OPAC Search Experience

The topic that I have chosen for my research is: the challenges faced by prisoners who are reentering society after a long sentence. I will be looking for mostly general background information but do also hope to find some specifics about Minnesota prisoners. The search string that I used was "Prisoners AND Release", specifying books only and was able to find a book on the first try. I also did the same search while specifying only Ebooks and that did give results as well. However, I chose not to use an Ebook because I find it quite annoying, to the eyes, to read on the computer. Although, if I had a mobile device I'm sure it would be quite convenient. I did try this same search at the Great River Regional Library System OPAC and found only 1 result. I searched in the advanced search screen for "Prisoner AND Release" and had the search include adult, juvenile, and young adult nonfiction. I don't think that I will be using this library for much research since the SCSU library provided me with 87 results when using the same criteria.

Updated Topic

Since my topic was a bit broad and wasn't quite focused on the right area, I have chosen a more refined topic.  My research question is... What are the challenges of prisoners being reintroduced to society after a long sentence?
This may seem a bit broad still but I am wondering if I will be able to find enough information if I narrow my topic to be about murderers only.

What Do You Assume to Be True About ___________?

So I have been trying to figure out what I assume to be true about a particular population. This hasn't been easy as I'm sure it hasn't been for most. But I have to say, I try not to assume too much about people.

I do, however, assume that prisoners are all getting a free ride while in jail/prison. They may be "paying the time", but who really is paying for things (ie: food, medical bills, clothing, a roof over their heads, etc).  There are so many people in prison and I want to know how everything is being paid for. If these people have committed crimes, why should we have to pay for their nourishment and safe keeping?!

Of course prisoners need to be held in a secure manor but I feel like some conditions are pretty good when compared to what a homeless person may have. A bed, blanket and warm food sounds much more pleasant than a cardboard box on the street corner.

I have seen each of these populations (prisoners and homeless) on t.v. and it always seems that the prisoners get warm food, a roof over their heads and a place to lay their head at night. Just doesn't seem to make sense to me, homeless suffer while prisoners relax.

I'm assuming that there will be quite a bit of information for me to research since prisons have been around for a very long time. But, I am thinking that the hardest part may be finding specific information on how things are actually paid. I feel like there may be guarded information about the prison systems. Anything that has to do with "the law" seems to have a sense of corruption, in my mind.

What is Critical Thinking?

My definition of critical thinking is: a type of thinking that you do to be objective on any given topic. I have heard this term used before in school and even in conversations with my husband, but I'm not quite sure if I am using the correct ways of "critical thinking".

According to dictionary.com, critical thinking is:

disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open-minded, and informed by evidence.

Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/critical+thinking

The "expert" here hasn't identified a specific process in order to engage in critical thinking, although it seems that it should not include opinion. 

I think that critical thinking and IM204 are connected in the sense that we are going to be addressing topics that we might have an opinion about. But are here to research these topics with an open-mind and are to find facts, not just provide our opinions.

Welcome to my new blog

Hi Everyone, I'm Amanda!  Thanks for stopping by and reading this,  hopefully we can learn a lot from each other throughout this semester. Oh yea and the only thing I know about blogs  is what I've seen on Julie and Julia.  So, here's to my first blog.