Information Access Report for LIS 60001 - Originally posted on July 26 at 11:08 AM on the student blogs in Blackboard

Date: July 26, 2010 11:08 AM

The situation in which I experienced a major gap in knowledge and information about a topic occurred during the 2009-2010 academic year when I wrote my master’s thesis for my Master of Theological Studies degree at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio. I was comparing oral literature and ancient and modern rhetoric, relating these findings to the interpretation of the Gospel of Mark. I was attempting to prove that the Gospel of Mark was most likely a piece of oral literature originally rather than a written text, and could be interpreted and understood differently if it was viewed and accepted in this way. Obviously, in this situation I had done a great deal of formal research using books and articles, however, it seemed that gaps in my knowledge, whether simple or great, kept arising, leading me to become stuck in the writing process. What made matters worse was that I could see the information I needed being offered online in articles or as a Google book, which would have allowed for a quick and instantaneous solution to my problem, but often the articles were only accessible after paying for an expensive membership to JSTOR, or the pages that I needed were not included in the Google Book previews. I also encountered the frustrating situation of seeking a book in a digital version that I could download for a reasonable price, but then finding that the titles I needed were often unavailable as eBooks, causing me to make a 45-minute drive to the academic library on campus. This resulted in piles of large, hardback books covering the floor of my home office, and I felt that my research process became largely disorganized. It seemed as if it didn’t matter what items I had brought home from the library – I was always still missing something during the writing process.

When searching for this information I often used broad search terms in the library databases such as, “oral literature”, “Gospel of Mark”, “ancient rhetoric”, or “oral tradition Gospel of Mark”. I also would include more specific search terms such as “Cicero”, “Progymnasmata”, “On Rhetoric Aristotle”, or simply “Aristotle” when searching for a specific work or author. The library databases I used were OPAL, OhioLINK, and the Methodist Theological School in Ohio library catalog, and when searching online, I often used Google's search engine. I don’t believe that the Wikipedia should be used as a valid research resource, but it often can be a good place to begin, especially if you have a huge gap in your knowledge base. At the bottom of a Wikipedia article one can often find references and external links, as well as linked, related topics throughout the body of the text that aid in starting a search for information. I occasionally looked for information using a Wikipedia article pertaining to oral literature or Mark’s Gospel.

In the end, I found that most of the online results were not usable because of their informal nature. If I had not been writing an academic thesis, many of these sites may have provided a decent overview of the topic that would satisfy the curiosity of an information seeker. However, I did find a few websites and online articles that were tied to universities or seminaries, and these did prove helpful. This included the works of Cicero and Aristotle that were placed online, which made them easily searchable, though I did reference the book version of the widely accepted translation of the Loeb Classical Edition to verify accuracy, and therefore cited this version in my reference list rather than the websites. I also found Google Books to be an extremely helpful resource. While there were instances when the chapter containing the information I needed was not included in the preview of the book, I did find many helpful resources in which I was able to read a large portion of the book. In all probability Google Books was the most helpful resource in my thesis writing and information seeking process.

Though there is still a great deal to learn about this topic, I feel that my information needs for the intent and purpose of writing my thesis were well met. I gained a great deal of knowledge on the topic of oral literature and biblical interpretation, and through my search I also learned a great deal of information that was not included in the final paper. This information may lead to further work on the topic. I did an oral defense that went extremely well, passed the course, and graduated with a Masters degree.

Through this exercise I have mentally broken down the information seeking process, which is an activity that has become almost automatic throughout my many years of school. I find it interesting that I tend to think along the lines advocated by Mortimer Adler in the sense that I think, and therefore search for information, through the inner connections between topics. I felt as though answering my question in order to prove my thesis was like navigating through a web of related information, which helped it remain integrated, coherent, and organized in my mind. Through mentally categorizing information in a fashion that follows the interconnected joints in nature rather than an arbitrary organization system I feel that my research process flowed more naturally and that I learned and retained more information because of this logical flow.