DWLresearch

The Graduate School Media Zoo would like to collect data about researchers' use of technology. We want to know what you use for research-related purposes, and how you use it. So here's your chance to let us know how you've used the technologies the Graduate School Media Zoo has presented over the past year and to influence our next programme of workshops. Take the GSMZ Web 2.0 survey to tell us what you use, why you use it and how often. Your answers will help us to improve our service. Thank you for your help!

I've seen a slew of articles recently about getting re-started after the motivational dip of the holidays, some of which I've posted on the Graduate School Reading Room facebook group . Other favourites include this thesiswhisperer blog post . If you need a whole book to help you re-start your motivational motor, David Allen's classic guide to Getting Things Done is available in the Library both in hard copy and as an e-book (available on campus). Various techniques, such as the Pomodoro Technique and the Autofocus system seem to work for a lot of people. Or if you need some peer support to help you get started on a productive 2011 you could come along to the Thesis Forum in the Library on Tuesday 25th January to discuss motivation and the thesis-writing process. Whatever method, or combination of methods, you use to get writing, here's hoping you all have a productive and successful 2011!

My second Christmas in the Graduate School Media Zoo has made me aware of the growing popularity of e-book readers, with the most popular request to Santa being for Amazon's new Kindle . I have been using the Library's Kindle 3 (and the 2nd generation Kindle that came before it) for some time and have formed a largely positive impression of its usefulness as a tool for scholarship. The Kindle is a small device, but its capacity to store a large amount of text is liberating for someone used to carrying around a backbreaking quantity of books and papers. The Kindle 3's native support for PDF files makes reading journal articles easy, although the fixed format sometimes means that articles from some of the larger journals are best read with the device on its side (zooming means scrolling). The ability to highlight and annotate text is essential for the academic market, and the Kindle allows hightlights, notemaking, and even sharing of passages via twitter and facebook for thos...

If you're at the "blogging for researchers" session today here are some of the links you will need: The GSRR blog http://gradschoolreadingroom.blogspot.com Postgraduate student blogging communities at Leicester http://attic-museumstudies.blogspot.com/ http://www.newhistorylab.org/ PhD blogs http://thethesiswhisperer.wordpress.com/ http://findsandfeatures.wordpress.com/ http://malenel.wordpress.com/ http://www.jobs.ac.uk/blogs/real-life/ http://www.prospects.ac.uk/p/articles/phd_blog_43.jsp Blogs by academics at Leicester http://www.microbiologybytes.com/blog/ …and elsewhere http://mat.gsia.cmu.edu/blog/ http://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/

Short of inspiration? Need some time to get a bit of distance from your project and think about the process of research in general? The Graduate School Reading Room has a shelf of books that you can use to get some guidance on common problems related to research. Whatever your stage, from beginning your research to publishing books and articles from it, we've got books that can shed some light on the process! This is one of our new additions to the shelf, and there will be a few more over the coming weeks so watch this space.

Find out about when the Library gets new books in your subject area with these new RSS feeds . For more information of how to set up and receive feeds look at the Graduate School Media Zoo website or attend our RSS workshop on Wednesday 17th Nov.

***CALL FOR PAPERS*** The THESIS FORUM is an informal meeting in the Library for Postgraduate Research Students to share tips on the practice of researching and writing a PhD thesis. Whether you're in Arts or Sciences, a UK or International student, waiting for your APG upgrade or close to submission, you all have one aim in common: to survive the process of getting your PhD and emerge from it successful and unscathed! The THESIS FORUM would like to hear short presentations of up to 15 minutes on your experiences of research so far. Here are some suggestions for topics, but we would like to hear presentations on anything that is important to the life of a postgraduate researcher: • Getting started • Supervisor issues • The APG • Studying away from home • Staying motivated • Finding sources • Writing • Balancing research with everyday life • Finishing the thesis • Getting published • Coping with research setbacks Whatever your journey has been, even if you’ve only just started, the...