New Participation from UJ Library

Hi everyone,

Myself (Pavlinka Kovatcheva) and Santha Raju from UJ, have been added recently to the list of participants. I'm quite excited after I saw the preliminary programme. I'm currently a subject librarian for 11 Sciences Departments @ UJ. I help students from their 1st year through their Postgraduate levels. I also support the academics and researchers for these Departments. It is a challenging job to balance and anticipate the needs of such a diverse scientific community. In the last few years I learned a new skills, such as to make use of Web 2.0 technologies. I adapted my traditional librarian skills to a new virtual skills and that "spiced" my services to users. Two years down the road, I have a single portal for my users to access subject related information. I make use of a wiki for a Sciences portal, blogs for current awareness and feedback, a twitter, a social bookmarking for "cataloguing or tagging" information, IM to chat with users, etc. My librarian life become exciting, but very busy.

For 2nd year now, I'm register for my Masters degree, but because of my "virtual developments" I have barely had time to make any progress. In practice writing a literature review or a chapter, become my nightmare (it is so much easier to explain the process to other researchers, than to do it yourself). I hope the research academy will help me build a strong research knowledge and skills, so I will be able to finish what I have started.

See you in 2 weeks time.

The day dawns

It's the deadline day for handing in our research papers. It feels a bit like the end of school term. I hope everyone managed to meet the deadline and here's wishing you all good luck with your results!

Research project

My project is subject based dealing with freedom of religion and in particular expression of ones religious beliefs in the public arena such as schools and the workplace. Much attention has been given in particular to the wearing of headscarves by Muslim women and this has been controversial in a number of jurisdictions around the world and treated in various ways by the courts. South Africa has taken a more liberal approach. I am interested in tracing the development of SA's constitutional provision re religious expression and bring various strands that have been written about together, and perhaps considerign some of the issues we may yet encounter. Much of the writign on this topic and emanated from my own isntitution.

Saturday's discussion

Well, what can I say - I was stressing how this was going to turn out, like many of the other colleagues I spoke to and surprisingly, there was nothing to stress about at all. The session was very informal and Karin really put us all on the right thinking path. It certainly clarified some of our concerns and expectations of the research report and I also see this as a motivation to do something constructive - afterall, we all seem to be grappling with problems we want to find solutions to and what better way than by engaging in research ourselves. This certainly is a challenge to me and this past week has somehow made me think what is my purpose here ; how can I make a difference; - what do I hope to achieve at the end of this 2 weeks - I am slowly beginning to see the pieces of the puzzle and I know that I WILL make a difference back home..finally, I really enjoyed the cricket this evening when India beat the Aussies..yay....the atmosphere in the lounge was great....
Omesh

Research Project Discussions, 22 Sept. 2007

My interests lie in the value that libraries bring to postgraduate education in the context of many other factors. Together with the sessions that ran from 17 September, the research project discussions were beneficial. Since the Chi-Square lessons I took as a library school student years back, I have always avoided this technique in surveys. Colin constructively interogated my methodology in such a manner that I should go back to this technique to address issues of reliability and validity in my project. In addition, I am rethinking my sampling techniques to narrow my project to a manageable level within the time limits set by the Carnegie project. Depending on the experience and outcomes, this may necessitate a broader research study beyond the Carnegie project in order to fully explore any evidence that may be available.

View from Cape Town

I am at the moment sitting in Cape Town and perhaps the distance will help reflect on the week that was. This morning's session on our research was very helpful. I did an about turn in the middle of mine - totally changing topics and I was encouraged and helped while I thought things through in that forum.

I actually cant believe how quickly the week flew and hopefully I will remember all that happened....perhaps there can be some kind of abstracts written of the different sessions put together by one of the notetakers?

Otherwise, I think the highlight of the week was Professor Shell's talk - coming from a history angle it had particular resonance to me. In addition, after what I thought was his rocky start it was a surprise and pleasure to follow his unassuming presentation. His passion was infectious!

Research projects discussion sessions

This morning's session with the facilitators gave us a much-needed opportunity to discuss our ideas in a supportive and enthusiastic environment. I especially valued Karin's comments and advice. I was able to clarify my ideas somewhat and now have more confidence in approaching this previously rather daunting exercise. I hope to be able to produce a report which will be useful in my library and institutional context (apart from the satisfaction I will personally achieve!)

Good luck everybody


Eileen