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Your task this week has several components:
- Examine the initial chapters of Harner's Literary Research Guide
- Overview Chapter G: "Serial Bibliographies, Indexes, and Abstracts"
- Familiarize yourself with the primary resources in your field of specialization:
Those specializing in English literature should focus on Chapter M, even if you are more interested in Irish, Scottish, or Welsh literature since Chapter M includes resources with broad foci.
Those interested in American Literature and / or in Creative Writing should focus on the chapter for American Literature.
As you examine these chapters, select 5 resources to examine. Prioritize resources you think would be useful in your future research.
Before you go to the library,
- Verify that the King Library owns the resources you intend to examine--Harner provides LC call numbers as part of the bibliographic citation.
- Think about how you might use these resources in your own research so that when you examine the books you'll have a context in mind.
At the library, - Examine each resource using Harner's description as a guide.
- Take good notes on your experience with each volume.
In your report, address the following items in a bulleted, ordered list:
- Resource: what is the Harner item number?
- Location: where it is shelved? do we own more than one copy?
- Accessibility: is it on restricted access? can one check it out?
- Accuracy & completeness: does Harner's description match the volume's contents? does Harner omit any important data about the volume's scope or composition?
- Value: does having Harner's description give you an advantage over just looking at the volume on your own?
- Utility: how would you use this book (or anticipate using this book) in your research?
- Evaluation: what value would you place on this resource, on Harner's description, etc.?
FTP this research exercise to the Assignments folder before class on Tuesday,
September 18th. Bring a printed copy to class for discussion/presentation.
Assessment Criteria:
- Each entry will be assessed on the thoroughness of its responses to the above numbered items.
- Each entry will be evaluated on a 100-point scale: items 2 and 3 are worth 10 points each; items 4, 5, 6 and 7 are worth 20 points each.
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