This year we have been so lucky to have Elham join our UBC Library Research Commons team. Her presence and care are immediately obvious when you meet her. She’s been a wonderful asset to our team, and a great teacher for the graduate students who join her for citation management workshops and one-on-one consultations.
We are so excited to introduce you to the many wonderful sides of Elham through this brief introduction she composed at our request:
I am a PhD student in Rehabilitation Sciences and already have a BSc and MSc in Prosthetics and Orthotics. I am working on a user-centred self-management program for people with lower limb amputation for my PhD dissertation. My background and 6 years of working with veterans with lower limb injuries, inspired me to focus my research on this project.
For the past 4 months, I have been an instructor for citation management tools at the UBC Library Research Commons. For my own research I use EndNote, which I started to use 10 years ago. The current version on my computer was a generous gift from one of my mindful friends. I could not work without citation management tools. All of my work, libraries, and tracking of papers is saved in my EndNote library on my computer. In my opinion all citation management tools have similarities and differences, but I have found them all to be user-friendly and helpful for organizing my work.
In my opinion, all students need certain tools to facilitate their studies, especially post-graduate students who focus on research. UBC Library Research Commons offers free workshops in many of these areas. It would be great if all UBC students learned about the UBC Library Research Commons services at their orientation sessions so they would not miss out on these free services. Citation tools are necessary and should be applied in your work from the beginning of your research journey. If you wait until the middle or latter part of your research, sorting through your citations will be much more confusing and time consuming. However, if you start your research with a citation management tool, you will be organized from the start!
One of my favorite things to do in my spare time is gardening. However, I don’t have access to garden, here, so, I keep many plants in my apartment. Also, I like to paint. I’ve never taken a course in painting, but I have painted several boards in oil, as well as fluid acrylic painting. All of the paintings in my apartment are my own work. Even if I do not judge them as “good,” I like them a lot. And last but not least, I love drinking red wine, especially as Sangria. I also love Merlot because it is a little sweet. I am from Shiraz, Iran. Shiraz is famous as a city of wine, poets, and flowers in Iran. As one of the poets in Shiraz said: “Blessed Shiraz and its examples, Oh God keep it from demise.”
To find out more about any of the resources that Elham mentioned, email us at research.commons@ubc.ca.
Whether you are starting, in the middle, or finishing your thesis, Elham can help you get your citations sorted out! Bring your questions to Elham in one of her workshops or one-on-one consults.