An unexpected discovery

I have been doing lots of research towards my information project over the past couple of weeks. I’ve mainly been searching for journal articles on the topic of library subject guides so far, but after quickly searching the catalogue at work, I found a great resource yesterday in reference section, that I didn’t realise the library owned:
http://cat.lib.unimelb.edu.au/record=b2946649~S30
‘Information sources in engineering’ edited by Roderick A. MacLeod and Jim Corlett.

It is one of the funny things I have found about working in a library, I am surrounded by great resources and am involved in promoting and recommending the resources to patrons, but I don’t always remember to use them when I am doing my own work.

The book seems really useful as the first chapter discusses the information needs and seeking behaviours of engineering and subsequent chapters outline the different types of resources that engineers use, including:

• Journals, e-journals & e-books,
• Reports, theses & research in progress,
• Conference proceedings,
• Patents, standards & product information,
• Abstracting & indexing services,
• Bibliographies & reviews,
• The Internet,
• References sources and
• Information from Professional Societies.

It seems that engineers use a fascinating mix of different types of information and can’t wait to find out more about the specialised and harder-to-find types of information, such as patents, standards, conference proceedings and research in progress or ‘gray literature’.

I think ‘Information sources in engineering’ will also be valuable as it has chapters on the different engineering specialisations such as Chemical Engineering & Civil Engineering. The only problem is, it is in the reference section, so I can’t borrow it! It is also a little old, published in 2005, so it would be great to find a similar, newer book.

My plan over the next few days is to make a start on my project charter and to continue with my research. I think I really need to map out an overall plan for the project very soon, as I am concerned about running out of time! There seem to be lots of relevant useful information sources for my project and I think I am experiencing a bit of information overload at the moment. So I will try to focus on only the most relevant resources and set others aside.

Getting started

I have decided to write a blog in order to fulfil the requirements to reflect on and evaluate my experiences during the completion of the subject: LIBR1026 Information Project. I will need to reflect on the research experience and on what it means to be a practitioner-researcher in the field of information and knowledge management.

In my current position at work, as a Library Professional Cadet, I have been required to reflect on my experiences at work since April last year. So initially when I found out that I would have to reflect on my experience while completing this project, my heart sank. But after completing an online module on the Blackboard page for this subject on reflective writing, I learned about different methods of reflective writing and am hoping to try the different techniques. I found one of the readings particularly inspiring: Watson, M. 2008. 'Reflective writing, building your portfolio: The CILIP Guide', London: Facet, pp. 21 - 30. It explained that reflections can be a useful resource that you can dip into later as needed, like Dumbledore's Pensieve in 'Harry Potter'. I also liked that it explained that it isn't enough to gain experience and reflect, you actually need to apply what you have learned in another situation.

It has also been a goal of mine to start writing a blog for professional development, but I never seem to find the time. So maybe, after the project is completed, this blog will eventually morph into a more general blog about my professional experiences and development.

It is the end of the second week of the semester and I am pretty pleased with my progress so far. I submitted my project proposal on Wednesday and my supervisor has approved it, which is fantastic. The topic of my project is to create a series of online research guides for students studying engineering at the University of Melbourne, using the content management application: LibGuides. I plan to create one guide for each of the departments in the Melbourne School of Engineering that will outline the key resources and sources of information relevant to the department, as well as information or tutorials on how to conduct research.

I have started researching the topic of subject guides, but I think that I need to do a lot more research. I am keen to do a thorough literature search, so that I can gain an understanding of the theory behind and main issues to do with creating subject guides. As part of the project proposal I listed resources that I intend to use to locate further literature on the topic, so my plan at this stage is to systematically go through those resources.

I am a little unsure of how thorough my literature review needs to be, and how current the sources I include should be. I will need to clarify this with my supervisor. I am also unsure as to how to go about sharing the results of my research with my supervisor. I am thinking of creating an EndNote library and using that to keep track of resources that I might use and to organise them.

I will dive into the literature search now and report back on my progress!