Research and Documentation Tips

Updated 9 December 2004

HL Slaine ni Chiarain

This is not the research and documentation bible. It contains my thoughts and observations based on doing research in the SCA, in school, and working in a library. My hope is that these tips will help newcomers to not be afraid of the process. Please let me know how these suggestions work for you.

The Research Part

Where to get started with research? The Web is always a good start these days to see what other people are doing. Encyclopedias whether in print on online are a good place to get the basics on a topic. Entries are often written by experts in that particular field. The most valuable bit of information will be the bibliography.

Of course, you can always talk to SCA folk who have an interest in what you want to research. Most people love to talk about what they've done. Ask what sources they used. Online discussion groups such as various Yahoo groups are valuable too.

Library-

Local libraries- Many small municipal public libraries are lack space to really get into medieval resources but they do have one valuable tool- Interlibrary Loan.  It always helps to provide as much information as possible when you request something. If you happen to know which university has a certain book or journal let the librarian know. If a book is fragile, you may only be able to view it while at your library. You may have to pay the copying fees for any journal articles requested. Be kind to the poor assistant who will ultimately copy the article for you. Include the issue number or month.)

St. Louis County Library System is very good. They recently revamped their website so it?s much easier to navigate. They have online home access to many databases including some full text journal articles. The St. Louis City Library System is good too but I'm just less familiar with it.

University Libraries- You can look at holdings online to see if they have what you need. Unless you are a current student, you won't be able to check out books. However, they are generally happy to let independent scholars view their collections.

WashingtonUniversity- There is lots of stuff in Olin Library on the main campus. Art books are in a separate building (they have a color copier!). Another part of their collection is in Clayton at the old Famous Barr building. The medical library is next to Barnes.

St. Louis University Library is a depositary for the Vatican collection on microfiche.

St. Louis Community College System If you graduated from there you can pay $10 a year and have library privileges.

The St. Louis Art Museum also has an extensive library.

Searches - There are many databases of information out there whether in a library or online. One way to do precise searches is to use Boolean operators such as: and, or, & not. Very often "and"; is a given when you use two or more terms. In some search engines, such as Google, a minus sign - is used to indicate not. I know of one medical search engine that requires operators be capitalized. You can also use quote marks to keep terms together. This is especially useful with names.

Storage of Information-

From the Web- When I do preliminary research on the web I'll cut and paste relevant information into a Word document (include the address!) If the article is short I may print it out but sometimes all I need is a tiny bit. Print out that cool website when you find it. It may not be there next time. Start putting all your printouts into a three ring binder. When you start to research a lot of stuff you can have binders dedicated to each project.

Making Copies - When making photocopies at a library make sure you note what book or article you get the copies from. This will save you lots of frustration later. Make a copy of the title page, write it on the back when finished, or write it on a slip of paper that you can photocopy on to each page. In addition, if you plan to use the photocopied pictures from an article or book make an extra copy. That way you don't have to make a copy of a copy or cut the picture out of an article you might want to keep. Some copiers have a button labeled "photo" which will make the copier reproduce shades of gray and bring out more details.

Taking notes- Does anyone still do this anymore? If I know I'm going to be writing something long I will take notes on 3 by 5 cards just like I learned in high school. (Sister Sheila would be so proud!) Put the author and page number in the upper right hand corner. Copy one thought or quote onto the card. When you go to write your documentation, you can rearrange the note cards into the order they need to be in. For shorter projects or if I only have a few sources I'll take a sheet of loose-leaf paper and put the bibliographic information at the top and take notes down the page. Don't forget page numbers. If you go onto another sheet note the author at the top. These fit nicely in the three ring binders.

Primary and Secondary Sources Not all Scadians or mundane researchers agree on what exactly constitutes a primary or a secondary source. Unfortunately, this has clubbed a lot of people into thinking that their research isn't worth anything unless they get to view the actual medieval thing. This is neither fair nor true and is not how historical researchers in the real world operate. A primary source is as close to the original item as you can get. The experts usually say a primary source is a "first hand" account but that can get a little hedgy when studying the Middle Ages. What is more important is whether a source is good or bad. I can look at a manuscript page in a museum all day long but it's not going to tell me what chemicals made up the paint, what the Latin says, or the historical context in which it was produced. Good secondary sources will. Bad secondary sources don't cite their sources, rely on redrawings of original items, or make sweeping assumptions based on the tiniest piece of information. This is especially important to keep in mind with websites.

Source Evaluation and the Web This can be difficult and the rules are still being sorted out. Browsers can bring up pages out of context so try to go to the site's home page to see who has written it and what sort of angle or agenda they have. I've seen the same articles reproduced unattributed on several sites and not even the site owners know where the original text came from. The work of other SCA folks can be used as a resource. It is a completely legitmate research technique to see what other are doing and to make use of their bibilographies. Just cite it in you bibilography.

The Documentation Part

What is Documentation?

Documentation is the process of putting your research in a concise and readable form. The main reason people write it is if they are entering a competition. It's good to know by what criteria the competition is being judged: novices, intermediate, or advanced. For instance, Queen's Prize tournament is at the novice level while the Kingdom A&S Championship is judged at the advanced level. A Tri-Level competition means you get to choose at what level you want to be judged. The criteria for a specific competition are listed in the event flyer. In order to encourage more entrants they often choose the novice level. Each different art and science has specific criteria for each level. For Calontir's criteria talk to the Minister of Art and Sciences or go to the kingdom webpage. http://www.artsci.calontir-rush.org/criteria.php However there are some generalities:

Novice - A 3 by 5 card's worth of information. Basically, what, who, where, and when. Include one or two sources and a photocopy of the period picture of what you are trying to do. If this item were in a museum what would the tag by it say?

Intermediate - One page of discussion plus the bibliography and pictures. At least 1 primary source

Advanced- At least three pages of discussion not including bibliography and figures. At least 2 primary sources. Pictures should be clear and citation method consistent.

Making Substitutions No one expects you to go broke or endanger your health in order to make something more period. It is always acceptable to make less expensive, safer, or more available alternatives. What judges are looking for is your knowledge of what would have been used and why you chose your substitutions.

Writing the Documentation. There's no magic way to turn a blank page into written documentaion. It's okay to tell it as a story or keep it as a blunt list of who, what, where, etc. This isn't school and you are not going to flunk out of SCA because of poor documentation.

Some tips to make your documentation sparkle

Choose a form of citation and be consistent. (i.e. footnotes, endnotes, or in text notation.)

Analyze your sources. Are you using the best book or articles for what you are trying to do? Is there something more recent? Have you looked at your source's sources?

Have someone else look at your paper to check for typos. If you don't have time to find someone, reading your documentation aloud can help find errors.

IIn your bibliography, include a sentence or two with each entry saying what you found useful in that source. Don't include every book ever written on the subject, just the ones that were the most useful or pertinent to your project.

Websites can be cited too! Include the author and title as usual, the url, and the date you referenced the material.

Label sections with titles or bolding similar to the way I put together this handout. This lets the casual browser or a hurried judge find what they are looking for. It is also nice to break up a page full of text.

Cut illustrations out of the photocopy and mount them on another piece of paper. Write your own caption. If you have a scanner, that's even better.

Don't make judges sort through several books for pictures related to your research. It is ok to use books like this but clearly label the relevant pages. Post-it notes are helpful unless your favorite referenes are bristling with Post-its.

Copyright issues- I think of documentation as writing a paper for a class (Fair Use), therefore you do not need to get permission to use images or extended quotes. However, if you plan to post your documentation on the web or publish it in any public medium you need to keep track of where your images come from and ask permission.

If you use someone else's words they should be either in quotation marks or indented. Give credit where it is due.

Put a copyright symbol and your modern name at the end of your own documentation. (In Word hold the alt key and type 0169 on the keypad to get the copyright symbol.) Your work is copyrighted as soon as it is produced but it makes it seem sort of cool and official to include your own copyright notice.

What comes first: the documentation or the egg?

Ideally you should do all your research, write your documentation, and THEN make your object. It does not always work that way. If you made the thing first and then are trying to write documentation do not despair! If you want to enter the item in a competition and need to write documentation, think about how you first got the idea. Did you see someone else with one? See it in a book, movie, or on the Discovery Channel? If you have spent a good deal of time reading history or looking at the pictures there is a good chance you have absorbed the right ideas. When an art historian finds an item they've never seen before they have look though books and databases until they find similar things.

Still, not every item needs to end up in a competition. If you cannot point to a specific period inspiration for the object just let it be that cool thing you once made and better luck next time. I would also like to remind potential artisans to not let a lack of documentation completely crush your creative impulses. I have sometimes been so caught up in doing something right that the thing never is made at all. The whole point is to make cool stuff and eventually lean to make your cool stuff even cooler.

Mean judges suck They are out there but they seem to be becoming rarer. The good thing about having three judges at Queen's Prize or Kingdom A&S is that you are bound to get at least one good one. When faced with a hypercritical judge try not to get upset. If they critique your bibliography ask what sources they recommend. Ask how they would do it differently. For some competitions the judges are recruited that day and may not be experts in your field and sometimes it is hard for an experienced artisian to "power down" to judge a novice competition. Say thank you. They took time out of their day to do this. No matter how mean the judges are don't stop making medieval stuff.

Too nice judges aren't much better- If your judges can't seem to say anything bad about your project and you want more feedback - ask for it!

Written Resources

There aren't really any books that can teach you how to write documentation. Any form of citation will do as long as you are consistant. That being said this might help.

Lois Swan Jones. Art Information: Research Methods and Resources. 3rd edition. Kendell Hunt, 1990. This book is awesome. It contains everything you wanted to know about art historical research. There are lists of bibilographies and art research centers. One of the most useful things is a series of dictionaries of art specific terms in French, German, and Italian.

Online resources

For research

http://www.google.com/scholar A brand new way to use Google. It works the same but instead seaches scholarly, more acedemic sites.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/robinson-sources.html Medieval Source book. Translations of many medieval documents and literature. Many of them are in the public domain.

http://www.angelfire.com/mi/spanogle/medieval.html Lots of links to medieval sources

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/ Catholic Encyclopedia- A very good source for medieval information. I have found that they make a clear distinction between history and Catholic doctrine.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi Pubmed- Good for anything science or medicine related

www.abebooks.com - for finding obscure used books.

http://groups.yahoo.com/ - Yahoo groups. A lot of them have been set up by SCA folks on specific topics.

Language

http://www.freetranslation.com Translation website- get the gist of things but they won't have specialized vocabulary.

http://www.nd.edu/~archives/latgramm.htm Latin Dictionary and grammar aid.

http://dictionaries.travlang.com/www.dictionary.com - definitions from several dictionaries. Includes etymology

What is a primary source?

http://www.dohistory.org/on_your_own/toolkit/primarySources.html

http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~library/guides/primarysources/definitions.html A nice analysis of how different diciplines use primary sources.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/robinson-sources.html from Medieval Sourcebook

http://www.virtue.to/articles/sources.html Sources in an SCA context.

Documentation articles

There are a lot of SCA "How to document" sites. Do a bit of searching.

http://www.artsci.calontir-rush.org/criteria.php Calontir's A&S criteria

http://arts-sciences.westkingdom.org/documentation_how_to.html

How to do citations

http://webster.commnet.edu/mla/notes.shtml A community college's research paper writing site. Based on the MLA style.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/internet/resources/sourceofinfo.html#style site with many writing related helpful links

http://www.medievalart.org/html/publications.html Gesta Style sheet. This is only if you really want to get fancy. Gesta is a medieval art journal and therefore deals with many of the same citation issues the SCA does.

Copyright for the SCA Tournaments Illuminated Issue #129, Winter 1999 Coypright Law for the SCA, Part 1: The Law in General; by Morgan Cely Cain Tournaments Illuminated Issue #130, Spring 1999 Copyright Law for the SCA, Part 2: Specific Application; by Morgan Cely Cain

© 2004 Mary M. Haselbauer and Slaine ni Chiarain       mary_m_haselbauer at yahoo dot com