Ultimately every visit to the BHS is as enlightening as the last, as I have stated in my past few blog posts. The librarians are welcoming and informative. The archives were as old as when we last left them. This week we looked through the library’s database. The database is filled with about eight thousand pictures and digital versions of archived documents. Searching through these files can be a tedious task if you don’t know how to search right. This is precisely what we were taught. Any one who might want to search in the libraries database wouldn’t run into the most user-friendly interface. You have to know what you’re searching for or if you’re browsing, what you eventually want to come across with. Despite the fact that the database may be a little clunky to use, it proved to be a useful and convenient tool for research.
In addition to using the library database for research, another great resource we can use is an atlas. My group decided to check out maps of Brooklyn before and after the theater fire. Like the database, we came across a few hiccups while looking for the maps of Brooklyn. That’s not to say that using these maps were useless and inconvenient. Even the hiccups we came across helped us understand our topic a little more. Ultimately, when doing research, you have to know what to look for and how you want to look for it.
Some writers might say that writing proper essay structures and having seamless transitions in your writing is important for any paper, i would agree and add that the actual research and how you research plays a very important role in composing an essay. This is what I learned in my third visit to the BHS. Hopefully next week we can run into more methods of research.
