Are you being served?

On the front page of this blog is a note in the right hand column stating:

      Welcome!

         Please contact me if you think that I can help in any way with

         information on books, articles, papers, news on Conductive

         Education. If I can't help, I will know someone who can!

        Email me at gmaguire1@yahoo.co.uk

 

 

Over the past few years I have been happy to help with any information that I can and have responded to enquiries from parents, conductors, centre managers, and potential service users all over the world, sometimes at length and providing a variety of links, references etc.

This week I had a reponse thanking me for information I had sent.

 I was really pleased, and then  realised that this was unusual because once my reply has gone out, sometimes with documents attached, I rarely receive any acknowledgment, or even thanks. If I have not helped in the way hoped for, I never know. If the information  has been useful, I still don't know. This is leading me to wonder whether this service is not satisfactory and perhaps not worth continuing with, or not appreciated.

Constructive feedback would be very welcome and help me to respond appropriately the next time.

What else can I do? 

Librarians are always happy to help

I have just made a comment on Conductive World. Yesterday I commented on a question about CE on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/da.otter/posts/10152479532045287

 and Andrew has blogged his thoughts on this and my response.

http://www.conductive-world.info/2013/01/hunting-hari.html

This is what I have said:

It gave me a nice warm feeling to be able to use my knowledge of CE literature, and I hope it helped. I have always got satisfaction from bringing information and people together, as  a room full of information is not always easy to access without help.

 

It is not often that Librarians are rated at all or  acknowledgement given to their expertise, so thank you for this, Andrew.

 

I am always happy to help via my blog, Conductive Education Information at www.gillian-maguire.info  if I can.

If anyone does think I can help, please ask, and then I will if I can. As well as my memory I do have a collection of resources here that I can consult,  and don't forget the virtual catalogue available at

http://www.e-conduction.org/?page_id=115

Enquiries - the long, the short and the unclear

Ever since I have been involved in Conductive Education I have had lots of enquiries from lots of different people at all sorts of levels, from the general to the specific. These I have answered to the best of my ability and most respond with thanks for the information. Most people have told me who they are, what they are doing and why they are asking the questions. Some don't. Only this week I had an enquiry about biographies of Andras Peto and was only given the name of the enquirer, nothing else, but I answered, as I always do. At no time has it occurred to me to question any query as to its validity.

This week I have been following the postings on Susie Mallet's and Andrew Sutton's blogs about an enquiry which turned up in Susie's spam box and I too wondered if it was a hoax. 

http://www.conductive-world.info/2010/06/ce-research-pits.html

  http://www.susie-mallett.org/2010/06/research-or-spam.html 

Then I get the same message in my spam and now understand her reaction and  puzzlement. Usually anyone doing research at an academic level mentions exactly what they intend to investigate in their  enquiry,(as well as  including where they are studying etc.) and asks  specific questions(s), which is what I would expect from a student working at that level.
 This emailer mentions he is a Master's student at a named university but also adds that he is "Working on a school project I am doing research on conductive education and my focus is CE furniture". Perhaps he means that his research is being carried out in a school nearby which is offering CE and has the furniture,  otherwise 'school project' and 'masterate' don't really go together in my book, and sounds very odd. Or perhaps that is not the case. There may be a language problem here and if so, clarification would be helpful. I hope that the enquirer writes to all of us to explain further so we can understand his request fully.