Week 3

Bezner-Kerr, Rachel, and Isaac N. Luginaah. Geographies Of Health And Development. Farnham: Ashgate, 2015. eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 15 Nov. 2015.

   To be perfectly honest, my research endeavors this week were not framed in success. Actually, frustration with a hue of despair better describes the feeling that outlined my research efforts from the time I opened my computer on Monday to commence until one of Brandman's mystic diviners of information transfigured to me from Leatherbyshire in the realm of Librarius to rescue me from the buffeting of my technological illiteracy. After vanquishing my tormentors she spirited me to safety and there ministered to my wounds curative advice and the balm of knowledge. My tragedy turned fiction by a work of non-fiction.
     So with the topic of 'Maternal and Child Mortality Rates in Chad, Africa' I searched the Leatherby Library database for a book to complete the assignments for week 3 and to continue my research. I used the library catalog as well as the advanced search options with keywords consisting of every possible combination of the words in my topic above. The results I kept getting were mostly articles and journals. There were a few books, one I quickly identified as irrelevant and the other I opened and spent several hours reading through it before making the decision to abandon it on the grounds that it didn't address issues specific to the country in my research or even the African continent for that matter. I did save many of the articles, which I understand will be of use to me later. But my hope to find an actual book with information relevant to my topic was beginning to feel more like fiction than reality. Wednesday dawned and I was still on my journey through the treacherous paths that lead to Leatherbyshire where it was foretold, by a sage master of information scientology and practician from the tribe of Dunn, that a treasure awaited me there on the mountain of titles. By now I trudged along an arduous course, afflicted with peril yet compelled still by the distant songs of beckoning sang sweetly by my treasure. By Thursday, I must confess, I resorted to the wiles of Google the Ogre, known for his cleverness and quick wit, he had become a legend by being able to suggest a fix for any conundrum the locals brought to him. I’d once heard told however, that he never forgot a word that was spoken to him or by whom it was spoken, so this gift in hand with his clever mind had begun to make some folks nervous that he knew too much about too many people. Nevertheless, I was a man with febble ethics by now so I sought him out, and he was never hard to find, the monstrosity that he is. My strategy was to get from him some titles that I could take with me to Leatherbyshire and make inquiries there by title. Whilst he was answering my question, he mentioned a few other things that were unrelated to what I asked but still succulent enough to give attention to and soon, right in the middle of my research with that useful ogre, I looked around and discovered I was in a different place entirely. Somehow I’d been transported to a haram occupied by the most irresistible bodies of current events and political news I’d ever seen in one room, it was as if the proprietor had chosen these tempting selections with me in mind. Some 3 hours had transpired since I stopped to consult Google and now I found my way back to my path with two promising titles to search. My Leatherbyshire search was again unfruitful, no such titles could be found. Friday brought with it desperation, full grown and menacing. I was preparing now to offer one of my limbs or one of my children as a peace offering to the gods of illusive knowledge when suddenly my magic tablet of light illuminated signaling that it had captured a clue. I swiped the face of the tablet with my finger and displayed before me was the Leatherbyshire pages of home, with a box that read, “Ask a Librarian/ Reference.” I laughed and swiped the face of the tablet again to invoke a weather forecast for the next few days, the end was not in sight, my quest still unanswered. As I continued my path later I pondered again the oddity and obsurdity of the box’s message. As if I could just ask a Librarian, keepers of knowledge, guardians of time and record, ushers to the portal of infinite possibility, for help finding a reference book for a research project. As if they’re just some professionally trained information scientists just standing by to help me access information and assist me in my learning and research objectives. No, this message must be a phantom riddle or perhaps a map that once pointed the way to a magical world but has now been enchanted so that it’s meaning is obscured and confusing. I couldn’t be sure but one thing was certain, it was pure fantasy to entertain the idea of me approaching sacred truths, secrets of mankind, the collective treasures of millenniums, by simply asking. So instead that night I used the tablet of light to send a message into the great abyss which covers the world as a web stating, “I’m looking for a book to conduct research on maternal and child mortality rates in Chad, Africa for my LBSU 302 class and I can’t seem to find one. Can you please assist me in this?” And within 12 hours a mystic diviner of information transfigured to me from the House of Brandman, stating she was an ambassador of the Leatherby Kingdom in the realm of Librarius she entrusted me with a magic spell that listed instructions of where in my tablet of light I should look and the exact keywords I could recite to discover what I sought. Then I followed her spell and as sure as morning my treasure appeared, exactly what I needed, the quest was over. I could now live happily ever after, until week 5 when I have to find a Peer-Reviewed Empirical Article which I’ve heard is cloaked by an invisibility enchantment and locked within the bowels of the Earth.

   Now, thanks to cosmic intervention, I’ve discovered this great reference book which exists in EBSCOhost’s E-Book Academic Collection is offered in full text online. Geographies of Health and Development, cited atop this blog, expertly discusses the links between development and health, particularly in developing countries. Much of its information is pertinent to Sub-Saharan Africa where Chad is located, and it offered a wealth of useful information proposing answers to my research question. This book sheds light on less frequently considered and yet equally impactful contributors to maternal and child mortality like low literacy rates among women and social and religious beliefs and traditions that limit women’s educational and professional opportunities, to climate, government planning, lack of health care staff and the migration of locally trained doctors, as well as personal and public safety and quality of life. This resource really was a gem to my research, imparting some compelling new information, data, and some concepts that I want to dig further into. Next on my list to research, thanks to this treasure, are the prevalent religious and cultural beliefs in Chad that negatively impact women’s development and health and the governmental mismanagement of the National Healthcare System in Chad.