Digital Paper

A Manual for Research and Writing with Library and Internet Materials

Andrew Abbott

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780226167787, 9780226167640
• eBook ISBN: 9780226167817
• Subtopic: Library & Information Science

Today's researchers have access to more information than ever before. Yet the new material is both overwhelming in quantity and variable in quality. How can scholars survive these twin problems and produce groundbreaking research using the physical and electronic resources available in the modern university research library? In Digital Paper, Andrew Abbott provides some much-needed answers to that question.

Abbott tells what every senior researcher knows: that research is not a mechanical, linear process, but a thoughtful and adventurous journey through a nonlinear world. He breaks library research down into seven basic and simultaneous tasks: design, search, scanning/browsing, reading, analyzing, filing, and writing. He moves the reader through the phases of research, from confusion to organization, from vague idea to polished result. He teaches how to evaluate data and prior research; how to follow a trail to elusive treasures; how to organize a project; when to start over; when to ask for help. He shows how an understanding of scholarly values, a commitment to hard work, and the flexibility to change direction combine to enable the researcher to turn a daunting mass of found material into an effective paper or thesis.

More than a mere  how-to manual, Abbott's guidebook helps teach good habits for acquiring knowledge, the foundation of knowledge worth knowing. Those looking for ten easy steps to a perfect paper may want to look elsewhere. But serious scholars, who want their work to stand the test of time, will appreciate Abbott's unique, forthright approach and relish every page of Digital Paper.

Index

Note: This is not a keyword index, but a subject index based on a controlled vocabulary. It is shorter and leaner than a keyword index, including only those occurrences of concepts that I thought necessary to call to a reader’s attention. Major discussions appear as groupings of three or more continuous pages. Cross-referencing is minimized; phrases are listed under the main substantive noun in the phrase unless the phrase is an obvious unit (e.g., design document).

acknowledgments, 154

action lists. See to-do lists

American Library Association (ALA), 21, 23, 48, 74, 249

American Library Association Guide to Reference Works. See Guide

analysis, analysis folders, 5, 11, 40, 88, 143, 157, 160–62, 166, 169–200

Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, 48, 50, 53–54

archive, 69, 84, 94, 112, 142, 157–59, 249

ArchiveGrid, 84, 122

ASCII, 40, 152, 249

authors, 41, 46–47, 49–50, 53–54, 61–62, 74, 82, 99, 108, 136, 139

back-of-the-book indexes, 42, 81, 99–100, 165

bibliographies, published, 25, 32, 78, 81, ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• To the Reader
• ONE Introduction
• TWO A Library Ethnography
• THREE Fundamentals
• FOUR The Preliminary Phase
• FIVE Midphase Bibliography
• SIX Midphase Scanning, Browsing, and Brute Force
• SEVEN Reading
• EIGHT Midphase Files and Organization
• NINE Midphase Analysis
• TEN Midphase Writing
• ELEVEN Midphase Design
• TWELVE Endphase
• Glossary
• Index