Scholarship, a conversation?

  

In any aspect of life, being information literate is equally important, in order to select appropriate information depending on one's needs. Being information literate, one can distinguish between useful information and filter out the rest. Session 6 of LIB 432, dealt with Scholarship as a conversation. As overwhelming one gets sometimes about information overload ( I have reached a middle ground) it was quite interesting to learn about information which does not stop when the ink goes dry. Information is an on-going process; scholarship as a conversation is therefore never ending.  The latter refers to the different voices, opinions and harnessing efforts made by those who value information. It is like waiting for the rain to fill the pot; each drop is equally important. These contributions, therefore arise through debates, theories and conversations. https://libguides.uta.edu/c.php?g=737090&p=5268467

In order to bake a cake, one would consult the internet to find the most relevant recipe, depending one's preference, budget and/or source. As a wife and mom, I have always used recipes for the first few times and afterwards, alter it to my own taste (e.g. using half a cup of sugar, instead of  one cup, when making Malva pudding, as sugar is bad for you, fuel for cancer as well as expensive. 

In academics, a similar process happens, finding a journal article, for an assignment or paper and ultimately building on what the previous author said. The topic I am currently busy with for my research paper; Health literacy amongst third year Ethics students at the University of the Western Cape, is an example of how I am contributing to what others have published. Even though, references have been used, to substantiate my research, I am additionally putting my own stamp to the research at hand, by gathering perspectives of the population group through questionnaires

As the title of the image suggests, scholarship, no matter what filed of study, is something to be discussed and debated about. 

It is ultimately a process of valuing, respecting and finding new ways of using information. During this process one researcher is educated by another, and thereby a cycle of information distribution has commenced.