Beyond the Internet: Successful Research Strategies

Beyond the Internet offers a philosophy of research that illustrates the benefits of broadening one's 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.

Table of Contents:
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: Researcher's Friend or Nemesis Part IV The Complete Researcher Epilog Selected Sources

About the Author :
Barbara A. Chernow, PhD, was associate editor of The Papers of Alexander Hamilton and editor in chief of the Columbia Encyclopedia. Her company has produced more than 1,200 books for professional publishers. She has taught at New York University and the New School.

Review :
The writing is clear and understandable … Beyond the Internet: Successful Research Strategies is suitable for inclusion in any academic library. 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. 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. Previous edition praise: What a delight young researchers are missing if they don't take their fill from the granaries of libraries-books, 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!