Justine wrote: >...That is my >second problem as a costumer, scholarly research. Aside from going onto >websites and reading in timeline books where all the information is >already researched and digested for others to read, which is my main >source of learning, where do you find this stuff? The only thing I have >thought of is to go to a library but than I wonder, where to begin >digging deep into the collection to find original sources of info.
First, you can always ask on this and other mailing lists. If you explain what types of things, centuries and geographic areas you're looking for, there will probably be lots of people who can give you book and article titles as a place to start. The more specific you can be, the better. You can also ask whether a particular book is considered to be a good one -- Iris Peacock's costume books, for instance, are not. With regards to libraries, you're on the right track. There is *much* more information available in book form than online (and it's often easier to tell whether the information is any good). People who teach research classes now have to hammer it into their students' heads that the Internet is *not* your best or only source for serious research. The bigger the library, the better the chances of it having useful material; university and college libraries are often the best place to start, especially if you don't live in a big city (big-city libraries are often good, too). Most university libraries are open to anyone who wants to walk in and look at things, and you can generally photocopy things even if you can't take them out. My local public university has a "Friends of the Library" program and I've had a card through them for years that lets me take out up to 10 books. The way I always start when researching a new area is to look up the call numbers (whatever system your library uses) for a few books in the right general subject area (in your case, historical clothing). A reference librarian can almost always help you with such a search, and many libraries now have their catalogs online. It doesn't much matter exactly which titles you start with. Step 2 is to go to the section of the shelves where those books are, and start looking at everything on the shelf that looks interesting or relevant. Pick out the ones where it looks as though the authors are basing what they say on actual research (i.e. probably _not_ "So-and-so's Book of Quick'n'Easy Stage Costumes" ;). Step 3 (and this is the key!) is to turn to the back of the book and read the BIBLIOGRAPHY. This will list the books and papers the authors used for reference. *This* is the important section to photocopy, because now you can go looking for any of _those_ books and articles that look relevant. Find those and repeat the process ;) One of the best sources of information on the nitty-gritty details of clothing is articles published in professional journals in history. The most practical way to discover which articles to look for is to get the references from someone else's bibliography. Again a reference librarian can help you sort out the cryptic note in the bibliography that says something like "J. Hist. Text. 48:3-39" (I made that one up). Bound copies of the journal may be available in the library or on microfilm, even if they're not near the main bookshelf you started with. Of course, you will very soon begin to find books and articles that sound absolutely fascinating but that the library doesn't have. Inter-library loan is your friend here. You can generally ILL a specific book through your public library, although some library systems do this much better and more quickly than others (and some have to charge for the service, though most don't). Hope this helps -- ask more questions anytime. ____________________________________________________________ 0 Chris Laning | <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> + Davis, California http://paternoster-row.org - http://paternosters.blogspot.com ____________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
