Getting into the Research Groove

After a brief Elluminate meeting last week, things really got moving!

With the semester now in full swing, we've begun evaluating biographical sources and preparing Powerpoint slides for the final presentation.

I have to say that it's been pretty fun to evaluate the sources. With the endless amount of biographies out there, you're bound to find some entertaining ones. This one is from Who2.com:

Batman Biography
Cartoon Character
The superhero Batman was the brainchild of cartoonist Bob Kane. The character first appeared in Detective Comics in 1939, and was such a hit that Batman comics remained in print in one form or another into the 21st century. Batman is the "caped crusader," the crimefighting alter-ego of millionaire Bruce Wayne. Wayne inherited a fortune as a boy after his parents were killed by robbers; when Wayne grew up he dedicated himself to fighting crime and chose the guise of a bat in order to strike fear into the hearts of criminals. (Unlike Superman and Spider-Man, Batman is a human with no supernatural powers.) Batman lives in Gotham City and operates out of his secret crime laboratory, the Bat Cave. He battles exotic supervillains including the Joker, Two-Face, Catwoman and the Penguin, and is often aided by a sidekick, Robin the Boy Wonder. Over the years Batman has appeared in many media and with various levels of seriousness. The 1960s live-action TV series was played for laughs, with a deadpan Adam West as Batman and nutty celebrity villains including Zsa Zsa Gabor as Minerva and Roddy McDowall as the Bookworm. (The series also featured Yvonne Craig as Batgirl.) Two decades later Batman was reinvigorated by the 1986 publication of Frank Miller's gloomy, acerbic graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns. Miller's work inspired a darkly popular Batman feature film, directed by Tim Burton and starring Michael Keaton as the caped crusader and Jack Nicholson as the Joker. (Val Kilmer and George Clooney played Batman in sequels.) Batman: The Animated Series began a long run on TV in 1992, with Kevin Conroy as Batman and well-known voices like Mark Hamill as the Joker and Adrienne Barbeau as Catwoman. The film series was revived in 2005 with Batman Begins, starring Christian Bale as Batman and Michael Caine as his faithful butler, Alfred. Another sequel, The Dark Knight, again starring Bale and with the late Heath Ledger as the Joker, was released in July 2008. Extra credit: Batman's first home, Detective Comics, later became better known as D.C. Comics.

What I really like about this particular source are all of the internal links to other people/characters on the website. This allows the user to navigate through related information more fluidly. Who2 also provides links to posts on their Editorial blog that are related to the current biography that the user is viewing. Very cool stuff.

For now, we're still evaluating sources and sharing slides with one another. We've planned another team meeting for next Wednesday (July 1st) where we'll hopefully start putting things in some sort of order for the final presentation on July 11th.

Until then...!

-Neen

Welcome to LIBR-210

Welcome Back!

Last semester, I created this blog to use as a platform for discussion in my LIBR-240 class. While it was a challenging, fun experience, alas all good things must come to an end. I really enjoyed the opportunity to learn more programming and have Perl on the horizon for the summer.

That said, this semester, Stuck in the Stacks switches focus and will be taking a closer look at reference materials. Specifically exploring different types of reference materials, best practices for assisting library patrons with reference questions, and ultimately concluding the course by creating a pathfinder for finding reference materials on a specific subject at a local library.

Currently, the class has been divided into teams which will each give a presentation on a specific type of reference sources. Joining me on the blog for our project on biographical resources are Evelyn Bruneau and Jennifer Barton. The goal of this assignment is to familiarize ourselves with these sources and also further our skills as instructors.

After a brief Elluminate meeting last Wednesday, we split up the list of major biographical resources among the team members and agreed to meet again this week to track progress and share some of the information uncovered in our separate research sessions. Evelyn will be tackling some of the resources for current biographical information, i.e. Who’s Who in America, Jennifer will be taking a look at some of the more retrospective sources, i.e. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and I will be taking a look at what is widely available online and through the SJSU portal, including www.biography.com and The Biography Resource Center. Together, we will be sharing our findings with our LIBR-210 class on July 11, 2009.

Don’t worry though if you’d like to see our presentation and you’re not our classmate. Thanks to Slideshare, it will be available for view on Stuck in the Stacks shortly after it is presented.

Cheers, Christina (Neen)