Celebrating over a year now of providing quality research services in a range of fields. I also was excited to release my first academic publication, published in The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society.
Onward!
Monday, April 9, 2012
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
A bit of shameless self-promotion
Here's the official announcement of my first publication, forthcoming in the Register of the Kentucky Historical Society: http://history.ky.gov/sub.php?pageid=38§ionid=3
While I may not be actively pursuing my PhD anymore, it is nice to see something come of some of my efforts in graduate school and in what was, all in all, a good research seminar in the Spring of 2010. Not to mention a sort of cap for my time spent interpreting at the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill (www.shakervillageky.org).
-David
While I may not be actively pursuing my PhD anymore, it is nice to see something come of some of my efforts in graduate school and in what was, all in all, a good research seminar in the Spring of 2010. Not to mention a sort of cap for my time spent interpreting at the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill (www.shakervillageky.org).
-David
Friday, March 18, 2011
The Forest for the Trees
Searching, be it academic or commercial, can be distracting.
A good searcher, like a good writer, has a point - an object, that he or she follows through the mess of documents, references and other material. He carefully refines and filters information until he gets down to a set of references/data points/criteria that match the objective of the search.
For a historian, this could mean analyzing previous scholars' work to ensure they're not rewriting someone else's argument. This is why graduate students spend years reading the work of previous historians with an eye for understanding what has been done. The history of history.
For a prior art researcher, its not very different. He has a concept and he sifts through references with similar subjects and themes until he's reasonably confident that he's found matches or that there aren't any. The trick, often, is tenaciously holding to your concept and not getting sidetracked by a reference that initially seemed interesting, but actually isn't.
It takes practice and I think, a sense of confidence in your understanding of that initial concept.
A good searcher, like a good writer, has a point - an object, that he or she follows through the mess of documents, references and other material. He carefully refines and filters information until he gets down to a set of references/data points/criteria that match the objective of the search.
For a historian, this could mean analyzing previous scholars' work to ensure they're not rewriting someone else's argument. This is why graduate students spend years reading the work of previous historians with an eye for understanding what has been done. The history of history.
For a prior art researcher, its not very different. He has a concept and he sifts through references with similar subjects and themes until he's reasonably confident that he's found matches or that there aren't any. The trick, often, is tenaciously holding to your concept and not getting sidetracked by a reference that initially seemed interesting, but actually isn't.
It takes practice and I think, a sense of confidence in your understanding of that initial concept.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
A beginning
Welcome to my new blog - I'm a doctoral candidate in history and an independent researcher with experience in patent searches. I've also dabbled in historical interpretation and shoveling mulch.
This is a place to air thoughts on history, patents and other such matters.
This is a place to air thoughts on history, patents and other such matters.
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