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Recently I have noticed a number of writers talking about doing research for their fiction, especially historical fiction. Well, I spent 41 years as a librarian helping people with research, so I thought I might offer a few bits of advice.
I'm not going to talk about sources because they change with some speed. And besides, I moderated a panel of librarians at Left Coast Crime this year and you can find some of our recommendations here.
What I want to talk about is some principles on finding sources. Here goes.
Principle 1. Wouldn't it be nice to have a highly trained research assistant at your command? Surprise! You do. They work at the public library and they are paid with your tax dollars whether you use them or not. You can call, text, email, or visit. Don't be shy. If you give a reference librarian a question they can spend a couple of hours digging into you are making their day.
And here is a subclause that is probably out of date but worth mentioning: If you ask a librarian for research help be as specific as possible. I think the use of search engines has probably made this problem less common, but when I started out a lot of people seemed to think they weren't permitted to ask for what they really wanted, so we had conversations like this one I had with a college student in the early eighties:
Q: Where are your books on religion?
A: Most are upstairs under the letter B (Note: We used the Library of Congress system). But are you after anything more specific?
Q: Yes, books on Islam.
A: Great. Any particular book?
Q: The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
Well, that shrank suddenly, didn't it? (And by the way, the Autobiography is typically shelved under E for American history.)
Principle 2. A lesson I learned long before the Internet: No matter how obscure your subject is, someone thinks it is the most fascinating topic in the world. Find that person and you may wind up begging them to stop giving you information.
One way to hunt for that source is to look for websites related to your topic. Can you find a way to contact the person who created it? Yahtzee!
Principle 3. You have probably figured out that not all information is available for free on the Internet. I am especially thinking of scholarly articles. You need to look at databases (a stupid term libraries use (mostly) for digital periodical indexes), but your public library doesn't have all the ones you were hoping for.
Okay, is there a college or university in your area? You can look at their website and see what databases they have, but, of course, they are only available to their own students. Bummer!
Don't panic. Contact the librarians there and ask: 1. Is your library building open to the public? And if it is: 2. If I go there in person can I use your databases?
The university where I am a professor emeritus lists 47 databases under the subject of History, including:
* American History and Life
* America's Historical Newspapers
* American Prison Newspapers
* Historical Statistics of the United States
And so on.
Principle 4. What if you learn of the existence of the perfect article but no library you can access has it? You contact your public library but they say no; getting you a copy would cost them a billion kajillion dollars because of the APAGEP Factor. (Academic Publishers Are Greedy Evil Parasites).
Go back to Principle 2. The author of that perfect article is the person who finds your subject so fascinating. Contact them and they may be delighted to send you a free e-copy of their article. You aren't depriving them of anything because they wouldn't get any of that billion kajillion dollars anyway. (See APAGEP above.)
Principle 5. If you are trying to dig beyond the obvious search engine, familiarize yourself with the tools of Boolean logic. For example, if you go to Google Scholar and search for:
private detectives nineteenth century chicago boston
...you will get less-focused results than if you search for:
"private detectives" "nineteenth century" (chicago OR boston)
Thus endeth today's lesson. Best of luck with your research. I hope you get an A+ or, better yet, published.
Sound advice, Robert. Over the years, I wrote a number of books on 17th-century New England history, mostly on King Philip’s War and the Pequot War. I traveled all over New England, especially to small towns. The local librarians were always eager to help. Of great help were the librarians at the Pequot Museum in Connecticut. In those days I never used the Internet, and discovered much obscure information without it. Give me a real live librarian any day.
ReplyDeleteEdward Lodi
All sorts of good advice!
ReplyDeleteOh, it's so good to see this column! Rob, as a fellow academic, I was smiling all the way through! Love the APAGEP. I have 'one of those people' of Principle 2, with respect to war and weapon history, who is always happy to share knowledge. Nothing like talking to the real experts! (which Google ain't)
ReplyDelete"No matter how obscure your subject is, someone thinks it is the most fascinating topic in the world. Find that person and you may wind up begging them to stop giving you information."
ReplyDeleteI AM that person if you want a detailed history of the diplomats and politicians (or, as I called them, a parcel of rogues) in the Republic of Texas in the 1840s. Tons of information cheerfully provided at the drop of a freaking hat!
BTW, a great shout-out to the wonderful libraries at UNC at Chapel Hill, who brought up to my study carrel endless heavy tomes full of diplomatic papers, old newspaper microfiche (let's hear it for the New Orleans Bee!), and anything else I asked for, while I read it all and cackled at the Great Pig War, etc.
Giggle used to have a certain grasp of boolean logic, but today's new improved version with Artificial Idiocy has risen above such plebeian concerns. Even if you add -AI at the end. You got a favorite search engine for general use?
ReplyDelete