Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Diverse Strategies for Literary Research: A Guide

As we work together as a team on our Digiliterary ebook project, we are going to need to research in traditional scholarship, finding the most authoritative and the most current sources. We should also make use of social sources, an increasingly important methodology that too few students and scholars recognize as a legitimate research strategy.

This post is intended to give some guidance in finding traditional scholarship, current scholarship, and social sources. What I am not discussing here is the important topic of search terms. That deserves its own post. Assuming, then, that one has at least some good starting points for topics and search terms, here are three ways into good sources:


Traditional Scholarship
Scholarly books and articles carry authority and should be sought out. These may be quite traditional, but our methods for finding and using them need not be. Indeed, I will go so far as to say that one has not really done due diligence in research  if one only finds scholarship in a few narrow or traditional ways. I say this because I have noted that students often find a good-enough research resource (such as a favorite database, or simply Google), and they miss much by not diversifying their approach. It is true that some scholarly resources have restricted access (such as databases that an institution subscribes to). So it is especially important not to become dependent on a research resource to which one will not always have access.

Entry Points
Elsewhere I have discussed the importance of general research resources. I still recommend these as starting points since they provide linguistic and historical contexts very relevant to literary research. A second general starting point are the research and subject guides prepared by subject librarians (see Research Guides via HBLL).

Focused / Advanced Scholarly Research
Current Scholarship
Being date sensitive in searches is especially important given our topic of eBooks, eReaders and media that have only been operating a few years. In the humanities it's not always critical that sources researched be current, but sometimes, as in our case, that is definitely the case. Besides, using the most current research is a way of filtering the relevance of older works, since important works from the past are quoted in current scholarship. So, how does one make sure to find the most current scholarship? 
  • Use date filters
    Most of the sources listed above have a date filter, and so limiting one's searches in this way is helpful for currency.
  • Use sources that favor current content
    • Periodical literature is going to be more current than scholarly books. Don't just look up books in a catalog. Even if they are brand new books, they are usually at least a year old already because it takes that long for a manuscript to become a book. 
    • Updated databases. Some databases are good to stay current. I find eBrary to be very helpful in finding full text, current scholarly works. 
    • Book reviews. These can be found in library catalogues and online in various ways. Often, reviewers are assessing current works on a topic in light of other works that hold authority in the field. In this way, you can find those sources that have authority because they are recent and others that have authority because they've had staying power.
  • Use events
    Scholars attend conferences and symposia where they share the latest ideas in their fields. This is an indirect route to traditional scholarship, but a direct route to the social sources I talk about below. Essentially, it goes like this: find current, recent, or upcoming events where the topics you are researching are being or have been discussed. This can lead one to authoritative and current scholarship, even if those conference presentations are not themselves formally published. The titles and abstracts of conference papers will refer to important and current works, as will presentation media.
  • Use presentation mediaPeople are now putting their presentations online, either as recorded videos or more commonly as PowerPoint or slide presentations (with or without voiceover narration). This is a great way to get to current content. Go to slideshare.net (or see other such services) and use your search terms to find and browse presentations from events or lectures that people have made public. It's often faster to get to the main ideas, and these presentations often include named scholarly sources. They also can introduce you directly to active scholars (about which more in the next section)
  • Search images and video
    These may seem to have little to do with finding current authoritative scholarship on a topic, but they are a kind of back door. For example, searching on Flickr (a photo sharing site) may take you to event information (people post photos of conferences they have been to). YouTube and other video services are a mess in terms of their quality and authority, but these are becoming a kind of alternate search engine that allows you to find people and expertise not at the top of a Google search.
Social Sources
The idea here is to use social resources (social media and personal contacts) to connect to what is most current in our content areas, and to filter the relevance of traditional sources. For example, in my own research (on epistemology), I shared a short abstract of book I'm writing with a colleague. He mentioned an important article, a classic in epistemology that everyone knew. I didn't, so I asked him more. He showed this to me in an anthology on this topic. Great resource! See the pattern? Social contact with a real person with more knowledge leads to a relevant source. A human filters for relevance in ways no computer can match.

Students will tend to retreat to the ease of computer searches, avoiding actual contact with breathing human beings. I'm sure my students will see the flaw in that strategy and will dare to talk to those in the know.

I've organized the sources below not by media type so much as by the type of person or connection that is relevant. Different social sources are more useful at different stages of a project. In initial stages, bouncing ideas off of friends is a great idea; later in the game, consulting living experts is a better mode.

  • Homies and Peers
    Are fellow students using Goodreads, Amazon, or Kindle devices? We can interview them about their experiences for anecdotal evidence and to get feedback on our developing ideas.
  • Enthusiasts
    We can profit from finding those with a passion for our topics. 
    • Reviewers on Amazon, "librarians" on Goodreads
    • Online groups and communities
    • Social media
      • Do hashtag/keyword searches in Twitter, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn. 
      • Respond to someone else's post, comment, or content. This shows respect and engagement, but is not enough on its own (somewhat passive).
      • Mention people and link to them in your own social media posts. That often gets their attention and paves the way for direct contact.
      • Browse the profile(s) of people posting in relevant ways. Would they be a good person to contact directly?
    • Non-Text media
      This can be helpful for finding people and profiles, as well as events, as discussed above. The thing to remember in searching the following sources is that they can potentially connect you not just to formal sources (emphasized above) but to people with whom you can actually interact. So, you don't just search Flickr or Instagram for photos relevant to your topic; you're looking up people by way of their posted content, people whose interests or research are relevant to your topic.
      • Image-oriented
        • Flickr
        • Instagram
        • Google image search
      • Video
        • YouTube
        • Vimeo
        • TeacherTube
  • Experts
    Some experts can be consulted (in person or via email) at the early stages of a research project (such as librarians). Others are more appropriate to consult once one has developed more precise research questions, often the result of having done some initial drafting.
    • Subject librarians (the full time paid ones, not the at-the-service-desk student ones), both in person and via email.
    • Professors
      This includes your current and former professors or teachers, those of your friends and peers, and those who are complete strangers to you but who are willing to speak with you. It's often best to visit professors in person, if possible. If not, use an email (as described in the next item).
    • Scholars
      Find relevant book. Seek out the author online. Compose a short, focused question that shows you're a serious student (and also that you know that scholar's work to a degree). Send to scholar. Scholar writes back! (more often than you think, and often quickly)
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