Comments on: Finding Topics & Time for Scholarship

By: Maura

Maura — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:05:20 +0000

Thanks for your thoughtful comments, Steven and Emily. Those are great suggestions for places to find research topics, and I’ll definitely add them to my list of resources.

Emily, your flossing analogy completely resonates with me. (Yes, I’m a flosser.) To start I’m trying for one hour at the same time every day, but even if I can’t swing that I should still be able to fit in a daily (or almost-daily) something.

By: Emily

Emily — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:38:21 +0000

Oh, and in terms of making time: You just schedule in small bits of it like flossing and make it NON-NEGOTIABLE. The minute you ask yourself whether or not you should sit down and write, nine times out of ten you’ve just talked yourself out of sitting down to write. It’s like how there are every-night-flossers and non-flossers and only very rarely the occasional-flosser. It has to be a habit, at least for me.

By: Emily

Emily — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:37:00 +0000

I’m a heavy user and abuser of CFPs–all of my current research program comes from a conference proposal I sent in a couple of years ago for a GLBT Archives, Libraries, and Museums conference. Out of that brief fifteen minute presentation came colleagues I now brainstorm with on a regular basis, directions for where to take the paper next, and a better sense of what’s interesting to me in the field. I recommend A Library Writer’s Blog, Dolores’ List of CFPs, and Beyond the Job, three great blogs that compile calls for conference and paper proposals in LIS and related disciplines. Google any of those and they should come right up.

By: StevenB

StevenB — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:22:21 +0000

Sounds to me like you are doing the exact sort of things I’d recommend for the WHAT and WHEN. Be reading outside of the profession as much as possible to get ideas that will inspire your creative side. But be ready to capture those ideas at all times. I’ve been keeping a “paper idea” folder for many years. I wrote about ways to capture these ideas just recently at DBL: http://bit.ly/tLDjP

I did want to share one possibility for generating ideas for research projects. I find it interesting to review the program bulletins for state library conferences. One easy way to do this is to follow AL Direct which always has links to upcoming state conferences. Sure, you’ll see a lot of the same old topics being presented on, but every now and then you see an interesting idea. It doesn’t mean you have to copy that idea even though I suspect if you did you’d be the one writing the article – most conference presenters at the state level do not turn their presentations into papers. But you can certainly put your own spin on an idea you saw elsewhere. Again, the point is to expose yourself to possible ideas and then let your creativity do the rest.

My other strategy is just “listen” and “observe”. Many good ideas for library research come from listening to what colleagues are complaing about – and patrons as well. If someone says “why doesn’t this work” or “can’t we do it that way” those can lead to research projects to explore “well what if we did try to do it this way” ideas.

Good luck in finding the just right research project to tackle.