Robin Lindeen-Blakeley

As I continue to research for my Cultural Research Project, I’ve found all kinds of sources for my project. I’ve even found how easy it is to find something once, and then not be able to find that same source again. But fortunately, librarians are there to help.

One source of information I found on my topic during continued resource hunting is on microfiche in the Valley Library. I thought I would have to make a special trip to Corvallis in order to take copies from the microfiche reader, at a price per copy, as it said it could not be checked out of the library. But then, I realized our professor asked us to contact a reference librarian to fill in any specific questions we had. So I thought, maybe I should ask if there was a way that someone could copy the information for me and send it out like the other books and materials that can be checked out of the library and shipped to me directly via FedEx or postal or other shipping service.

As luck would have it, I emailed the Ecampus librarian and hit the jackpot with her response. She said

“You can request them through Interlibrary Loan https://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/ill

If it’s some specific articles, we scan them and mail them to you. If it’s the whole fiche, then we will mail the fiche and you would need to mail it back. You will need a microfiche reader on your end. It sounds like it’s specific articles so we can scan those. You’ll get an email when they are ready. Just follow the link in the email.”

I really appreciate all the resources that are so easily available for Ecampus students through the OSU library. Now I know how the Interlibrary works too. It was an easy form to fill out from the link and I expect an email tomorrow or soon regarding when I should see them at my house or maybe just emailed to me. All of this research helps me understand technology and its uses even better.

From the continued research sources for finding the biographical, cultural, statistical and technological details I’ve used the OSU library databases the most, but have also used EBSCO Women Studies International, Google Scholar, and The Library of Congress Science Reference Services to find most of my materials online. I was also able to use Google Play Store, and Powells.com to order some fairly cheap source material as well.

My Cultural Research Project will be about:

Who is she? Valerie Thomas

Where is she from and how does her culture differ from yours? She was born in Maryland and is an African-American.

What is her technology? Her technology is the invention of a patented illusion transmitter.

When did she live? She was born in May 1943 and is almost 71 years old.

Write about the possibility of interviewing the woman if she is still living. I will try to interview her for this project.

Note which of the research sources listed above in step 3.3 (exploring topic ideas) were the most helpful for you to find your topic:

It was step 1, although I did enjoy the many videos and resources on a wide variety of amazing women in technology.

My initial ideas about this topic for my blog and writing about it are:

1.  It took me a while to figure out how to even get to my blog spot and login, I am learning.

2.  I have now learned to add a new post.  I did also read about settings.  Now I need to create categories for future posts.

3.  This topic will hopefully make me more social and I’ll be able to blog about how I have constructed my blog site.

4.  Keep learning by repeating steps and following instructions.  I have an urge to dwell too much on it, but I think I have to learn more by doing than thinking about it, so that it becomes more familiar.  I think it is like taking baby steps where you just keep getting up after falling down.  The more you practice the more it makes sense and becomes second nature.

5.  On to my “assign it a category” learning, but first I think I need to publish so here goes, I’m hitting the publish button.

6.  Maybe a little soon on the publish button, but it’s nice to know I can update.  Have moved my categories up to under the “update” button, since I think it as close to the publish button as I can be now.  Have added the categories as assigned on the right side.  When I post weekly, the posts will go into one of these categories.  Right now I have only Uncategorized blog posts.  Sidebars categories will appear when I assign my posts a category.  Hitting update, as now I remember the tips say to save and save often.  Then I’m going to home page to see what it looks like.  No more room on this post?  Not exactly, it just keeps scrolling, but for visual, I think I want to keep my posts within about 300 words.

7.  I like that edit button on the view post page.

8.  I redefined the uncategorized post category to say Set Up.  My week 1 blog is now categorized there.  I have to figure out how to get this week’s post to show up there as well.  This is my next task.  Success.  I went to my categories page and found the post, hit edit, unchecked the boxes except for the Set Up box.  This was all done pretty intuitively.  I think I’m beginning to like this blogging technology!  On to adding pages for future projects.

9.  Pages set up.  Time for a break, i.e. fix some food for future brain power to continue these assignments.  Publish at a later blog time, logging out for now.

10.  I chose my theme, Sea Shores, as it suits my style.  But I don’t think it met requirement.  It has two sidebars.  I love the ocean, but I need to find something else.  I settled on a different theme that has only one sidebar.  It is not as pretty, but more basic and should work.  Double checking now.

11. Some things are so obvious, but if you think too literally about the widgets, you might not figure it out. For example, you won’t find a widget labeled links. Professor Van Londen made that clear in her announcement, but until I realized that, I had added two widgets I didn’t need. Also, I thought the meta tab would have a login option. But alas, I think logout, is part of the same widget for login? I hope I’m right on these.

12. I added descriptions to the post categories to define them there.

A recap of my writing a new post so far, at least I’m in the right spot.

The email signature was not too tough, but then I have already had experience with Google mail at work, so just another way to practice for the school email account.

I do like listening to web pages with my computer’s text-to-speech function, but I am more of a visual learner, so haven’t used it again since figuring it out as part of our assignment.

Time to publish this!