Topic: Research

10-second review: Suggests how to find basic research tools in a library. I have suggested how to do the same on the Internet.

Title: “Locating Information: The Process Method.” J Sanacore. Journal of Reading (December 1974), 231-233. The Journal of Reading was the secondary school publication for the International Reading Association (IRA), since replaced by the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy.

Summary: Suggests beginning in the library with Shores’ Basic Reference Sources. Locate the source needed to answer the question, Find the quotation by Soren Kierkegaard which begins with the line, ‘Life can only be understood backwards…. ”

Comment: To find basic research sources/sites on the Internet, use Internet Public Library http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/ref00.00.00 . It won’t have all of the sources you might need on the Internet, but it will have many of them. For resources not available for free on the Internet (Oxford Companion to…., for example), you’ll have to consult a library reference section.

The best search engine I have found for research is Microsoft’s Bing. The article asks for answers to ten questions. I found nine of the ten very quickly by putting key words from the questions into the Bing search engine.

Example: When and where was John Stark alleged to have exclaimed, “There, my boys are your enemies, the red coats; you must beat them, or my wife sleeps a widow tonight.” I put John Stark "There, my boys are your enemies….” into Bing and the answer came right up. (Use quotation marks only for quotes in the search engine.]

Another example: Find a map with a line drawing of Cumberland Road. No problem. I found it easily by putting Map. Cumberland Road into the Bing search engine. RayS.