When considering collections for use as a researcher, online finding aids are a valuable tool for assessing the material for use. Important qualities of a finding aid include description of the material, ease of use and format of the aid itself. The Sir Thomas Wyse Archives, 1816- ca. 1942 at the University of Illinois Rare Book and Manuscript Library is a finding aid that has both strengths and weaknesses for a researcher.
At first glance, the Sir Thomas Wyse Archives’ online finding aid appears tedious and not engaging. Scrolling through the finding aid, there are no breaks in the text or anything of visual appeal. Clicking on the menu links to the left merely hops you through the blocks of text without bringing up another page or any more information. As a casual user the design of this finding aid would be a turn off and the lack of aesthetic appeal would make me less likely to use this collection, particularly since none of it appears to be available online as digital files or the like. As a more serious researcher however, the lack of visual appeal is not so important as the information contained about the collection and the material. This would be more readable with a little variety in the size and types of fonts, but a pretty page is not the primary consideration.
The information contained in the scope and content and biographical notes can be key to evaluate the content of the collection. These tell you who and what is represented in a collection, the time period from which the material comes and important contextual information to understanding who and what are represented. Depending on the collection, the length of the notes may not matter. This literary collection encompasses several writers over 125 years and th...
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...vist will be working on, but a non-productive link is a bit of a letdown when hoping to mine the archive for resources.
The Thomas Wyse Archives finding aid has a few shortcomings but also a lot of pluses. The browsability of the entire aid without having to click back and forth between links is incredibly convenient, even if the site lacks visual appeal. The biographical and scope and contents notes could be expanded to enhance the context for those not familiar with the subjects. Digital content will hopefully be added to enhance access to the archive remotely. The University of Illinois seems to be gearing this finding aid towards researchers who are familiar with the players and material in the collection and whom will not be daunted by the lack of visual appeal. With a few alterations, this aid would be usable for and appealing to any potential researcher.
Richard and his wife prepare for their expedition in Philadelphia, as Lewis did, and they visited the library of the American Philosophical Society. The librarian suggested that if they wanted to follow in the exact footsteps of Lewis and Clark they should use a classic eight volume edition of the Lewis and Clark journals. Richard took many notes of the Lewis and Clark expedition for their journey.
...rary as posed by the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee. While it does not offer any services of a traditional library such as reference help, etc., the searchable full-text documents provide quick, easy access to information that once had to be tediously skimmed by hand. Anyone needing reference information or access to classic literature would be remiss not to employ Bartleby.com’s resources.
"Challenges by Reason, Initiator & Institution for 1990-99 and 2000-09." American Library Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
The collection that I researched was called the Soule Family Papers, and the author was Matthew Soule, whom collected all the family papers. The collection of the Soule Family papers is being housed at the NDSU archive. Matthew Soule did a great job of collecting important documents, and ledgers. The contents of this source was a lot of letters back and forth between Matthew Soule and Archivists, then there were a few ledgers including George’s and Amose’s. Then there were some hand written letters from George Soule’s daughters; Ada and Ruth. All these are very important documents to the whole collection because they really paint a picture to how life really was back then and different point of views of family members. The intended audience for the diary of Ada...
Jokinen, Anniina. "Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature." Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature. N.p., 1996. Web. 9 Nov. 2013. http://www.luminarium.org/
Charters, Ann & Samuel. Literature and its Writers. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2013. 137-147. Print.
The design of the website is appealing, although it may seem a bit over-whelming at first glance. Upon review, the design provides little written information regarding the actual purpose of the publication, but does include many easy to navigate hyper-links on various topics that may be very appealing to a person needing specific information on one topic.
Last semester, when writing my final research paper, I found that print copies were often an even more useful resource than online ones. I feel as though being able to go through the stacks in a certain section of the library opened my research to sources I would not have thought of nor used if I hadn’t been there to discover them on the shelves. While the majority of my sources were found somewhere online, whether in PDF copy or as an online publication, I found that print sources I discovered in the library were also incredibly
While the Dewey decimal system contains a comprehensive index, the Library of Congress Classification system does not (Taylor 430). Each volume of the LCC schedules contains its own index and these indexes do not refer to one another. Finding subjects in the schedules can be awkward. To locate a topic, one must check through each volume index of all the different disciplines that may ...
For my annotated bibliography, I used a few search engines for my sources. The majority of my sources were found on Galileo, but one or two of my sources were found on Google. The majority of my sources are also peer-reviewed or an academic source. All of the authors of these sources have a background in special education or special education law. Each one of my sources are directly related to a particular part of my paper. I have a purpose for each source. My sources will help me educate and explain my purpose.
"Morton, Thomas - Introduction." Literary Criticism (1400-1800). Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg. Vol. 72. Gale Cengage, 2002. eNotes.com. 2006. 21 Feb, 2011
Abrams, M.H., et al. ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. 2 Vols. New York: Norton, 1993.
3)Dionysius, Earnest Cary, and Edward Spelman. The Roman Antiquities. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard UP, 1937. Print.
The steps taken to search for information that already exists about the topic include using scholarly search engines to gather a se...
113- The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. of the book. Vol.