gah.
I hate philosophy. I can only think of it as mental masturbation. You can thus imagine my joy at doing a second set of homework on how to find information about philosophy. The next two weeks we get to do religion. Even MORE joy. Some of those questions are kind of interesting, though, like, "Who is Kokopelli and why is he important in Native American culture?" Although I'm willing to bet he's only important to one group of "Native Americans" and not the whole batch of 'em. I'll have to make a point of saying that he is important to THIS tribe or nation or whatever. Another question is "Who do they think built Stonehenge?" I can only hope that the teacher is writing the questions this way because that's how our presumed patrons will ask them. I'd hate to think that a teacher of a graduate level class would say "Who do THEY think built Stonehenge?" Ummmm.... I dunno. "They" who? And why do we care what unknown people think, anyway?
Admittedly, I am not particularly impressed with this teacher so far; maybe that really IS how she thinks. For assignment 1, we were to answer "7 out of 10" questions, except there were only 9 questions on the list. This week it's "6 out of 8" questions, but there are 9 questions again. Next week it's "7 out of 10" again, except this time with 11 questions. Sigh.
Anyway, I'm presently being annoyed because of a question about finding a review of a specific book. I tried every database I could think of that might include it, including the general "Academic Search Premier", the more specific Humanities one, and the ultraspecific Philosopher's Index. Nada. No joy whatever. Finally, in desperation, I went to Amazon.com and looked for the book, on the theory that they usually have some kind of review there, and lots of times they'll say where the review came from. Yay! A review, from the Library Journal! I know that is indexed in the LISA database, so Yay! Except.... not so much. I can't make it show up on LISA, even though I know it should be there. I am so not amused. This sort of thing turns me into a terrier, and I just can't let it go. Dammit, I know there's gotta be a way! And now I'm just a frustrated terrier, because if there is a way, it has completely eluded my grasp. I have a terrible fear that I just don't know how to use the databases that well. They do tend to run together in my mind. I swear I have seen ones that allow so many limiters you can really tailor the results; right now I can't make 'em let me specify citation info, even. This is why I don't want to be a reference librarian. Let me just talk to little old ladies about murder mysteries. Or let me repair books. Something. Just not reference. Pllleeeeeeease. (God, I hope that's not the only job available when I get out of school.....)
Part of the question specifies that we are to document our search process, so I have listed all of these book review search steps, including going to Amazon and then trying to find it in the LISA database. I would be a lot happier if I had a clue what she's like. Does she have a sense of humor or is she literal minded? I might be totally screwed.
So. Back to the homework. I think next I'll try an easy one: provide citation info to ONE article from a philosophy journal about "ethics." Yeah, over 10,000 hits on that one. Whew.
Admittedly, I am not particularly impressed with this teacher so far; maybe that really IS how she thinks. For assignment 1, we were to answer "7 out of 10" questions, except there were only 9 questions on the list. This week it's "6 out of 8" questions, but there are 9 questions again. Next week it's "7 out of 10" again, except this time with 11 questions. Sigh.
Anyway, I'm presently being annoyed because of a question about finding a review of a specific book. I tried every database I could think of that might include it, including the general "Academic Search Premier", the more specific Humanities one, and the ultraspecific Philosopher's Index. Nada. No joy whatever. Finally, in desperation, I went to Amazon.com and looked for the book, on the theory that they usually have some kind of review there, and lots of times they'll say where the review came from. Yay! A review, from the Library Journal! I know that is indexed in the LISA database, so Yay! Except.... not so much. I can't make it show up on LISA, even though I know it should be there. I am so not amused. This sort of thing turns me into a terrier, and I just can't let it go. Dammit, I know there's gotta be a way! And now I'm just a frustrated terrier, because if there is a way, it has completely eluded my grasp. I have a terrible fear that I just don't know how to use the databases that well. They do tend to run together in my mind. I swear I have seen ones that allow so many limiters you can really tailor the results; right now I can't make 'em let me specify citation info, even. This is why I don't want to be a reference librarian. Let me just talk to little old ladies about murder mysteries. Or let me repair books. Something. Just not reference. Pllleeeeeeease. (God, I hope that's not the only job available when I get out of school.....)
Part of the question specifies that we are to document our search process, so I have listed all of these book review search steps, including going to Amazon and then trying to find it in the LISA database. I would be a lot happier if I had a clue what she's like. Does she have a sense of humor or is she literal minded? I might be totally screwed.
So. Back to the homework. I think next I'll try an easy one: provide citation info to ONE article from a philosophy journal about "ethics." Yeah, over 10,000 hits on that one. Whew.