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September 24, 2007
Real research!
Last Monday, I did some real research like a real grad student! I found that Emory University about an hour and a half away had several of the very old hymnals that I needed to see for my dissertation. They have an incredible British and American hymnal collection--over 16,000 volumes!
Tim took part of the day off to come with me, and I spent a couple of hours poring over old shape-note hymnals from the 1830s and 1860s. It was rather awe-inspiring, touching the first edition of the Southern Harmony (1835), and wondering about its provenance--whether it had been carried to the frontier by some itinerant preacher, or had been treasured by a local family.
The librarian was incredibly helpful, and even made photocopies of some of the hymns. I *heart* librarians. I would never have gotten this far in my research if it weren't for librarians who have gone out of their way to help me get the information that I need.
So, hopefully this last big research field trip (at least for awhile!) will inspire me to keep plugging away over the next few weeks.
My current goals? Maybe posting it up here will help keep me on track
1) Finish revising the chapter that's had me tearing my hair out for months. I finally found the way I need to restructure it, it's just mainly a process of revising the chapter to fit the new structure, doing more in-depth analysis, and creating musical examples to illustrate the analysis
2) Have the materials together enough for the next chapter and putting-the-dissertation-all-together steps (introduction, conclusion, appendices) that I can do most of my work at home after the babies are born
3) Getting materials and process organized enough that I can break down the process into small chunks (15 minute tasks, 1 hour tasks, half-day tasks) after the babies reorganize my world.
dissertation | By Tim and Jo | 11:09 AM
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