Activating Library Mind

Dear Academically-Inclined HumanKind,

I have meant to correspond more regularly, but this past spring semester entailed a time-consuming yet rewarding milestone for my current graduate student career: I am finally a PhD candidate, AKA ABD (all but dissertation), in the University of Kentucky Department of Anthropology. As follow-up to this process, I promised some folks that I would share some of the tools and strategies that I found useful along my long and windy way. None of this is intended as an exhaustive list of resources or a comprehensive how-to tutorial, but nonetheless it may serve as an occasional guidepost or light for someone else's path.

Departmental T-shirt by Karen, Katie, & Lydia

Dear HumanKind (& EarthKin)

First of all, I am endlessly inspired by the depth and breadth of your curiosity, creativity, ingenuity, diversity, complexity, and your work ethic. Since I was a young kid, I've always marveled at the consciousness and experience of being alive and being human. I've also pondered the fact that a seemingly infinite line of ancestors had to successfully survive and procreate to eventually produce me at a particular time and place.