Lenten Librarian: Day Two

Before I can create a plan for my Lenten research, I need to establish some questions.  In Librarian lingo, I need to define my information needs.  So what do I want to know?  Here are some starting points:

I mean really, who IS this person?
(me at around 22 years of age)

1. What aspects of my personality have changed in the last two years?  Am I more fearful and therefore less adventurous or experimental?  Was I experimental in the first place?  Am I more nurturing now, and therefore more friendly and giving to others?  How would I have described myself two years ago, and how does that differ from how I would describe myself today?
2. What has been added to my life since becoming a mother (besides the obvious)?  Does each addition result in the subtraction of something, or is it possible to add without taking away?
3. What do I want to cultivate?  How does my behavior teach my son how to be, and what do I want him to learn?
4. Am I still interested in things I used to love?  Do I want to go to the movies, take a road trip, have long talks on the phone with friends across the country, work on a novel, write my grandmother's life story, learn to take great photos, work my way through cookbooks, plant an herb garden, start composting, practice speaking Italian and Spanish, and perfect my recipes for vinaigrette and BBQ sauces?  Do I want to do these things, but just don't have the time?  Or would I rather do other things now?

Now that I know roughly where I'm going with this, how will I discover answers to these questions?  When I tell students about creating a research plan, I talk about the importance of brainstorming all possible sources of information that might answer their questions.  Where will I get my data?

I started working at FSHA in the fall of 2011.  Soon after that I learned I was going to have my son.  It stands to reason that these changes would have started around then.  So, what clues to my personality exist from that time that might help me review who I was before I was momma?

• I used to blog a lot.  I could re-read old blog posts from my life as a public school teacher and see what I find.
• Certainly I wrote a cover letter when I applied for this job.  I wonder what it said.
• I took a trip to Manhattan with my husband that summer.  I could look at the photos and see if they sparked any memories.

These sources might help me piece together some information about what my goals were, my interests, my worries, my joys.  What else?

Questions 2 and 3 seem like they'll be harder to answer.  Like any practical student, I'm going to save those for last.

Question 4 seems to require some experimentation.  How will I know if those things interest me unless I try them again? (It's not that I haven't been to the movies or cooked a meal for two years!  It's just that I used to do those things ALL the time, with relish.  That is no longer the case.)  I'm going to start with just a couple.  Here's my plan:

• Do I still want to write my grandmother's life story?  She left me all of her notebooks, journals, photos, and letters.  I also have recordings of her speaking to me about her life.  Some of them I have transcribed.  I think it's time I revisited all of that to see if it's time for me to make something of it.  Maybe now is not the time, but it's been too long since I've considered it.
• Pick a cookbook, any cookbook.  My husband loves Indian food, and I have a dusty Indian cookbook that I've never used.  I'm going to bust it out.

So, that's the first phase of the LRP.  Review my sources and develop my research questions.  Once I've read through this material and tried some of these things, I'm sure I'll have an idea of the next steps I need to take.  In the coming days, I will report on my findings.   Of course, I'd love to hear from anyone interested in this process.  Feel free to leave a comment, question, or suggestion!