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Research and the Internet



 
 
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  #1  
Old December 23rd 04, 04:22 AM
Francis A. Miniter
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Default Research and the Internet

The purpose of this recitation is to share a recent research experience using
the internet.

I have been working hard to create an author database for the works in my
collection. As I come to each author, I have been putting in birth and death
dates, nationality (as far as possible) and important biographical comments (for
instance, the George W. Peck - author of "Peck's Bad Boy" had served as Governor
of Wisconsin). Finding biographical data has been an interesting effort. For
almost every author I have encountered, someone has a website devoted to that
author. This is true even of obscure ones, such as Maria Louise Pool, an early
feminist writer from Massachusetts who lived in an openly gay relationship in
the last half of the 19th century.

But, there are a few for whom information is hard to find. For those I go
first to the Library of Congress website, which often provides at least years of
birth and death - but not always. For three authors all I could find from an
initial Google search and review of the Library of Congress records was the
following:

Grace Blanchard, ???? - 1944 New Hampshire resident, wrote children's books
Julie M. Lippmann 1864 - ???? apparently American wrote novels and plays
Evelyn Whitaker 18?? - 19?? wrote children's stories

My next step was to check out the major US libraries linked by the Library of
Congress, especially those near any known locale of the author. In these cases,
that yielded nothing.

So then I decided to go to the KVK [Karlsruhe Virtueller Katalog] and check out
world libraries. Entering the name Julie Lippmann gave me a number of catalog
entries from the Union Catalog of Canada, from which I learned her year of death
was 1952. Entering Evelyn Whitaker's name I came up with a large number of
catalog entries in the British Union Catalog. The older ones proved fruitless,
but I found that there were some entries made in the 1960s and 70s. Checking
these out, I found one was done by a cataloger with the same mania for
completeness that I have. He or she had found the years of birth (1857) and
death (1903). A search for Grace Blanchard yielded nothing.

So I went back to Google. Searching the name Blanchard I came up with an
extensive genealogy of a Blanchard family that lived (mostly) in New Hampshire.
Finally I found her, a librarian in Concord, New Hampshire, who was born in
1859.

Admittedly, all of this yielded less information than I desired, but I suppose
it is premature to expect that the lives of all earthlings can be found laid out
on the Internet. But it is surprising how many people's lives can be found there.


Francis A. Miniter
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  #2  
Old December 23rd 04, 08:02 AM
paghat
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Default

In article , wrote:
[clip]
Julie M. Lippmann 1864 - ???? apparently American wrote novels and plays

[clip]

Julie M. Lippmann wouldn't fall into the obscure category as her Martha
By-the-Day is still to be spotted in dollar-bins as common cast-offs in
old book stocks, & her rarer items in fine condition are sought by
collectors of ornate bindings. Most of the authors you mention, if not
all, you'd've found plenty about in one hour at any half-decent university
libarary, if you know how to use the two main index series' for
biographical info. A hour in a good library remains for me a lot more
profitable than five hours klicking all over the gawdamn web. And you
could click all over the web all day long & probably never light on the
fact that there were TWO authors named George Washington Peck, so could
easily come away combining information about two different gents, much
harder to do if one values actual reference books instead of the little
dab that's on the web.

Julie Lippmann was the great-aunt of my old friend Kits Filipi who ran
Filipi's Books in Seattle for two-thirds of my life. She told me lovely
tales of visits to New York, hanging out in cafes with her famous maiden
aunt, meeting authors, attending art events, & Aunt Julie left her with a
lifelong love of books. Kits has been dead some years now & I have often
wished I'd gotten a tape-recorder on her stories.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl:
http://www.paghat.com


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  #3  
Old December 25th 04, 12:04 AM
Francis A. Miniter
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Thank you for the further information. The book I have is, in fact, Martha
By-The-Day. I suppose I should make the effort to try a college or university
library for some of these authors. There is my own alma mater (Trinity College)
not far from where I work in Hartford.

One thing that did surprise me, is that the Library of Congress does not have
some of the 19th C. books that I have, though it may have others by the same author.


Francis A. Miniter


paghat wrote:

In article , wrote:

[clip]
Julie M. Lippmann 1864 - ???? apparently American wrote novels and plays


[clip]

Julie M. Lippmann wouldn't fall into the obscure category as her Martha
By-the-Day is still to be spotted in dollar-bins as common cast-offs in
old book stocks, & her rarer items in fine condition are sought by
collectors of ornate bindings. Most of the authors you mention, if not
all, you'd've found plenty about in one hour at any half-decent university
libarary, if you know how to use the two main index series' for
biographical info. A hour in a good library remains for me a lot more
profitable than five hours klicking all over the gawdamn web. And you
could click all over the web all day long & probably never light on the
fact that there were TWO authors named George Washington Peck, so could
easily come away combining information about two different gents, much
harder to do if one values actual reference books instead of the little
dab that's on the web.

Julie Lippmann was the great-aunt of my old friend Kits Filipi who ran
Filipi's Books in Seattle for two-thirds of my life. She told me lovely
tales of visits to New York, hanging out in cafes with her famous maiden
aunt, meeting authors, attending art events, & Aunt Julie left her with a
lifelong love of books. Kits has been dead some years now & I have often
wished I'd gotten a tape-recorder on her stories.

-paghat the ratgirl

 




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