I have been busy in the Watching stage of my personal inquiry project. I approached this with excitement that I could actually spend time persuing an interest of my own choosing. How exciting! As a mom of a toddler and a pre-schooler and as a graduate student, it seems like so much of my time is spent on topics and readings that are chosen for me. Time is precious, and at this stage of my life, I don't have much extra time to spend on anything that is not on my "Must Do Today!" list. So, to be given the invitation to choose a project to explore seems too good to be true.

I began this process by brainstorming a list of topics that I thought I might be interested in exploring. Some of the topics I came up with were: William's Syndrome, Ethanol, electronic scrapbooking, places to take my kids in Michigan, places to take my kids in Chicago, estrogen therapy, organic food and its benefits, landscaping projects for my home, and how to raise a healthy child. After some thought ( and running it by Dr. Lamb), I decided to focus my project on Chicago. My main reason for choosing this topic is because I live relatively close to this amazing city, and I want to explore all of the opportunities and experiences that I can share with my family. I think there are such rich cultural, educational, and just plain fun things to do in Chicago. Even though I have been there quite a few times, I feel like I have so much to learn about this city.

While I think that my topic could support all nine of the Library Information Literacy Standards, the four standards that I feel it most closely aligns with are as follows:

The student who is information literate
ILS 1: accesses information efficiently and effectively.
ILS 2: evaluates information critically and competently.
ILS 3: uses information accurately and creatively.
ILS 4: pursues information related to personal interests.