Monthly Archives: December 2017

Book(s)

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Book(s).

A book is a dream that you hold in your hand.

~~Neil Gaiman

Where do you want to go?

What do you want to do?

When is your passion?

Who is your best friend?

Why do you care?

All of these questions have one answer: books.

(or if you choose not to own them–libraries.)

Library.

You can have a personal library made of books. Or a professional library made of books.

Or, if you choose not to own the book, you can use the community library made of books (and DVDs and CDs and other things that I have yet to identify.)  

Books can answer all sorts of questions.  

So what do you need to have on your shelf?

Learning.

Depending on where you are and what you want to learn…

I have a professional library that has leadership, personality development, learning theory/pedagogy,  women’s health, aging, health policy, statistics, measurement, health evaluation, research, evaluation,  methodological books (like scaling, survey design, case study, focus groups, analyzing qualitative data, needs assessment), writing, computer programming, psychology and psychiatry, grant writing, and nutrition. It is my biography of sorts. I can tell you when and what I was doing when I got most of them. Possibly all of them.

At home, I have many women writers, alphabetized. On my bookcases.

I also have a stack (literally) of community library books I will read on the floor by my chair. They are mixed authors.

Much of my library in boxes because I gave the bookcases (which held them) to my daughters and they are now full of books. 

I learn something from each of these; slowly, I am making my way through all of them.

I don’t buy books any more.

I have many. (Some would say too many.) I use the community library.

The adage of “too many books, so little time” is so true. Maybe when I retire…

New topic.

This is the end of 2017. A tough year.

One thing you can do is make a record of “being mindful of the small things you do every day that make you healthy”. No gimmicks, no crazy goals, or fancy gadgets needed (Thank you, Be Orange Challenge)! That could be your resolution for 2018.

That and being active in what ever is your passion.

Happy New Year!

I hope that 2018 will be all that you wish.

my.

molly.

 

Utilization

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Another word for use

Another word for utilization is use; how does one use the information gathered? What does one do with what it knows?

I’m reading a book by Warren Bennis, the American scholar who pioneered the contemporary field of leadership studies. He died in July 2014. The book, called Why leaders can’t lead: The unconscious conspiracy continues,  was first written in 1989, and many references are old (read Nixon, Regan). No matter; still relevant, like walking into the world of American politics TODAY (see page 99, specifically on wins and losses).

Bennis says, “The true measure of any society is not what it knows but what it does with what it knows.” (Sounds like use to me.)

 

Use the reports

Now, Michael Quinn Patton (who has written a lot on a lot of topics) writes books on utilization .

The 4th edition of Utilization-Focused Evaluation is 667 pages and the Essentials is 461 pages. (I confess that I’ve only read the preface and scattered other pages of the 667 page version.)

For those of you who do not know Michael, he is the founder and director of Utilization-Focused Evaluation. He says that it is important to use the results of evaluation. Patton advocates that evaluations should be designed with careful consideration of how everything is done.

You (the evaluator) can design evaluations that ensure their usefulness. Long reports may typically never get read or never result in any practical changes.

Utilization-focused evaluation is a process that helps intended (read primary) users make decisions about the evaluation. Patton “support(s) evaluation designed for intended use by intended users.” Continue reading →