Hello again!
1. Beginning library research…
Search engines are not always the best place to start research for an assignment — the web is designed for everyone & no one, whereas the library is designed for faculty, researchers, and students. Compare the information on Edmund Spenser in wikipedia with that in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and post a comment on the errors you encounter! The first person to find the error that I put in wins a prize!
Some of the databases are for finding critical articles & books (e.g. JSTOR, MLA International Bibliography, Project Muse), others are for primary sources in digital format (e.g. Early English Books Online, EEBO).
Some contain information about authors/words: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography & the Oxford English Dictionary.
Literature Online (LION) is a mixed bag–contains biographies, reference works, full-text poems/plays/novels, and criticism.
2. Working from a bibliography…
Sometimes the best resources are the ones you find through luck!
3. Refworks
Refworks is a bibliographic tool that will help you keep track of your research & create MS Word bibliographies, when you are writing your papers. The Library Catalogue and most databases will allow you to move citations into your Refworks account.
http://library.brocku.ca/spotlight/refworks.htm
Find out more information about Refworks, do the tutorial, and get signed up at the link above. You can also email me if you have any questions about Refworks or would like an in-person session to learn it.
If you need a refresher, here are our powerpoints from Monday, September 17:
Hi … I found a few discrepancies between the wikipedia article and the Oxford DNB entry:
- wikipedia claims that Spenser was poet laureate while Oxford DNB states this was an unofficial title
- according to wikipedia Spenser was probably in the service of Lord Grey in the 1570s, Oxford DNB asserts it was possible Spenser was working for lord deputy Henry Sidney … he did not become Grey’s secretary until 1580
- Tom Clancy doesn’t seem to fit with Keats, Byron, Tennyson and Wordsworth. I haven’t been able to find any sources to verify if this is true or not though … it’s not in Oxford DNB at least :)
Yay! Good job Faeryn…the change I made was the Tom Clancy one. I’ll send Professor Knight the Starbucks card to give to you in class…
As you can tell, Wikipedia is very easy to change — sometimes the errors are picked up by other ‘experts’, but sometimes they stay for a long time.
Justine :)