By day, tis said, I work in a library. But not in the summer months. In the summer months I am stood down to enjoy a life of leisure. Here in the northern hemisphere those summer months are happening right now. I am at home rather than in the library. But where's the leisure I was promised? It has been replaced by the pressures of a dissertation.
This, then, is where Round Seven of the Library Day in the Life Project finds me. Over the course of last week I kept a diary of my antics. Here's each day reduced to a 24hr clock:
Pink represents entertainments, orange is the mundane day-to-day, yellow is concentrated on-line activity, grey is sleep, and green... green is me in a spreadsheet with the dissertation data.
Over the course of the week, then, I spent the equivalent of a little over three days sleeping. Twelve hours were spent down the pub (including a lovely beer festival on Sunday and a meet-up with old Library School friends on Wednesday), ten hours were spent primarily engaging with music, radio or television, nine hours were spent pottering about on-line (including signing up for Library Camp and booking a post-dissertation holiday), and five hours were spent eating. Three hours were spent getting up, and another three were given over to reading for pleasure. Two and a half hours were spent travelling.
Two whole days were spent working on my dissertation. TWO! More if you count Thursday, when I spent the night dreaming about manipulating spreadsheets. Brr...
Thursday was the day I spent most time on my dissertating. Sunday, comparatively, was a day of rest.
What have I been doing in this dissertation spreadsheet? I have been:
1) Marking up search-engine queries with respect to their content and structure, in order to gauge reformulation patterns.
2) Creating a number of tables and graphs from this data.
Both phases of activity vary in duration depending on a) the complexity of the searches, and b) the number of distractions. This week I have been accompanying my markings-up with a soundtrack consisting of Test Match Special, Five Live Drive, old John Peel tapes, and opera.
In all I have marked up about 10,000 search queries (about two thirds of them in this last week). I can now start to write about them. That's what I'll be doing for the next month. Hopefully I'll find time to squeeze in a few blog posts along the way.
Over the course of the week, then, I spent the equivalent of a little over three days sleeping. Twelve hours were spent down the pub (including a lovely beer festival on Sunday and a meet-up with old Library School friends on Wednesday), ten hours were spent primarily engaging with music, radio or television, nine hours were spent pottering about on-line (including signing up for Library Camp and booking a post-dissertation holiday), and five hours were spent eating. Three hours were spent getting up, and another three were given over to reading for pleasure. Two and a half hours were spent travelling.
Two whole days were spent working on my dissertation. TWO! More if you count Thursday, when I spent the night dreaming about manipulating spreadsheets. Brr...
Thursday was the day I spent most time on my dissertating. Sunday, comparatively, was a day of rest.
What have I been doing in this dissertation spreadsheet? I have been:
1) Marking up search-engine queries with respect to their content and structure, in order to gauge reformulation patterns.
2) Creating a number of tables and graphs from this data.
Both phases of activity vary in duration depending on a) the complexity of the searches, and b) the number of distractions. This week I have been accompanying my markings-up with a soundtrack consisting of Test Match Special, Five Live Drive, old John Peel tapes, and opera.
In all I have marked up about 10,000 search queries (about two thirds of them in this last week). I can now start to write about them. That's what I'll be doing for the next month. Hopefully I'll find time to squeeze in a few blog posts along the way.
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