Bibliography Assignment

Pick a topic, any topic, of interest to you, hopefully one that you will enjoy doing (I would prefer you NOT do one in library and information science; also, remember that if you choose to do one on a particular person, I will expect you to exhaust the subject). Imagine that you are making a list of sources for a real patron who has at least as much enthusiasm for the subject as you do, who is equally well-educated, etc. Using indexes, Sheehy, book reviews, and any guides to the literature you can identify, construct a pathfinder for this person, identifying items that will be of value. This is NOT an exercise in finding everything on the subject, though you should include most of the important sources, including esoteric ones; make your selections judiciously. Ask yourself these questions, for example: Does it duplicate information found elsewhere? Why is it unique, or particularly useful? Is it easy to use, or does it require special instructions? Remember to think of related subject areas that might contain useful information; think in terms of relations between subject fields, and don't be narrow-minded.

While I want you to concentrate on REFERENCE SOURCES, and the PROCESS of finding information on your topic, your search will naturally lead you to monographs, journal articles, titles of journals, listservs, archival collections, and other specific sources of information which you may recommend to your user--but all, or nearly all, should be annotated. While there is no hard-and-fast rule about how the information you have found should be presented, it is customary to move from general information (finder aids, indexes, bibliographies, etc.) to the particular (specific monograph or journal titles, addresses of corporations, etc.) in presenting your subject.

Some general suggestions for constructing pathfinders/bibliographies are:

1. Go from the general to the specific.
2. While items in pathfinders/bibliographies are usually listed by FORM (that is, encyclopedias under one form, dictionaries under another, indexes under another, etc.), that arrangement may not be appropriate to your subject. You may choose to arrange your presentations by logical subdivisions of the subject matter at hand (e.g., for "The Blues": African origins; Field Chants; Influence of Church music; The Golden Era (1920-1930); Residual influence on Popular song). Be creative. There is no hard and fast rule; devise a scheme of arrangement that seems logical and clear to you.
3. Items listed in pathfinders/bibliographies are usually annotated (one paragraph, but use complete sentences). These annotations provide information as to why the item is included, provide wherever possible specific examples from the work, and note particular strengths and weaknesses of the source. Extensive description of the physical item is usually extraneous: you are interested in content, and to a lesser extent, access (indexes, arrangement, presence of illustratoions, etc.). It helps if you make an attempt to write interesting annotations which educate the reader and display your subject knowledge while you are discussing the source. Please try to vary sentence structure and focus, especiallly for the first sentence of each annotation (i.e., something other than "This book includes lots of information . . . etc.")
4. Each entry in pathfinder/bibliographies should logically follow the one preceding it and should lead to one following. That is, a "path" should be constructed from one to another.

At a MINIMUM, pathfinder/bibliographies should contain the following elements, listed in order of appearance on the document itself:

SCOPE -- a definition of the subject.
INTRODUCTION -- An introductory essay which gives historical information and discusses aspects of the subject, including broader implications of the field. This introduction is important because it gives the reader enough information to make sense of the specific examples, etc. given in the annotations below. You should try to show why the subject is of interest or importance. It should be addressed to an educated audience. In short, it gives intelligent readers a comprehensive introduction to the whole field.
SUBJECT HEADING STATEMENT -- instructions on how to determine subject headings which could lead to material on your subject in various indexes, abstracts and catalogs.
CLASSIFICATION STATEMENT -- listing of the numbers in Dewey and/or Library of Congress useful for browsing.
FORM EXAMPLES AND SOURCES -- listing of different material in various forms which are examples of what can be used to find more material on your subject.
PUBLISHERS -- list a few publishers that frequently provide material on your subject area.

Examples of the kind of specific information you might provide on your subject include (but remember to be selective--don't include five magazine articles if they all are not equally valuable)--and please don't feel bound by the following list which is, after all, an EXAMPLE ONLY:

1. Introductory material; basic subject encyclopedia articles if available.
2. Current popular magazine articles and newspaper articles.
3. Biographical note(s) or article(s) about person(s) prominently associated with this topic.
4. Scholarly books and articles with substantial bibliographies.
5. A list of magazines in English likely to contain articles about this topic.
6. The names of associations, research centers, museums, and library collections generally devoted to research, information gathering, or dissemination on the topic.
7. Suggestions for nonprint media related to this topic. Films or videotapes would be best, but slides, audiotapes, or filmstrips would be useful as well.

Other information which can add depth to your paper might be:

• Appropriate statistics?
• Poems? Pungent sayings or quotations? (only ones you like--and they work best when worked into the text.
• Citations to articles and/or books from the nineteenth century on this topic to show continuity of interest and depth. (For example, a pathfinder on home decorating would inevitably include a reference to the writings of Elsie De Wolfe and Edith Wharton whose writings changed American tastes from the clutter of Victoriana to more restrained styles of home furnishing. Similarly, you can't discuss the environmental movement intelligently without knowing the nineteenth-century naturalists who first popularized the concepts.)
• What kinds of doctoral dissertations on this topic or a related topic have been written in the last five years?
• Are there important archival collections related to the topic?
• Are there pamphlets or other inexpensive printed items (for example, government documents) about this topic? What can you recommend?
• Highly recommended (reviewed) recent books on the topic (cost of book; source of review). Appropriate-sounding journals (whether or not you have actually seen a copy).

I prefer that you use Turabian format for all citations (cheat sheet will be given in class). Equal weight will be given to narrative, exposition and presentation of your subject and the sources you find. I do not want merely a list of sources. I would like an intelligent paper that demonstrates your mastery of the subject area as well as one that introduces the reader to the subject, the information problems that a search for information on the topic presents, and a wide-ranging variety of types of sources and subject areas (i.e., interdisciplinary and multi-media) on the topic. Therefore, manuscript sources, older periodical and monographic citations and electronic database sources are all fair game, as are government dociments, business sources, and vertical file material. This will require that you start immediately working on your topic as some information may only be available through interlibrary loan.

CAUTIONARY NOTES ON STYLE

1. PROOF WHAT YOU HAVE WRITTEN BEFORE YOU TURN IT IN!!! RUN SPELL CHECK!!!
2. Avoid first or second person throughout (no "mes" or "yous"). Talk about the subject.
3. Avoid unsubstatiated, value-laden words ("great," "dull"). Show the reader how it is "good," and if you complain about the writing style, give examples to back up your claim. In other words, make sure what you say means something.
4. Avoid archaic terms ("aforementioned," "firstly,") and check for anachronisms ("alot" for "a lot"; its' for "its" or "it's" for "its").
5. Underline all titles of sources, or italicize. Follow Turabian's Manual of Style in citing your material.

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