Can't find it
I've come to the conclusion that I'm a bad researcher. I don't know where to go or which search terms to use. I have my old few old faithfuls that have gotten me thus far, like JSTOR, but beyond that I'm not much good.
I can't figure how to assess a database. I think that if I type in a word any book or article that contains the word will come up, right? I mean, it's supposed to search everything, right? Well, not necessarily. Oh. I've been venturing out and trying other databases, but these endeavors aren't very fruitful. I feel like I'm missing something.
It must be my search terms. I think this is where research starts to get creative, coming up with terms that will yield results. I'm feeling very uncreative--fatigue pounding down my brain cells.
Right now, my favorite place to look for stuff is Amazon, because it gives you suggestions for other books and often you search inside the book or search other books it cites or that cite it. Now if we could just get the Amazon model to work for articles, too.
Then there's bibliographies, which are often very nice. The problem is, though, I haven't found much with productive bibliographies. There was article that was really great and informative, but it was from 1954, and everything it cited was like from between 1850 and 1920.
I think I need to decide what this paper is about, so I can get an idea about which web of research to jump in. I don't know. I guess I've never felt so lost before. The way I've researched has always worked before, but with the last two papers (this one and the last), both of which I think are more "original" (whatever that means--I guess more viable in a scholarly world), I've felt my limitations keenly. Maybe I'm moving to a new level, and I haven't found my feet in it yet. Or maybe that's just the optimistic way to look at it.
And this post can pretty much be summed up in: I can't think of anything else to blog about, but wanted to blog something.
UPDATED: When having such research issues as I have outlined above, it's very handy to have friends who have gone to library school to come to your rescue. Thanks, guys!
FEEL NEED TO ADD: I like research. I enjoy the creativity of searching. I'm just used to finding. Before I look like a total idiot who shouldn't be in graduate school, I will say that I've done quite well so far, it's just that I'm faced with a different kind of research now. It's not so simple as "i'm writing a paper about Symphony No. 7 by Famous Composer" or whatever, when you have a nice neat topic. I guess I'm really encountering what it means to have "nobody else who's written on this topic before" for the first time.
Comments
It occurs to me that Amazon is so well set-up because they want us to buy a bunch of books. If they get us hooked on the idea of buying one thing, and then they post a link to something we might like in a related field, we'll jump up and down and say, "Ooh, how great!" And then, of course, we want our order to reach $25 or more so we can get free shipping. =) Though it would be great for the database people of the world to adopt this model of links and reviews, they're probably underfunded (just a guess), especially the ones that don't make much or any money off the people who search them, and they may not have the resources to come up with such an extensive system.
Is there anything I could help you think about? If you email me with some general topics or search terms you've already used, maybe I could come up with some others. Of course, you're the expert here, relatively. =) But I'll be glad to pitch in if you think of something for which you could utilize my brain power.
Posted by: Erica | 08.02.06 11:25
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It sounds like you need to use a text-mining tool. They're supposed to be extremely smart search engines. (I just read an article on them.) Hopefully you can get your hands on one!
Hang in there!
Posted by: MusicalMom | 09.02.06 10:28
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BTW.
The item that you requested is now available. Still need/want it?
Title: Descrizione del manoscritto : storia, problemi, modelli / Armando Petrucci.
Author: Petrucci, Armando.
Item ID: 31198035505143
Call #: Z695.5 .P45 2001
Posted by: Penn guy | 09.02.06 10:33
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The word "JSTOR" actually made me shudder a bit. You know, I used to be a research whiz, so if you need some pointers feel free to email me. Or-and this may sound like the most obvious piece of advice ever-use the reference librarians. If they are worth their merit they can find ANYTHING!
Posted by: Genevieve | 09.02.06 18:24
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It's not just you. Part of what you're describing are the limitations of article database design, and we library folks fret about that too. Though it sounds like your topic has its own intrinsic challenges.
Actually, would you mind if I quoted this post on my blog? Because your description of your research process is giving me ideas for some "why research is hard and why we shouldn't make it unnecessarily harder" musings.
Posted by: Amanda | 12.02.06 12:28
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I came to your post throgh a serendipitous chain of links, and just wanted to let you kow that I empathize with your situation! I used to be a grad student in the humanities (Religious Studies) and am now a librarian. The funny thing (and why I'm posting this) is that when I was researching papers in my previous grad school experience, I would *never* ask the librarian for help. Never.
And now, I know how silly that was. Not only is it what the librarian is there for, but librarians get really excited when they get help people with real research questions, more complicated than "how do I print this" or "where's the stapler".
Because, there are so many databases. And they do so many things so differently. And no one is expected to know that, except librarians, because they use so many of the databases so much of the time. Very helpful people, with the info you need. They have a degree in it, so you don't have to! Serously, I just needed to put that plug in, to ask your librarian for assistance. Either the one at the Reference desk, or the liaison for your department.
Posted by: Rudy | 28.02.06 19:34