Beyond the Internet offers a philosophy of research that illustrates the benefits of broadening ones approach. The message for researchers, librarians, teachers, parents, and students is simple: The Internet is not a complete reference source and is often inaccurate. The issue is not what you cannot find on the Internet, but what you miss if you only consult the Internet. To fully investigate a subject, you need also to consult a wide range of traditional resources that have not been digitized, including documents and correspondence, government records, and holdings in private collections. Besides these sources, researchers should appreciate the benefits of interviews and on-site visits. These sources provide the threads that links our past to our present.
The book also emphasizes the difference between acquiring facts that answer a specific question and the process of analytical thinking that goes into assessing a subject. Serendipitous finds and new interpretations based on previously unknown sources require research in original materials. The author uses challenges culled from her own work in American history and as a reference book editor to illustrate the different resources described. These anecdotes lend a personal element to the highly practical advice contained in the chapters. Each chapter describes a specific resource, provides relevant case studies, and offers tips and techniques for using that resource.
This updated edition explores how the Internet has become an even more compromised tool in recent years by enabling artificial intelligence and social media to manipulate information. This book examines the need to pursue traditional research techniques and how to use them to validate information from the Internet. If you want to research such topics as the origins of terrorism, the complicated background to hostilities in the Middle East, the evolution of U.S. politics, or the decline in basic reading and math skills, you need to consult original materials. Students should learn what sources are available and how to use them so they can make informed decisions about everything from elections to foreign policy. Whatever your interests, you need to diversify your approach and go Beyond the Internet.
Recenzijas
Previous edition praise: Chernow builds a philosophical argument for using library resources for research, rather than relying exclusively on the Internet. . . . This readable volume is much less a how-to guide for conducting effective research than a well-thought-out exploration of the philosophical problem of conducting research in the information age. * Choice Reviews * Previous edition praise: [ A] critically important instructional reference book for aspiring authors, as well as anyone else engaged in a research project of any kind. . . . Thoroughly 'user friendly' itself, Beyond The Internet should be considered essential reading for all aspiring authors and is a core addition to any professional, academic, and community library research reference collection. * Midwest Book Review * Previous edition praise: What a delight young researchers are missing if they dont take their fill from the granaries of librariesbooks, manuscripts, journals, archives, collections, correspondence, photographs. By comparison, the Internet is as intellectually scant as People magazine. Read Beyond the Internet and learn how to make the knowledge of the Internet yours! -- Charles J. Shields, Biographer
Papildus informācija
This title is an exposé of the myth that the Internet is a complete reference tool. The issue is not what you cannot find on the Internet, but what you miss if you only consult it. Anecdotes from the author lend a personal element to the practical advice in the book. This new edition includes a chapter on the problems posed by artificial intelligence.
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part IPatience and Perseverance
Chapter 1
Diversify! Diversify! Diversify!: Be More Than a Browser
Chapter 2
A Research Algorithm
Part IIResearch Resources
Chapter 3
Why Visit the Library at All?: Stacking the Deck
Chapter 4
The Facts! Just the Facts!: The Reference Book Mantra
Chapter 5
In Their Own Words: Original Letters and Documents
Chapter 6
Private Holdings and Independent Collections: From Individual Holdings to
Institutional Records
Chapter 7
Government for the People: Official Records
Chapter 8
Face to Face: Interviews and Conversations
Part III Artificial Intelligence
Chapter 9
AI: Researchers Friend or Nemesis
Part IV The Complete Researcher
Epilog
Selected Sources
Barbara A. Chernow, PhD, a graduate of Columbia University, was associate editor of The Papers of Alexander Hamilton and then project editor of reference books at Macmillan. Her credits include the biographical supplement to the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, the Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects, and the fifth edition of the Columbia Encyclopedia. She is the author of Robert Morris: Land Speculator, biographical articles in the Encyclopedia of New York City, and contributions to Cure magazine. As founder of Chernow Editorial Services, Inc., she produced more than 1200 books for professional publishers. She has taught editing at New York University and business writing and communication at the New School. She has given two presentations on the history of the Hamilton Papers project: one at the Museum of American Finance, and another at Fraunces Tavern.
