Learning resource discovery skills encompasses an understanding of a wide range of sources and access options, then finding and evaluating information, understanding the different formats and information types, while having the flexibility to adapt according to how they and the discovery process develops.
Successful searching
I have numerous unsuccessful case studies of research from the 10 years or so working at Cambridge Judge Business School given that the students tended to focus on topics that hadn't been done before for their final projects, or there were very niche group projects for markets that weren't markets yet. Instead we gave them information on related markets or industries.
Fortunately, there are far more case studies to choose from where I was successful, aided by class projects where everyone was researching the same thing, or recurring popular areas of focus such as social media, food or drinks companies and market share data. I could tell you about toilet bowl research guy (more interesting thaan it sounds), the time I had to search for sex toys (careful), diseases in canines (heartbreaking), luxury items (eye-opening) and pet fancy dress (fun).
However there is one that stands out from my time as the designated support librarian for a distant learning course on entrepreneurship because it was a difficult one. To paraphrase a Veronica Mars quote out of context: "No one writes about the ones that come easy."
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| Logan (Jason Dohring) from Veronica Mars |
I won a staff recognition award for my work, largely due to my dogged tenacity in trying to find information; as one of my colleagues said, I don't give up. This time, I almost give up, but I was determined not to leave the student empty handed. The details are vague as it was a long time ago, more than five years ago now! The subject was the equine industry. There was nothing on the databases we subscribe to, nor would there be as they cover broader or more commercial industries. We did eventually get a database that covered more specific industries, but I doubt even that would have had anything. There was nothing on the wider University's resources. I even contemplated contacting the veterinary school, but seeing as though the subject was about transporting horses rather than diseases or injuries, they wouldn't be able to provide any data and the student needed it broken down to numbers being transported by country and region. There were many terms to search by, phrases to use and file formats to find.
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| The wise Gregory House |
Using some smart internet searching (filetype:pdf, site:org and date range), I found a useful website in the ether of the internet, deep in Google search results; never assume the information isn't there if it's not on the first few pages of results. I couldn't provide them with exactly what they needed, but they altered the focus of their research upon discovering the information wasn't out there and I believe their project was the better for it.
Unsuccessful searching
I'm going way back for my case study of unsuccessful searching, back to when I was writing my undergraduate dissertation. However, I didn't want to find anything. That didn't stop me looking extensively though. As I mentioned in the previous case study, sometimes people are looking for a subject that hadn't been done before. Yet I was still surprised to find nothing. Surely I couldn't really have stumbled on a unique topic? My dissertation connected prominent literary figures: Samuel Johnson and the Brontë sisters. There had to be something.
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| The Search After Hapiness "little book" manuscript by Charlotte Bronte |
My dissertation was on the search for happiness in the books of Charlotte, Emily and Anne as I found out Charlotte wrote a piece of juvenalia called The Search after Hapiness (sic), which has surprising similarities to Samuel Johnson's Rasselas. I found out immediately that there were no books or articles on the subject, using different combinations of search terms and synonyms. But my topic has few keywords to start with, just the authors' names and their works. I then turned to book chapters. Google Scholar was in its infancy back then, so there might have been more, but I wasn't able to find any reference to them. I've just done a search on the internet and even now, there isn't much, just a few unauthoritative blog posts. Finally, I found one small chapter on the relationship between the Brontës and Samuel Johnson, with a surprisingly cursory mention of Rasselas appearing in Jane Eyre. Luckily, it was in my university library. I did check Copac and Worldcat, as well as other local library catalogues, though it did rely on detailed subject headings, contents and descriptions. I also to my shame checked Amazon when the catalogues failed me to find more information on the book. It all worked out as my dissertation ended up at the Brontë museum at Haworth.
Themes from both case studies
You may not be able to find what you want, but you can find what you need with a little change of focus. Check more than the usual places, go further, think more openly about sources. Resource discovery can be trial and error, don't give up.
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| "Never give up, never surrender" Enrico Colantoni, from Galaxy Quest |
Personal vs. professional
When you're looking for other people, for another's research, it adds more pressure. Professionally, I'm more dogged in my support, making sure I've looked everywhere. But that's if I have the time. When you have a student in front of you, sometimes they don't want perfection, they just want the top 5 databases to look at, authoritative or peer-reviewed sources, or just plain good enough. Using Ansley Stuart's tour guide metaphor, librarians don't need to give students all the facts, just the highlights. That helps me feel confident in my work. Personally, I look for perfection in my own research, which shows I'm more insecure. It can even lead me resorting to blogs, forums and social media. It can be time-consuming and exhausting, but thorough!
Reference
Stuart, A. (2019) "Embedded librarianship: the future of libraries." Library Journal, November 19. Available at: https://www.libraryjournal.com/?detailStory=embedded-librarianship-the-future-of-libraries (Accessed: 24 February 2020)
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