Historians- Humanists & Social Scientists

• Humanists tend to work alone
• Humanists need to browse
• Humanists use a variety of approaches to their materials, often borrowing methods associated with disciplines other than their own
• Humanists need a wide range of primary materials, but books and journals are the most frequently used formats (Dalton & Charnigo, 2004, 404)

I thought that Sue Stone's assessment from 1982 as cited by Dalton & Charnigo, was exactly how I recall research from my undergraduate days in art history.  It makes sense that historians, and humanists in general, would borrow from other disciplines as history is not the history of itself but rather the history of other disciplines.  It is important to understand the processes of other disciplines to have a well rounded approach to historical research.

I was really struck by the idea of serendipity in the searching process. The idea that one just happens upon the key piece of information.  This would explain the importance of browsing by the historian in the information seeking process. It also reminds me of Bates' theory of berrypicking.  The approach to information seeking is not often linear. The search can lead one down different paths as one follows the spark of interest in browsing.  After all, during the information seeking process, one may realize that a particular question must be answered before one can move on in the original search. That answer may redirect the search in a new direction or return it to the original path.  This idea of serendipity is quite appealing and while Dalton and Charnigo state, "Serendipity may not happen often, but when it does, it is likely to turn up something of major importance."  (2004, 410).  I would love to know how often serendipity is just interpreted as part of the information seeking process and not recognized as a pivotal, unsought moment.

References:

Bates, M.  (1989).  The design of browsing and berry picking techniques for the online search interface.  Retrieved from http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~tefko/Courses/e530/Readings/Bates_Berrypicking.pdf.

Dalton, M.S. and Charnigo, L.  (2004, Sept).  Historians and their information sources.  Retrieved from http://lis60621-09f.iwiki.kent.edu/file/view/Historians%20and%20their%20information%20resources.pdf/356238370/Historians%20and%20their%20information%20resources.pdf.