The Wheels Are Rolling

This past week has been quite refreshing. I began to take a deeper look into the dissertations that Dr. Shermer had asked me to gather for her new book. Not only has the research began to intensify, but the cataloging process has as well. I gained a large degree of familiarity with the Zotero program- this program allows me to link up with Dr. Shermer to share a working bibliography (we share a username and password so that she can easily refer to the sources that I plug into the system).

I began to plug various sources into Zotero in the manner which I was instructed. As I started to put more and more material into Zotero, the process became significantly easier and more straight forward. Our meeting this week had the primary focus of ensuring that I was cataloging information correctly. After discussing such matters, it became clear that I had made two minor errors in my use of Zotero thus far. One pertained to where I was placing my summary of the source and the other pertaining to how I tagged each source. 

I was asked to entail a short 3-4 sentence description of each source as I enter it into Zotero. This description would include the primary argument that the author is making and any necessary details to make the thesis more sensible. The mistake I made with Zotero was fairly simple- I accidentally put the summaries in the wrong spot. Instead of placing them under "notes", I placed them under "abstract". In order to remedy this I simply copy/pasted them into the appropriate place. The summaries themselves were fine. 

The other issue (as I noted) pertained to the tagging process. In short, I made the tags too lengthy. If an article pertained to "administration", "finance", and "infrastructure", I tagged it was "administration/finance/infrastructure". By doing this I created a multitude of tags, rather that having several articles tagged under "finance" (for example). Fixing this was also quite quick and painless. 

It makes me quite happy that these two small errors were the only issues with my research thus far. I must say that cataloging these sources did take a bit longer than anticipated- but much of that just had to do me gaining a greater sense of familiarity with the database. As I cataloged more and more, this process became much easier. All things considered things have been going quite well. 

A Foot in the Door: Dissertations and An General Narrative

Dear followers,

This past week has been rather productive. My primary mission was to use the Proquest database to find as many useful dissertations as possible. While hunting for these dissertations, I tried to zone in on the titles of which seemed to be most relevant to the topic of Dr. Shermer's book "Biz Ed". I came across roughly 20 or so dissertations that pertained to each of the five universities that the book will be focusing on as well as research universities as a whole. These sources focused on the development of libraries and curriculum, financial flexibility, physical expansion, administration, and student movements.

One thing that I should note is that I did experience a rather large amount of frustration (once again) with ProQuest while searching for relevant dissertations. The most frustrating would be searching for articles relevant to the State University of New York. This frustration eased once I started using the shorthand names for the schools- such as SUNY (State University of New York) and ASU (Arizona State University). This yielded more relevant sources.

Another thing that brought some frustration was the Zotero website of which Dr. Shermer and I will be building the library with. Due to this frustration, I printed out the bibliographic information of the dissertations I found and brought in the hard copy to her office. After a simple walk-through of how to use Zotero, this problem has now been resolved.
I also gained a basic understanding of the origins of philanthropy in regard to its relationship to research universities.
Philanthropy also proved to be instrumental to the development of institutions of higher education during the Early National Period (1776-1865). Certain gifts appear to be rather daring during this time  period as well. For example- Oberlin College was given a philanthropic gift directed towards fellowships under the condition that African-Americans and whites were to given equal treatment at the university. This happened in 1837- which is remarkable. It illustrates the influence of philanthropy due to the fact that it defied such a significant social norm of the time. It was also during this time that philanthropic gifts became far more significant (monetarily speaking) because donors began giving upwards to six or seven figures. These enormous gifts were capable of establishing entire institutions from the ground up. In essence- the goal of these donors was to make a difference to society.
The Late National Period (1865-1917) is widely known as "The Progressive Era". The core belief of the time period was that the human condition can be improved and society can be improved through the actions of those with the power to do. This is highly important due to the fact that it ties in with another significant notion of the time, which was that higher education institutions should not only advance knowledge but should also preserve it to the next generation. This era is recognized by historians as the birth of modern American philanthropy due a highly significant development: the involvement of the state with higher education institutions. Research universities were born during the late 1800s both due to the development of science and business in curriculum of universities as well as industrialization.

Week Two

Week Two

The primary focus of this past week has been to familiarize myself with various research databases. Proquest is the database that I will be using to examine and categorize graduate level dissertations. In order to get a hang of how to use Proquest, Dr. Shermer assigned a preliminary exercise that entailed finding one dissertation from each of the five universities that the her upcoming book will focus on. Despite the fact that on paper this process appeared to be rather straightforward, I found myself becoming quite frustrated with ProQuest after my first several attempts. After about an hour of messing with several search options I noticed a few tricks that made the process rather quick and painless. I then received instructions pertaining to how these sources should be categorized in regard to the time period in which they were written as well as which subjects they pertain to.
I also scheduled an appointment with a research librarian so that I may become more familiar with various databases pertaining to government documents (specifically congressional hearings). I was given some pointers on how to use the database Lexis Nexis more efficiently. This was a relieving experience because this database caused a huge degree of frustration last semester because its search engine is brutally inefficient. I was shown a few helpful shortcuts that make using the search engine much easier. I was also informed that there is a research librarian at the library who specializes in government documents. I then set up an appointment with him and met with him today. He then showed me how to use Proquest and the gpo.com website to research government documents online. He provided me with a database that is useful for finding government documents in print.
This week was extremely significant due to the fact that I was taught how to use the various tools of which will be vital for the majority of my duties during this internship. I have learned over the years that research databases can be irritating and sometimes all it takes is a little help from someone who knows how to work around practically any issue I may encounter. Now I feel comfortable and confident that getting the ball rolling with this experience should go smoothly, and its reassuring to clearly see that help is available if it seems to not be going so smoothly.