Tag Archives: internet research

Researching on the Cheap – Part 4 – Determining which Goodies are really GOOD

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Well, I have to admit this week’s topic can be a difficult one. As I discussed in the blog about search terms, one of the challenges of doing good research is learning enough so that you can determine what information is actually good. There are some general approaches that you can take to figure things out.

First of all, and I can say this because I have both peer-reviewed academic and re-creator recognition. As you know, I am a member of the Order of the Laurel in the SCA. I have a Master’s Degree in Anthropology with a specialization in Archaeology and have been an invited lecturer on medieval jewelry production techniques. Credentials are nice, but verify, verify, verify. Do NOT assume that just because a person says that they have credentials, the information that they have on their website (or even in a published book) is correct. Check the date that the information was published, if possible. Older information may be out of date. New discoveries are made all of the time, and new information can change the previously accepted conclusions about a topic. Compare the information that you find on different websites and see if they agree. Use sites like Wikipedia to develop a general understanding of a topic and then supplement that information with well-written articles from blogs, museums and academic journals.

Be extremely cautious of any articles or books that are Victorian or pre-1940 (but post 1650). Many of these items are available for free download online. There are reputable sources from these timeframes, but many of the older works are more than slightly fanciful. You can trust the actual pictures of artifacts from these sources, but the Victorians were famous for their bogus interpretations of historical costumes and ethnic costumes. There are a couple of amazingly annoying works on costumes out there that keep rearing their ugly heads as research documentation. Although historical costumes were sometimes elaborate, most of them also needed to be functional, especially if the person was not a member of the ruling class. Older sources often lacked an understanding of how the people in a specific cultural group made a living and lived. For example, a classic issue in Archaeology is deciding that everyone who is buried with a sword or shield is a male and everyone who is buried with a spindle or a pot is a woman. When you do an actual skeletal or DNA analysis, this assumption has proven to be grossly inaccurate.

Continuing the theme of skeletons and burials. One of the points that I make in some of my classes is that just because a person was buried with something doesn’t mean that they wore all of these things every day. Grave goods were often a combination of “goodies for the afterworld” – things that the individual would need to have there. They may have also included favorite things that belonged to the individual, or maybe a bribe or two to encourage the dead not to return. There is no way to be sure. At any rate, the quantity of items that some individuals were buried with would have made functioning in the real world impossible. Do not feel that you must own and wear everything that was in a grave in order to be accurate. As I tell my classes – I never even knew that my grandfather owned a suit until I saw him wearing it at the funeral. That was not what he looked like in his everyday existence. Try to look at artifacts and research with a practical and realistic eye.

Next Time: More on Good Goodies

King William I ('The Conqueror'), by unknown a...

King William I (‘The Conqueror’), by unknown artist. See source website for additional information. This set of images was gathered by User:Dcoetzee from the National Portrait Gallery, London website using a special tool. All images in this batch are listed as “unknown author” by the NPG, who is diligent in researching authors, and was donated to the NPG before 1939 according to their website. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Researching on the Cheap: Part 3 – Search Terms – The Great Mystery

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Well, it isn’t really a mystery, but I have to admit that it can feel that way sometimes when you can’t find the information that you want. When we first started I told you that you needed to keep track of every search that you did and every search term that you used. Well, I want to emphasize how critical this is. You also need to be paying attention to the quality of the results that you are getting.

Let me give you an example. If you want to research Vikings, what should you search for? If you search for Vikings you will get some good sites, often museums or shops that are catering to sensationalist modern culture. You will also get advertisements for Minnesota Viking jewelry and a lot of junk. What other word could you use as a search term? How about Norse? How about Scandanavian? Don’t be afraid to use very specific terms – ancient Norwegian, ancient Copenhagen, Ribe, Hedeby…If you know any specific geographic locations where Viking artifacts or towns have been found, use them. Write down what you have used. Write down other ideas that you get from sites that you have visited.

One problem that you may encounter is words that have more than one meaning or are inaccurately named in popular culture, for instance, Viking Wire Weaving. Wire weaving was NOT invented by the Vikings. It existed long before the Vikings – the Egyptians were using it by 2500 BC. If you search for Viking Wire Weaving you will find some information. You can also search for wire weaving, or you can search for the technical name for wire weaving – trichinopoly. The problem with the word trichinopoly is that it is the name of a region of India that is known for its quality cigars, so you will have to scroll down farther to get past the cigars, but then you will get to serious metalworking sites. You also need to remember this term as a search term for looking through museum sites, but more about that later.

I mentioned the concept of getting ideas from the sites that you visit. For instance, if you find an artifact that you are interested in, consider tracking it down. Look for the location where it was found. Was it part of a hoard or a grave find? Where is it now? Is it in a museum? Does the museum have a digitized collection?

One of the basic problems of doing research is that you have to know something in order to get really good results. Read a couple of articles in order to get a better feel for what might be out there. Keep going through the pages of sites from your search, don’t give up after just what shows up on the first page. And use Google Scholar. Once you have an idea about what you are looking for, academic articles may provide you with a wealth of information.

Next time: Determining which Goodies are really GOOD.

http://gty.im/177662951

Researching on the Cheap: Part 2 – Search Engines and Search Techniques

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Last time we talked about being prepared to organize the materials that we find online. Now we need to talk about how we find those materials. In my original class outline this part was called “finding the goodies”.

In the old days, before the internet, I probably would have gone to an encyclopedia to do my initial research. The internet equivalent of the encyclopedia is Wikipedia. It is not the be all and end all authority, but it can be helpful when you really don’t know where to start your search. Sometimes you may even need to resort to a textbook in a public library. Why? Well, let me give you an example. I have been teaching this class for many years. Most of the people who take my class have at least a vague idea of what they want to learn about, and many come to class hoping for very specific recommendations. I schedule enough time for the class so that I have time to help individual students. But one year at Pennsic a gentleman came in the class who really didn’t know what he wanted to study. He thought that he might be interested in the 12th century, somewhere in Europe, but he wasn’t sure. What would I suggest he do? Borrow a European History textbook, and read it. See if there is something there that excites you; an event, a ruler, a natural disaster? If you really are totally clue free, you should try to find one in a book. Why a book? These sort of textbooks are usually designed to cram hundreds or thousands of years, into a few pages. They are a summary of events that should give you enough of an overview to get started.

The first internet information that you will need to have is which search engines to use. There are many search engines available, but some are better than others. Years ago my favorite search engine used to be Yahoo. It is still decent and I will use it sometimes, but my current search engine for starting my search is Google. That is where I do my initial research. If you have a favorite, and you are getting the results that you want, don’t be afraid to use it, but you may want to compare the results of more than one search engine, just to see the differences. We will talk about search terms later.

Once I have pretty much exhausted the information that I am getting on Google I will switch over to Google Scholar. This search engine is a whole different beast. It searches academic journals and sources for academic articles and references. Some of these articles are free and available as pdf downloads, and some are available online for a fee. Some public library systems and most college library systems have subscriptions to some of the special academic journal systems. An article usually comes with a significant summary, which will usually give you a very good idea of whether it is worth tracking down or not. There are also some systems that you have to register for, but the information is free for registered users.

Next time: Search Terms – The Great Mystery

English:

English: (Photo credit: Wikipedia)