As I struggle with defining my research question, I have found that it has been helpful, not to write, but to sketch my decision making process.  So I have started with an idea, broad and interconnected and then with a series of decision tress, I find myself narrowing down my focus.  The decision tree works for me because I can go back and see at what point in the thought process, I took a turn.  I guess I am mapping more that talking to myself......

I think a lot about Critical Making and would like to incorporate this connecting with physical space in my question.  I think the productive engagement, with the emphasis on producing, is very important to information gathering and knowledge creation.  I think of my children when they were younger, would spend hours playing on the beach and building castles and other Dr. Suess like creations, only to have the tide wash away.  But they were exploring with ideas and experimenting.  It is that kind of "messing around" that I am interested in.

One of my interests is with browsing but browsing in rare book libraries.  With restricted access to the physical books, what happens to the stumbling upon discoveries? This isn't information seeking as much as the need to browse. Recognizing this, cataloging for a rare books library need provides information on the material aspects of the book.  Somehow this is tied up with the critical making, the physical object.

But, I can't seem to go anywhere with this idea and who cares about it?
So my other thought, that I have sketch out, is how do parents with children recently diagnosed with an illness or condition, find information?  I might do a pilot study of parents at Sick Kids.  Do these parents use the hospital supported web page (Caring for Kid) or do they search for blogs, support groups on the web or do they join associations and support groups?  Information seeking?  I guess, but I think first there needs to be lots of browsing and looking to assess the information/support environment.  I might focus on a particular condition (hemophilia.)  What does this have to do with rare books?  Nothing except maybe to reassure me that this issue is not a new one.  Parents have always need to find out information about caring for their children.  Initially this was done with the women at the well--an oral tradition of remedies.  By the mid 1800s, books and manuals were being published all entitled  with something sounding like "How to...."  Then there were the encyclopedias of family health matters and Dr. Spock's bible on infants. But now there is so much information( not all credible nor consistent)  How do parents manage?  Do they use the institutional sources or do they use more informal sources?
Mary