WorldCat is an excellent place to start collecting the writings of any
author because of the breadth of collections the system has access to. Apart frombooks, WorldCat also lists items in archives, computer
files, serial publications and sound recordings held by thousands of libraries around the world. It is not completelyexhaustive, but WorldCat will produce one of the widest varieties of media for each
search.
Note that Sladen's name, which is beside the Author(s)
heading, is an active blue link, .
Results for "Oriental Cairo" in World Cat By selecting this link, WorldCat provides you with everything in its listings
attributed to Douglas Sladen.
You will notice the rather daunting amount of items at the top in a series
of tabs.
Types of Media Associated with Douglas Sladen in World Cat These tabs can also tell us how many of which types of media are included. For
now, let's skip the books and take a look at other types of media.
Computer files
Let's look at the computer sources first. Just select the appropriately labeled
tab. A glance at the list will tell you that your items are scattered around the world;libraries in Tokyo, Melbourne and London. Notice
the words Computer File next to the heading Document. That means there is a very goodpossibility that we can receive it digitally in a very short period of time. In fact, it may
already be available online, since some libraries create catalog records for free Internetresources. Select the
title of one of the items, then scroll down to the Borrow this item from another libraryoption. For a review of how to borrow items from other libraries, visit our
Interlibrary loan module .
Now let's move on to the archival material.
Archival material
We've found a record for a collection of letters by Sladen.
On the full item record, you will notice that we are not given the option to automatically orderthis collection through interlibrary loan. Archival material is generally not in circulation. But we are not without
options. Make a note of the location (the library and area in the library), author,title, publisher, publication date and accession number and then connect to your interlibrary
loan system. For purposes of demonstration, we will discuss the system at Rice University,
Illiad . Select "other" for type of material. In the section for user notes, just explain to the
staff that your item is in an archive and you would like them to try to obtain a photocopy,digital copy or any sort of reproduction possible. There is always the possibility
that, with archival material especially, no copies are allowed. But it is always worththe time to inquire.
Books
We have one hundred and fifty five books attributed to Douglas Sladen.
Scrolling through, you will probably find that many works are repeated due to subtledifferences in the entries from different libraries. The list produced by WorldCat will
be very comprehensive, but it is not everything. For instance, WorldCat will probably not indexSladen's publications in magazines and newspapers, which would be available through separate
periodical indexes.So that you can easily collect a list of all of Sladen's works available through WorldCat, mark the box beside each listing on
each page. You can save time by just scrolling down to the bottom and selecting markall. Skip to the next page and repeat. Once you have marked every one, select the
Email or Print option at the bottom of the page.
Notice that you have the option to email a specific page of entries or all that
you have marked; make sure you select Marked Records. Also, notice that you have theoption for a brief or detailed entry for each work. You may not need the detailed entry,
but you never know when that kind of information may come in handy. Select either beforeyou enter your email or print the page.
Collecting articles in journals and newspapers
Tracking down all of an author's publications in newspapers and magazines is a much more intensive process than finding his or her books, since there are so many possible periodicals where he or she could publish and indexes to them can be spotty. Since Sladen was writing in the nineteenth century, we may be able to find relevant information using the
Nineteenth Century Index , which includes the Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue, The Wellesley Index and Periodicals Index Online. (Note that coverage extends only from 1770 to 1919). According to the Nineteenth Century Index, Sladen published 57 articles, with titles such as "SOME YOUNGER AMERICAN POETS" and "MILAN CATHEDRAL." We could also use the
Nineteenth Century Masterfile , which contains extensive indexes for the nineteenth century. Here we will focus on the online archives for the Times of London and take a look at what we found
by our author.
The times of london
The Times has been the daily newspaper of record
in England for hundreds of years. Douglas Sladen was born in England and publishedmost of his books there. Of all the newspapers we could search for Douglas
Sladen, the Times of London seems the most promising. It would have been the newspaperhe would have been most interested in as a figure in the London literary scene and
the newspaper that most interested in him as an Englishman.
Fortunately, the archive of the
Times of London is available online to
subscribers.
Searching for "Douglas Sladen" in the Times of London Archive A basic search produces five articles for us to choose from.
Results for search for "Douglas Sladen" in the Times of London Archive The first two articles were written by Douglas Sladen himself, while the other three were
written about him and his work. Let's look at the second of his contributions, "Morrison ofPeking," which was published in 1937.
Notice the paragraph about one third of the way down:
Sladen mentions his association with Sir Walter Besant, their
co-establishment of the Author's Club and his wide relations with London journalistsin the 1890's. Whether or not this helps you in your research project, the fact that
you are able to access a letter to the editor of the London Times from the 1930'sshould tell you that very little lies outside of your reach as a researcher if you
know where and how to look for it.
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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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