pack it on holiday with you!  Up until a few months back, my preferred option was to use Google Docs to make my documents accessible from any computer, as well as for handy back-up purposes.  That was until I discovered Dropbox.

Dropbox has a simple, clean web interface......

Much like Google Docs, Dropbox allows you to store documents online, enabling you to access them from any computer with an internet connection.  Once you sign up for an account, you are given 2GB of free space (with an option to upgrade to 100GB for a fee) which can be topped up to a limit of 8GB by sending invitations.

The real bonus with Dropbox, however, is that you can add a folder to your main computer’s hard drive and then just simply ‘drop’ files into it.  Once ‘dropped’ into the folder, it is then synced with both to the web and to any other PC on which you have installed Dropbox….pretty neat eh?  Of course, you can still access your documents via the web interface, but the ability to just access them via a folder on your hard drive is quite a handy little bonus.

...and it installs a folder onto your computer

Once your documents are uploaded and stored on Dropbox‘s servers, you can manipulate them in a variety of ways.  You can rename them, sort them into a variety of folders or share whole folders with other Dropbox users.  The last feature is particularly useful if you are into collaborative working – making it easy to work on a shared document without having to email around vast files.

There is, of course, an iPhone app for Dropbox too which enables you to access your documents, photos etc on the move.   Whilst it is not possible to edit text on the iPhone app, I find it useful for reading documents I’ve saved on the servers.  Other than simply accessing your files, the app also allows you to mark favourites and upload photos from your iPhone into your Dropbox.  Again, not the most complex of tools, but it does pretty much what I would want from a mobile device (I’m really not that bothered about being able to edit my assignment on my phone).

Overall, I think Dropbox is an excellent alternative file storage option, particularly as a student who cannot always work from his own computer and doesn’t want to carry a storage device around all the time.  Like all the best web tools, it is hassle free and simple to use, with a clean web interface.   Will it kill off the USB stick?  Probably not, but you do have to ask yourself, why bother buying one when this is a  far better option?  Especially if, like me, you tend to lose USB sticks like socks (especially those teeny tiny ones).  Of course there are issues around storing data on somebody else’s servers (and I don’t want to underplay that issue, it is a major concern with any cloud computing application), but as long as you are happy with that I would definitely recommend giving Dropbox a whirl.

There’s a list of Dropbox‘s features on their website….and if you want to sign up, drop me an email (my Yahoo! ID is in my sidebar) and I’ll send an invite whilst increasing my own storage capacity!

Dissertation School

The sun always shines on study school

So finally, dissertation school has been and gone.  It was a weird mixture of emotions over the course of the school.  A mixture of “Oh my God, I’ve nearly finished!” and “Oh my God, I’ve nearly finished?!”.  It’s quite amazing how quickly the time has flown by.  For a long time it seemed like the dissertation was nothing more than a distant dream.  A mirage hovering over the horizon.  Now I find that it isn’t a mirage, it’s real.  How the hell do I deal with that!?  Suddenly those modules don’t seem quite so bad.  I almost long for a module pack with all the reading nicely organised for me.  The thought of gathering my own reading material is quite…….intimidating.  Anyway, now I have had a chance to digest the study school, I thought I’d share some of my thoughts on that final, elusive stage of the course.

I guess the first thing I should make absolutely clear is that you should not feel concerned if you do not have the faintest idea what you are going to do your dissertation on.  In fact, in my personal opinion, it is almost better if you don’t.  It’s no good turning up with a fully formed idea and hours spent doing research on the topic in advance.  Sure, it sounds scary.  I was scared to death when I arrived and realised I had no idea what I was actually going to do my dissertation on.  Well, I had a two or three vague ideas, but they were just that….vague.  But it wasn’t just me.  I knew others that didn’t even have one vague idea on that first day of lectures.  So don’t feel overly concerned if you don’t have a clue.  By the time I was driving back home from Wales, I was buzzing about an interesting idea (well, I thought it was interesting anyway!) I had when I was pottering around the Thomas Parry library hours before I left Wales behind.  Now, this doesn’t work for everyone.  There will be those who think it is better to have a fairly well-developed idea beforehand, but for me it was better to develop my ideas over the course of the school.  Anyway, whatever position you find yourself in at study school, do not panic!

As for the study school itself, it was jam packed with a variety of lectures (if you want to get an idea of the timetable, you can view it here).  The value of these lectures will kinda depend on what point you are at when you arrive at the school.  If you have a fully formed idea, you may have already decided that you are not going to be interested in a quantitative research paper (let’s face it, you wouldn’t be in the minority if you decided to avoid that research method!).  However, if you’re like me and you have no idea beforehand what you are going to do, it is well worth attending as many of the sessions as possible.  I don’t think I missed a single one if I am honest.  And I really did feel like I got something out of every session I attended.  Yes, some sessions were a struggle and more than a little on the heavy side, but I felt like each session helped me to see what type of approach I would take to my dissertation.  Some sessions seemed a bit odd at the time (like being interviewed on what your chosen topic is by a fellow student, only for that interview to form the basis of your later discussion with your dissertation supervisor), but I think looking back and seeing the whole thing in context, I can certainly see the value of the sessions that I attended.

The Thomas Parry Library - make use of it!

Although I got a lot from the school, there was one thing that definitely would have made it an even more valuable experience.  Throughout the course of the week, a number of previous students’ dissertations were made available to us to read and analyse in the Thomas Parry library.  My biggest regret is not taking greater advantage of this resource while I was there.  Sadly, the university does not currently hold these papers in a digital repository so once you get home from study school, you can kiss goodbye to ever having access to those resources again (well, unless they have shared them in a digital repository by the time you read this of course!).  If I could change one thing about the school, it would be to have a day that could be spent in the library, either gathering materials for the dissertation or going through old papers to help develop your idea.  I certainly felt that I could have had more time there.  So take it from me, when you head to the dissertation school, take full advantage of the library….you won’t regret it one bit!

And so, after a week of trying to pin down what on earth I was going to do for my dissertation, I finally bade farewell to Aberystwyth and the Pantycelyn campus (I shan’t miss the shower rooms!).  It almost felt like I had finished for good when I left (almost!)….but there is still a long way to go, a lot of studying still left to do.  It has been a long hard slog up until now, but I have absolutely no regrets about doing the course.  Not only has it helped my development (more on this another time…), but it has also opened me up to a whole world that I had never considered before (maybe I am overstating it slightly!).  I have also been encouraged personally by some of the warm words spoken of this blog by my fellow students.  There have been times when I worried about sharing my ignorance so openly (after all, I am not actually a librarian yet….or even in a librarian post) but knowing that some fellow students read my blog (perhaps that should be singular!) has given me a great deal of confidence to keep writing about libraries and the profession.  If you had told me I would be doing this five years ago, I would have thought you were mad.  But here I am and I’m glad I took the decision to do the course three years ago.  Although maybe a few months into my dissertation I may change my mind!

Pantycelyn - like a second home!

More flickr photos.

Christmas or Study?

Probably not a difficult choice to make, but at this time of year it does seem like it is almost impossible to balance the two things and yet have an enjoyable Christmas.  But I guess it is excusable to take your foot off the pedal a little bit over the festive period.  It would be a pretty sorry state of affairs if you had to forego the Xmas build-up to work on an assignment.  Although having said that, it is probably less stressful than dealing with the hordes on the High Street.

The past year has certainly been a struggle.  Adapting to parenthood whilst trying to keep up with my studies and work full-time has been tricky.  I know from threads on various forums that there are plenty of others in the same boat, but it can still seem a struggle.  Time is of a premium and suddenly you realise that every spare moment is an opportunity to read a few pages, jot down a few notes, search for some articles……The only thing is it takes so damn long to realise it.  You think that just a little bit here and there on days off will help, but then you realise you want to spend your days off with your offspring as you are at work most of the time.  It’s at this point you realise that you need to use your ‘spare’ time wisely and effectively.  If not, you can easily slip behind.

I had a spell a little while back when I thought I was never going to make any progress.  I think it was just after completing the Information Retrieval module.  Although I received encouraging marks, it seemed like some of the motivation had ebbed away. This wasn’t helped by not attending a study school for some time. Missing a study school sure makes you appreciate that extra boost they can give you. It’s the one chance you get to really talk to other students and discover that you are not actually as far behind as you feared.  And that is always a good thing to discover!

Anyway, things are moving on now. The Collection Management module is in the bag (although heaven knows what mark I will get!), and Research in the Profession is almost complete.  Suddenly thoughts are turning to the dissertation and the next study school and there is a sense of relief that I have made it through a difficult stage in my studies to a better place.  I am even thinking that I can look forward to this Xmas without having to worry about being behind on assignments and sitting in front of a computer screen on Boxing Day, frantically typing away.  Happy days.

As for Xmas itself, I am really looking forward to getting hold of my new toy. We decided this year to cut down on spending on each other and focus buying presents for our daughter (seems harsh not to!).  So this year we have bought a Kodak Zi8 HD pocket video camera to share between ourselves.  The reviews look pretty good, so I look forward to messing around with it and making full use of my YouTube account (which has only been used sporadically up until now).  I’ll have to try to write a post about it once I have had a chance to play….but then I have said that before and not bothered!  I’ll try to make a bit more effort this time.

Plodding Along, Singing a Song, Walking in a Aber Wonderland

Well, as I have said before, studying has been a bit hard going since the birth of our daughter six months ago (the fastest six months of my life!).  I have found it particularly hard to strike the right balance between studying for my course, and fulfilling my responsibilities as a parent.  This has become increasingly difficult over recent weeks as my daughter has started to slip into a regular sleeping pattern.  Until recently, she usually went to sleep quite late and would normally be awake to greet me when I got in from work.  Just recently, however, she has started going to bed much earlier and there have been many occasions when I don’t see her at all when I get in from work.  As a result of this, I tend to try and spend as much time as possible with her on my days off.  Unfortunately, these were the days that I used to do the large bulk of my studying.  I find it quite hard to study in the evening when I get in from work, it’s very hard to concentrate on studying after a busy day in the library.  I try to do at least an hour in the evening whenever I can, but it is not the same as dedicating a day to some serious study.

Due to the studying I need to do, and the decreased time in which to do it, I have had to cut some things out of my personal life for the short-term.  For example, I used to play football every Tuesday night without fail for the best part of 16 years.  I have temporarily stopped going now whilst I use the extra time this gives me to catch up on my studies and get some serious work done.  Sadly this has had an impact on my rapidly expanding waistline…by the time I get back to playing football I could well be subject to ‘who ate all the pies?’ type chants.  Not good for the old self-esteem!  Depressing though this is (it’s amazing what kicking a ball around can do for your stress levels!), it was a necessary move to give me just a little more time.

My progress has not been helped by the two modules I have been working on: Collection Management and Research in the Profession.  Yep, I thought Information Retrieval was a tricky module to plough through.  I think I can safely file these on the shelf marked ‘irksome’ (there’s an underused word!).  To be fair, I don’t know if that is down to the content of the modules, or just my state of mind whilst trying to complete them.  In fact I should find the Collection Management module very interesting as I have been doing a lot of work related to this module in recent months.  Maybe it is my state of mind. Anyway, I think the end of the tunnel may be within sight.  After some fairly arduous drafting (I’m sure it wasn’t this difficult on previous assignments!), I think I am almost at a point where I can stuff my assignment in an envelope and pass it onto the Royal Mail.  Here’s hoping anyway.

Once the Collection Management module has been sent off, I just have the Research in the Profession module to complete before moving on to the optional modules.  Easier said than done, but I aim to get both complete by the end of the month.  I’ve just got to the point now where maybe it won’t hurt to send-off a couple of duff assignments.  After all, I understand that getting good marks in the coursework is not as important as getting a good mark on the dissertation so maybe that should be my priority.  I am fortunate enough to be in quite a good position at the moment in terms of marks so surely a few sub-60s aren’t going to hurt are they??  I think I have been saddled with this ‘must maintain good scores’ mentality when what I should really be doing is getting the assignments done and focus my energies on researching for a good, solid dissertation.  It all seems so easy when you written down.  If only putting that into practice was as easy!

Getting Back on the Horse

Studying has been a little tricky of late (and blogging for that matter) due to a number of factors however, I am really determined now to up the pace and get back on course.  My progress wasn’t helped by my desktop packing up and deciding it had had enough.  This put a real crimp on my studies especially as I hadn’t backed up my data for a little while (a cardinal sin I know).  Although we have a laptop, this is not ideal as typing for long periods can be very uncomfortable (I have actually had to invest in some wrist supports for my newly repaired desktop as I have been feeling a little pain in my wrists – hopefully it will fade….).  However, the lack of a desktop did highlight one utility I had hitherto overlooked – cloud computing.  I will certainly look into using Google Docs a lot more often in the future (as well as instigating a cast iron back-up routine using my external hard drive), and I would certainly recommend it anyone that hasn’t used it (although I have some reservations).

Anyway, as well as increasing the pace on my studies, I will be aiming to blog a little more often than I have been recently.  Scrub that, I will be blogging more regularly.  There is certainly plenty of interestto discuss at the moment. Conservative policy towards libraries, the recent comments by James Murdoch about BBC and what his intentions mean for the information society not to mention the recent price reduction of the Sony Reader and Sony’s announcement of new models.  With all that to mull over, I should have plenty to blog about!

The Diversions of Life

I’ve not been able to post on here quite as frequently as I would have liked for the past few weeks.  The birth of my daughter has meant that my time has been squeezed in all manner of ways.  Unfortunately, my daughter had to be delivered by caesarian section and, consequently, my wife was made to rest for six weeks whilst she recovered from the operation.  Obviously, this meant that I needed to up my share of the daily chores to allow my wife to get the necessary recuperation time. 

As well as impacting on my social time (which isn’t really that important in the grand scheme of things), it has hsad a massive impact on my studies.  I knew a while back that the baby was due in April, so I should have been well prepared for the impact that would have on my life and studies.  Sadly, I underestimated by quite some way.  I foolishly believed that I could take a couple of weeks out to spend time with my family, before burrowing my head back in the books and cracking on with my studying.  What an idiot.

It is now around eight weeks since the birth of our lovely little girl, and still I am struggling.  The first six weeks were obviously a write-off (for the reasons outlined above), but the past couple of weeks have been tricky too.  I don’t think it helps that my current module (Research in the Profession) is particularly heavy going.  I have been reading core texts,  journal articles and the module pack time and time again and, for whatever reason, it is getting very difficult to make the information stick.  Every time I feel like I have had a eureka moment, I realise that there was something else I misunderstood.  To be honest, it is easy to see why I have been struggling.  Let’s face it what would you rather do?  Spend some time with your newborn child, or read up on qualitative and quantitative research?  Bit of a no-brainer, don’t you think?

And yet, study I must.  I desperately want to complete the course so that I can delete the square brackets from the blog’s title.  This means that I have to get some focus and get on with the outstanding assignments.  The sooner I can get the modules done, the sooner I can spend quality time with my daughter.  It seems so easy when you write it down.  Get focus.  Complete assignments. Simples (as that irritating meerkat advert might say).  Maybe it is that easy.  I’ll let you know after the week-end.

Cataloguing – The Fear Fades

For about five months I had been working on the cataloguing module for my course.  It was, without doubt, the single most difficult module that I have done to date.  Both the assignments filled me with dread when I first saw the outlined requirements.  The first of the two assignments in particular had caused me a great deal of stress and fretting.  Even the advice of colleagues had failed to relieve the stress I was feeling about completing this module.  It was, in short, a nightmare.

One of the main reasons for finding this topic so daunting was that I am not currently involved in cataloguing in any way, shape or form.  Consequently, the subject was a bit of a mystery to me. Much of the reading made little sense to me (although I am sure it did to those who have more experience of the subject) and, quite frankly, I was dreading working on the assignments as I feared that I would be found out at last.  A fraud amongst librarians. An impostor attempting to muscle his way in to an exclusive club populated by people who understand Library of Congress Subject Headings and suchlike.

The assignment that had me particularly vexed required the analysis of a number of different types of records.  One from an OPAC, one from a printed catalogue and one example from a full-text search (eg via an internet search).  It was then necessary to create our own record and suggest a suitable retrieval system that could be used in conjunction with it.  Having only ever used Dewey Decimal (and with only a rudimentary understanding of that), the thought of trying to comprehend another system caused palpitations.  How on earth was I even going to attempt to do this one??

As is now the norm, I finally went for it and made my way through at least six different drafts.  At each re-drafting I found myself analysing what I had written so much, that I began to lose sight of what was actually required.  I had begun to over-complicate the assignment itself and was tying myself in knots.  Heaven knows how many emails I fired off to the module coordinator – no doubt enough to have her tearing her hair out!  I don’t know why I always end up doing the same.  Maybe because at the back of mind I am thinking that as it is a Masters, the answer must be more complex than my initial gut reaction suggests.  Still, nothing wrong with a healthy bout of self-doubt.

Eventually I got to the point where I just needed to send it off and keep my fingers crossed.  Otherwise I could see myself re-drafting for all eternity.  Chipping away at a little bit here, a little bit there, (foolishly) hoping for perfection.  I never took such an approach when studying for my undergraduate degree.  I simply handed in first drafts time and time again.  This perhaps explains my new found dedication.  I still feel I underachieved first time around, so here is my chance to prove that that degree was no mere fluke…I actually might just have been worthy of it (just).

So anyway, I received my marks the other day and was quite frankly shocked to see that not only did I score over 70%, I scored over 70% for the whole module.  Needless to say I opened a (very small) beer to celebrate.  What is particularly pleasing on a personal level is that I never scored above 68% on my first degree (and I only achieved that twice).  So far on this course, I have hit over 70% on at least six assignments – something I never could have imagined when I started the course as although I always wanted to go on and complete a post-grad, I always had the nagging doubt that I was not capable.  As I have said before, I have always felt that at some point someone is going to turn around and call my bluff.  That eventually someone is going to ask the question: how did I slip the net?  Maybe one day they will.

Anyway, as time is progressing I am giving more and more serious thought about the possibility of a doctorate at some point in the future.  Given my background, it would be a dream to be in a position to do so.  I certainly don’t want to get to the end of my studies and then come to an abrupt halt.  I am seriously interested in working on some studies and conducting some research when I do complete the course.  Maybe I need to get out more, but I do actually quite enjoy studying.  Now I know there is definitely something wrong with me!  I really must get out more………

The Problem With Academia

Now, I consider myself to be a reasonably intelligent person.  Not particularly clever, but not especially stupid either.  However, sometimes language employed by academics really drives me up the wall.  From time to time, certain academics seem to employ the language in a rather exclusive manner that can only be understood by fellow academics.  It’s a bit like a secret language knowingly shared amongst intellectuals to exclude those unworthy of their high prose.  Take this example from an article that I have been reading today:

Now, finally, the variance of a group is the mean sum of squared deviations from the mean (∑fd²/N), and it is a property of variances that the variance of samples added together is equal to the sum of the variances calculated from the samples independently.

I lost count of the amount of times I read the passage of text before I finally understood what on earth it actually meant.  Maybe it was because I had spent all day studying and my brain was flagging.  Maybe it is because I am just not that bright.  Or maybe it is simply because the writer has indulged in the aforementioned ‘academic speak’ that I loath so intently.  For the record, I tend to think it is the latter…..although if anyone thinks I am being a bit dim, feel free to say so in the comments – I won’t hold it against you!

Personally, I have always subscribed to the view that all academic writing should be inclusive rather than exclusive.  I am not impressed by writers who stick to this academic code that excludes those without an ‘education’.  I have always been more impressed with the style employed by academics such as Noam Chomsky.  That is to say, using simple language that everyone can understand without employing language that excludes a large percentage of the population.  To my mind, it takes greater skill to communicate complicated ideas in simple language, than to employ language aimed solely at academics.  But then what do I know?  It took me half an hour to understand what the quote above actually meant.