lborgia88
Gatchamaniac
I am a Condor.
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Registration Date: 27-06-2007
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I actually think that far too many students aren't putting in enough library time these days, and rely too much on the internet, where accuracy is difficult to evaluate or question, but even I have caved in to the lure of online ease...
I researched and wrote my dissertation entirely without the internet, till near the end when it became necessary, for reasons I won't get into, to compare certain accounts in multiple editions of Foxe's Book of Martyrs. The university library had them on microfilm, which is tedious to work with, especially when you're trying to find a small, specific passage in a book that's more than a thousand pages (and in 16th century font), but then I learned that a respected historian was overseeing a project to put all editions of Foxe online, with a search engine built in.
I was a little nervous citing an online source in my dissertation, but never heard any complaints from my committee, and a couple weeks after my defense, I got an email from one committee member, the chair of the English dept., asking me for the website's link, so that he could use it too.
http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/johnfoxe/index.html
(if anyone's curious)
This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by lborgia88 on 20-09-2008 at 14:55.
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20-09-2008 14:55
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Hinotori
Babbling Loonie
I am an Eagle.
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Registration Date: 09-10-2007
Posts: 2004
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Most of you here already know this, but for our newer friends, I'm a former library-person (not a librarian, though, since I don't have my MLS or MLIS. But I've done enough that I consider myself ABGS <All But Grad School>  So if I end up going off on a tangent, you'll know why!
Unfortunately, research and the library is becoming a lost art form, to the point that alot of local libraries are closing their doors due to budget cuts and decreases in their circulation/patron counts. For me, I've always loved the written word, and even before I started working in libraries, like many of you, I could be lost in the stacks for hours just perusing the titles. The worlds all those works of literature (fiction and non-fiction) opened for me was, and to this day still is, amazing. You really can go anywhere and do anything within the pages of a book.
With the research aspect, a few of you already know me and what I'm like when it comes to research... I love researching. It's almost like a sick past-time for me. And although I have to admit that most of my research is now done online, I do still go to the library and research there too. Though, sadly, most of my research there now happens only when I'm stopping in to drop off/pick up another book to read. But I still love walking through the reference section, picking up a book, hearing the flop of the pages opening and getting that smell of "old paper". I'd say "what a rush", but then you all would think I was insane (not that you probably don't think that already!).
But research... Gotta love it. I worked in the Interlibrary Loan department at my last library job, and I have to say that was by far my favorite department to work in. It was basically all research... Finding the books needed, the articles requested, and the one page needed in a dissertation.... Ah, yes! For me, it was like a treasure hunt. And the reward was when that book that only one library owned, showed up on my desk and I was able to give it to the poor soul who's entire thesis rested on that one page of info. Sweet victory!
Of course even ILL has changed immensely over the past few years... Almost everything now is electronic... If you can find out exactly which pages are needed out of the book, you'll receive those via email rather than the entire book being shipped. Of course most of this has to do with financial reasons, but even there, technology has changed the face of the artform. But this is what progress is all about, right? Move out the old to make room for the new. Unfortunately, that leads to the problem of people today not even knowing how to use a card catalog system...
Ok, I'm done. I could sit here all day and write about this, but I'm sure everyone here has other things they need to do! 
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Hinotori
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This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by Hinotori on 21-09-2008 at 15:08.
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21-09-2008 15:07
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shamrokchick
Forum Legend
I am an Eagle.
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Registration Date: 02-08-2008
Posts: 817
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21-09-2008 16:34
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lborgia88
Gatchamaniac
I am a Condor.
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Registration Date: 27-06-2007
Posts: 5991
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Nearly all the history profs I worked for as a teaching assistant in grad school, or took classes with as an undergrad, just lectured, and wrote the occasional hard-to-spell term on the blackboard. Lecture style teaching worked for me, which is, I think, a big reason why I switched from majoring in Chemistry to majoring in history. Hands on, not so good for me -as an undergrad, I managed to start a small fire in the Organic Chem lab (didn't seal some glass tubing correctly, gaseous xylene leaked out, the bunsen burner was too close, the vigreux column was wrapped in glass wool, which does, in fact, burn...) This probably also explains why I'm a crappy cook.
I've kept nearly all my class notes for all the history courses I've taken, and about a year ago I was digging through the two big boxes I keep them in, and I had to laugh at my notes from my first year as a history major -my handwriting was so careful and neat. Later, it turned into a hasty scrawl, filled with my own abbreviations, that would make sense to no one but me. I could even tell which lectures I'd clearly been having trouble staying awake in, as my writing kept trailing off in little downward slides...
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22-09-2008 02:34
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Although I can say, I'm an undergrad right now, and I'm sick of these teachers who only use powerpoint... They go through stuff too fast and tend to skip over a lot of information they want you to know... 
