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1.1 Researching biography: who is douglas sladen?  (Page 8/8)

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Locating the texts found in the online journals

Our list of findings so far should look something like this:
Research findings
These are, of course, just a few examples to show what sort of information we should be keeping track of. Let's begin with the articles.

JSTOR is a very good resource for articles online, as we have seen. We can quickly browse their index to see if JSTOR contains the full-text for any of the articlesthat we have found by selecting the Browse option at the top of the home page.Select the Alphabetical List of Journals option in the middle of the page at the top and we will find a complete list of the journals JSTOR has digitized. Wedo not, however, find the titles we seek in this list. .

Since we can't find the journal online, we'll try to get the print version. Let's search the library catalog; we'll look at the catalog for Fondren Library , but this process should work at other libraries.From the basic search page, enter the periodical's title and select the keyword option and periodical titles category.

Catalog record for Publishing History
A quick trip to the basement of Fondren and we have our periodical.
Publishing History
The recovery of this article brings us several leads. First of all, the author's interest in Sladen could mean that he has written more about him than justthis piece. Also, by looking at his end notes we find other resources. For example, the author lists a review of "Twenty Years of My Life" in his end notes.
End notes to article on Sladen in Publishing History
The importance of these bits of information may not be revealed until later on. However, for now it suffices to demonstrate howone discovery may lead to others in unexpected ways and in places we thought we had exhausted. As each new piece of information leads to a new source, the resources wethought we had exhausted become open to us again.

Using the information found in the online journals

We have quite a list of references and information about Douglas Sladen by now. Apart from thebiographies on their way through interlibrary loan, we still have enough to put together a biographical essay including travels, achievements, club membership,acquaintances, interests and hobbies.

Each bit of information has its own value to our research and so must be investigated differently. The important thing to remember is that you never knowwhat discoveries may change your view of the subject. We will take a look at the newspaper articles we found in the London Times as anexample.

Sladen's obituary and the review of his second autobiography both indicate his involvement with the Victorian bohemian literary club scene. He is, infact, the founder of a number of clubs. We find out that he was the literary editor of a periodical called "To-day" as well as "Who's Who." With a quick visit tothe library catalog, our search continues with yet another new source: To-day . This title is listed being in Storage .

Catalog record for To-day
Notice the Linking title note tells us that To-day was absorbed by London Opinion. Just above this information we see that the last date of publication forTo-day was in July 1905. This suggests that To-day began to be published as London Opinion after July 1905. Douglas Sladen is referred to as the editor of To-day, notthe London Opinion. No date is given for his appointment, but it is after 1891 in the list of his achievements. We know that To-day was absorbed by London Opinionlong before Sladen's death and so we might assume that the writer of Sladen's obituary deliberately referred to the periodical by its name at the time of Sladen'sappointment as literary editor. Volume 1 of To-day is listed beside the Dates/vols published heading as Nov. 11, 1893. From this we might gather that he was appointedafter 1893, but before 1905.

Retrieving items from storage

Many libraries store materials such as old journals off-site, since they don't have room in thelibrary building for vast collections. Typically retrieving an item from storage is quick and easy. For instance,at Fondren Library, select the user services link in the library catalog, then click on the "Retrieve item from storage" link. TAfter you have filled in the bibliographic fields you must designate which issue of the journal you want to order.
We already determined that Sladen was probably appointed after 1893 and before 1905. Let's order up the first four and take a look.

The next step

We have collected a variety of sources and information in reference to Douglas Sladen. This store of knowledge can be applied in any number of ways,depending on your research needs. We will continue with an exploration of Sladen's other writings, the writings of his contemporary travelwriters, and a number of other topics listed in the Oriental Cairo module.

From this point, you could move in any number of directions with the information you have. Douglas Sladen's story is interconnected with other travelwriters, the bohemian literary scene and even a few political figures. If your initial interestshave not yet been satisfied, then it is time to move on to another aspect of Sladen and his work. If your research topic has been narrowed down to amanageable size, then organizing your writing project is next on the agenda. Either way, the research methods explored here can be used to develop aswell as discover your topic. We hope to have shown that each new source that you find can lead you to many potential sources and that each new discoveryis actually a choice to be made about the direction of your research.
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Source:  OpenStax, Conducting historical research: the case of "oriental cairo". OpenStax CNX. Oct 23, 2006 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10291/1.4
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