librarian grumble

[bunnyjadwiga]

*mumble mumble mumble*
just 'cos you can't find anything out on the open internet on it doesn't mean it's been erased from history.
That's what we *have* specialized resources for.
Just sayin'.

Comments

[marag.livejournal.com]

D'you know, I was kind of thinking that. My FIL is a research volunteer for the Holocaust Museum and I sort of wanted to sic him on the question and see what he could find.

However, the point that history is personal is a good one, so I didn't want to argue with her.

(I'm assuming we've both just read the same post...)

Siccing researchers on it

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, I'm forwarding the link for *that* story to our lives-in-the-library holocaust researcher/history adjunct. (Sloane Drayson-Knigge; she's done a lot of recording of Holocaust survivor's stories-- her mentor was a survivor, one of the "Secretaries of Death", and Sloane has a special interest in the Terezin camp.)

Re: Siccing researchers on it

[marag.livejournal.com]

My FIL is doing a project for the museum. I'm blanking on the exact details, but I believe it involves looking at primary source materials written in Hebrew (which he reads fluently) and *maybe* Yiddish and getting the information into a database.

IIRC, it has to do with tracking who survived from what small towns and where they went, but I could be wrong about that. I remember a whole explanation about the difficulty of figuring out Polish towns when they'd been transliterated into Hebrew. Whew.

As I said, the problem is that I don't want to argue that history isn't personal, because it *is* and I've been trying to tell people that for years :D But...as you say, just because you can't find it on the Internet doesn't mean the information isn't out there.

[deborah]

I wasn't even thinking about research volunteer for the Holocaust Museum, I was thinking about, I don't know, looking through the Holocaust books that are here in our collection. Then I saw how many comments there were and decided that somebody had probably done the same.

[marag.livejournal.com]

::laughs:: Well, sure, if I had access to a collection, I'd do that too. But I haven't got a library, I've got a FIL with a rabbinical degree and a PhD in history :D

addendum

[asaia.livejournal.com]

Just because it's on wikipedia doesn't mean it's true (Martin Luther is NOT french)


sorry... my inner researcher came out for a second there

Re: addendum

[marag.livejournal.com]

::laughs:: My father and I often discuss things we *are* willing to trust Wikipedia for (e.g., how many episodes of Doctor Who are there) and things we aren't (e.g., actual important medical information).

Aw man

[bytchearse.livejournal.com]

You mean I can't cite Wikipedia as a primary source? :-P

On the plus side, a lot of early printed (cook)books are scanned and online here. Can locate cites if you wish.

[deborah]

The thing that shocked me so much since becoming an archivist is how many archives aren't even under bibliographic control, let alone online. Boston Public Library doesn't even know what it has in its archives, and end-users think that if it isn't available on the open web (not to mention behind password databases) that it doesn't even exist, that there's no way to find it. People search and never call a librarian.

[pedropadrao.livejournal.com]

More often than not, they don't search well, nor do many organizations archive their online materials all that well. I have to revise my links at work once every couple of years because offices will change their names or sometimes just vanish without telling anyone.

[pedropadrao.livejournal.com]

That, & the wails that one is greeted with when the patron is told that he or she must wait for the article or book. Look, bub, lack of planning on your part shouldn't be an emergency on my part. For a lot of the younger guys, we're their last resort instead of their first, & they wonder how the older guys always seem to have the information they need...I've hinted to them that it might be because the older guys figured that they can let someone else look things up for them while they can do other stuff, but the clues don't seem to stick.