Winter Break Plans:

The work I do on my thesis over winter break depends mainly on what sort of feedback I get next week during critiques. Hopefully, I will have minimal changes to make to my literature review so I can focus my energy on break to doing more research on Massimo and Lella Vignelli and the history of the Vignelli Center for Design Studies. I am planning to complete the first draft of the section of my thesis focusing on the history of the Vignelli's, the establishment of the Vignelli Center at RIT, and a description of the scope of collections at the Vignelli Center. If I am way ahead of the game then I will also make plans to interview Jennifer Whitlock over winter break, but I won't know until after the critiques next week.

Close Reading Conclusions

I believe I have been exposed to the concepts of close reading before Research Methods began, but perhaps have just never called it by its name. I have utilized scholarly articles before for other classes and research projects, so I do have some experience dissecting literature to pinpoint an argument. However I haven't, until starting Research Methods, engaged with an article in such a structured way as identifying not only the research question and conclusion, but also identifying the research methodology and type of evidence the author presents.

I think that in learning to recognize and identify methodologies and evidence, I am getting better at comparing and qualifying different articles, especially while doing research for my thesis. I just read an article about the use of Web 2.0 features in online archives catalogs to enhance user browsability. The research methodology included a review of existing literature on the subject, a survey of a number of online catalogs of archives, and interviewed archives staff members regarding their opinions of the use of Web 2.0 features. Unfortunately, I feel that the researcher left out a major group which could have led to a more sound conclusion: users of digital catalogs. The research question asked if the effects of Web 2.0 enhanced users' ability to browse online catalogs, but the researcher never interviewed users of online catalogs. The interviews with archives staff did provide some insight into other aspects of the study that were beneficial to it's results, however there was not enough evidence collected to reach a conclusion one way or another about the effects of Web 2.0 regarding the success of online archives catalogs. After reading this article, I realized it probably isn't the strongest source of evidence for my own research topic.


Gresham, Emily, and Sarah Higgins. "Improving Browsability of Archive Catalogues using Web 2.0." Library Review 61.5 (2012): 309-26. ProQuest. Web. 27 Sep. 2017.

Joseph, Frances. “The New Zealand Design Archives: Digital Resource Building and Design History.” Journal of Design History, vol. 14, no. 3, 2001, pp. 227–236. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3527148.

Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Claire Popoli, and I'm a 4th year Museum Studies student. I'm a Rochester native, but before coming to RIT in 2015 I went to college in San Francisco where I studied fashion design, and then cinamotgraphy. Neither of which courses of study really interested me. I moved back home in 2013 and essentially started over at Monroe Comunity College, where I fell in love with art history and decided to transfer to R.I.T. to study Museum Studies. As a second year at R.I.T. I got hired in the R.I.T. Archives Collections and the Vignelli Center for Design Studies and realized my passion for archival work.

This past summer I spent most of my time working on campus at the Vignelli Center, where I assisted with processing collections, exhibition work, and starting a new digitization project of the Design Vignelli exhibition in the gallery attached to the University Gallery on campus. I also had the opportunity to intern at the Heorge Eastman Museum in their Stills, Posters and Paper collections archive. During my internship, I catalogued, implemented metadata and rehoused many collection materials.

After graduation this Spring I am not entirely certain what I want to do next. I do know I want to go to grad school, but what to study is another question.

My coworker at the Vignelli Center, Emily Sharp, photographing a Design Vignelli collection item to be added to the online exhibition.