Tuesday, August 30, 2011

"Some actions have an end but no beginning; some begin but do not end. It all depends upon where the observer is standing." ~Children of Dune

Thing 14 - I haven't used any of these tools. When I was in my first Master's program, my professor wanted us to do hardcore research - no databases - just texts. Book after book after book, article after article after article. I now have the skill to, if say the power goes out or something, still do commendable research. However, that's not at all how students today are doing it. It's a great skill, but it's unnecessary now. When I was in my MLS program, I researched mostly online using federated searches in our databases - all from home, 100 miles away from the library. I was still old-school enough to print out all of my sources, but at least it was mostly online. In both programs, I kept a list of citations and references and had to plug it all into the papers accordingly. It's tedious, but I can now write and cite in Chicago, MLA, and APA. Woot!

Oh, how my life could have been easier with these tools! Just toying around with them is making me want to go back and do my Master's programs all over again . . . . not really. But they are really great. As I work in a public library, this is only relevant to share with students who come in seeking assistance with citations and also database use in the library. But I won't be using it myself unless I end up writing something. Which you never know, could happen. I do love to write papers . . . and I'm actually totally serious about that one.

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