Tag Archives: print resources

Library robots

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Libraries have always been at the forefront of adopting new technology, but their innovations usually have something to do with organizing and retrieving information. The online library catalog is a good example. Now some libraries are borrowing technology from manufacturing: robots that shelve and retrieve physical books. It may come as a surprise to some people that printed books are still such a big deal to academic libraries. After all, much of formerly huge reference collections has been replaced by online databases. Long runs of many important journals and other periodicals are likewise available as full text online. Ebooks have lately begun to surpass printed books in sales. Nonetheless, vast amounts of important information have never been digitized. It is accessible only in print form. While more and more library patrons use electronic information sources in preference to print, print cannot go away any time soon. Problems with print collections When I was a freshman in college, the university library had a closed stack policy. (This was in prehistoric times when there were not yet computers in libraries.) Students had to select materials from the card catalog, fill out a call slip, and wait (and wait, and wait) for someone … Continue reading →

Roots: digging for your family tree at the library

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When I lived in the Chicago area, the Newberry Library was one of my favorite places. I occasionally had occasion to cross paths with “the cemetery lady,” a researcher who knew more about cemeteries than just about anyone else in the area. And why shouldn’t she hang around the Newberry? It has one of the best genealogy collections in the country. If you’re serious about tracing your family tree, be prepared to learn a lot about cemeteries. And the best place to start learning about them, or anything about your ancestors, is at the library. Your local library does not have all the resources that the Newberry has, but it probably has access to some of them. Here are some major categories of research tools you will need to know about: Census records. The US census has been taken every 10 years since 1790. Data on individuals is available for inspection through the 1940 census. States, and before that, British colonies have occasionally conducted their own censuses. Since we are a nation of immigrants, you may need foreign census data. Your local reference librarian should at least be able to find out what exists and how you can get access … Continue reading →

Digitizing old books

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Not everything is available for free on the Internet. Once upon a time, the list of material not available for free on the Internet included almost every book ever published. The problem was that unless a book or other printed format was either currently in print or available in multiple libraries, it wasn’t conveniently available to much of anyone at all. Now, many libraries and archives are digitizing their collections. Not only old books, but old pamphlets, sheet music, maps, manuscripts, etc. have become more accessible than ever before.

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Sources: primary, secondary, and tertiary

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Everyone does research, because everyone looks for information at some time or another. Wherever anyone finds information is, of course, a source. Whenever we find a source, it follows that someone wrote it or spoke it into some kind or recording devise or is otherwise responsible for the fact that it exists. There are three general kinds of sources: primary, secondary, and tertiary. These terms mean something a little different from one discipline to another. The distinction is ordinarily introduced in order to prepare college students, and especially graduate students, to write term papers, theses, and dissertations. It is useful for anyone to know for any kind of research, including satisfying personal curiosity about something.

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Especially for researchers: that means you!

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Research conjures up images of a scientist in his lab or a scholar toiling away in the library working on  his or her next tome. That’s research, to be sure, but it can also be a college student writing a term paper. For that matter, it can be finding out information about cars before heading to the dealership or checking out the classified ads. What is research? It’s the systematic process of investigation of some subject of interest by gathering and analyzing information about it. Usually research results in some kind of action. Writing a report is one possible outcome. Deciding which cars to look at is another. The first necessity for any kind of research is a question to investigate. What is the best car I can buy with the money I have? What do we need to tell our stockholders about how our business did over the past year? How did an obscure man like Barack Obama (or Franklin Pierce, or Grover Cleveland, or Abraham Lincoln) become President? What can I fix for supper with canned tuna that  I’m not already sick of? The researcher therefore must first refine the question, at least in part to determine what … Continue reading →