Bennett L. Rouse

Source-finding technology?

I have written plenty of papers over the course of the semester. Most of these papers require reliable sources to back up the information I’m stating. Hopefully, the information being cited is close to universal, so a source such as Wikipedia is good enough. However, most of the time, the information is a little more intellectually challenging than that and requires a source with a solid backbone. Online journals and articles sometimes prove substantial, but once again, most of the time I’m searching for something clear and definitive and not offered by these types of sources. This information is prevalent to a book.

The problem is not that I have a hard time finding a book in the sense of what’s available. I have D.H. Hill library at my disposal, with over 3.6 million volumes of text available. Furthermore, if I needed to write a paper on persuasion, books containing the definition of persuasion can be found using a computer and located in a general section or region of the library. However, once again, with over 3.6 million volumes of text available, it might be hard to locate that “perfect” book out of over 100-200 books on persuasion. Not including the time it took to figure out where the general consensus of persuasion books was located, it took me over 45 minutes to find that “perfect” book.

Could I recommend source-finding technology? I have no clue how to create this, but I’m sure it’d be useful for all the undergraduates passing through the library. It’s an issue that’s yet to be addressed, so I am unsure as to whether this idea would be feasible or not. Is our library too large to categorize its contents? I don’t know, but I’m already regretting the next definitive quote that I have to locate. I’d love to have the library find great, reliable sources and information for me, so I don’t have to go digging 6-feet under for it.

Posted at 10:54PM Dec 06, 2008 by Bennett L. Rouse in General  |  Comments[0]