Dr. Carter opened yesterday’s Summer Dissertation House at UMBC with a discussion on how to improve your working relationship with your advisor.  Tips included being on time for scheduled meetings, being prepared with written results and goals, and respecting the nature of the relationship by not treating it like a casual friendship.  The afternoon speaker was Dr. Jay LaVelle Ingram, Director of University Counseling Services for UMBC. Dr. Ingram took the group through some exercises and incorporated humor throughout her “counseling session.” The top discussions dealt with sleep deprivation and balance.

Some highlights from Dr. Ingram included the following points:

• If you don’t decide to stop, you WILL finish your dissertation.
• Have a vision of yourself as Dr. ________.
• You are running a marathon, not a sprint.
• Know the difference between necessities and luxuries. Sleep is a necessity, not a luxury. Food is a necessity. Exercise is a necessity.
• Learn how to say “no” without explanation, and learn how to say “yes” when people volunteer to help you.

Adhering to the doctor’s advice to take a “real” break every two hours, and to engage in something completely different from your work, members of the DH went downstairs and took an “ice cream break” around 3 PM to enjoy the free ice cream and waffle bowl cones that the university sponsored as one of the summer activities in the Commons.

This morning, we launched the first round of the Summer Dissertation House on UMBC’s campus. The day included introductions and goal-setting. Dr. Janet Rutledge, Dean of the Graduate School and Vice Provost for Graduate Education, was the afternoon speaker.  Dr. Rutledge discussed rules and regulations regarding defense preparation and graduation requirements. She also discussed the importance of putting in the work to develop a strong, professional, long-term relationship with your mentor.  In this case, your mentor is your advisor, and your relationship should be collegial and should be built to last.

UMBC now has trial access to The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism. The trial runs through August 4, 2011.

The Johns Hopkins Online Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism is an indispensable resource for scholars and students of literary theory and discourse. Revised extensively to reflect a decade of rapidly changing scholarship, the Online Guide features 48 new entries and subentries. Compiled by 275 specialists from around the world, the Online Guide presents a comprehensive historical survey of the field's most important figures, schools, and movements. It includes more than 240 alphabetically arranged entries on critics and theorists, critical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods.

For off-campus access, please login via VPN first (http://vpn.umbc.edu), and follow the link to the UMBC Library Homepage. Then follow the link under "News & Events" on the library homepage. For more info on remote access, see http://aok.lib.umbc.edu/services/remoteaccess.php.

Please let us know what you think. Send your comments to Janet Hack at jhack@umbc.edu.

The Dissertation House is comprised of a series of workshops, meetings, and seminars that are held on college campuses and at conferences to facilitate successful completion of the doctoral degree. The workshops emphasize writing the dissertation, preparing for the defense, and communicating with faculty. The Dissertation House is a program of the National Science Foundation’s PROMISE: Maryland’s Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) and is supported by the Graduate Schools at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), the University of Maryland College Park, and the University of Maryland Baltimore.  Growth of the program is also attributed to the Council of Graduate School’s Ph.D. Completion Project.

Patrons have been reporting problems accessing their library (catalog) accounts. This problem has been reported to ITD and we are waiting for a response.

Here is a brief description of the problem. When you try to log into your catalog account (either through the 'My Library Account' link on our website our through the 'my account' link in the catalog) the log in process starts as expected. You are asked to select your campus, then you get taken to the UMBC single sign-on screen (if you are not already logged into a UMBC account). After logging in you get a blank screen for a lengthy time which eventually switches to a basic catalog search, but it doesn't show you as being logged in you and have no access to your account.

We have a similar problem with Research Port. You are able to get into Research Port both on and off-campus. From on-campus, as long as you don't try to log into Research Port, everything seems to work fine. If you try to log in (either on or off-campus) it doesn't show as being logged in (your name doesn't appear) and there is a limited selection of databases available. The odd thing is that when we access the databases from off-campus via the proxy links on our website we are able to log in with no problem.

We hope to have this issue fixed soon. Thank you for your patience.

Greetings to all graduate students who are working on dissertations. Dr. Carter has posted the Summer 2011 Challenge!  We will have Dissertation House sessions in Maryland this summer, but anyone — in any state, in any country — can join us online. Click here to join us: http://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/blog-online-challenge/summer-2011-challenge/ .  If you’ve participated in our challenges in the past, or if you are still working with us in the Winter 2011 Challenge section, we invite you to join us in the summer section.

Good luck … we look forward to supporting you!