Other Research Resources

Topic 2 – Building Your Research Network

I’ve enjoyed working through so many aspects of doctoral library research with you in this micro-course! I want to leave you thinking about one last important aspect of research, and that is the personal network of people around you who can help you in your work, both concretely and abstractly.

Creating a network of scholars, librarians, fellow doctoral students, family, and friends will support you mentally and emotionally, and hopefully enrich your thinking intellectually as well. Those are the most important aspects of a research network, and there are smaller and more tangible benefits as well. One I always think about in terms of library research is sharing access to materials.

My professional network of arts librarians, for instance, shares access to the materials we hold in our respective libraries every day via a listserv. “I have a researcher looking…” one of us will write, “for an auction results article published in the 1970s. Can anyone send a scan?” And, usually within hours, we’ll write back saying “Thank you so much! Scan received!”

This process works on a personal level as well, so the assignment for this section also encourages you to begin building the network of fellow library researchers you can contact during the course of your doctoral program. This network will naturally include your doctoral cohort, but also colleagues at other universities, friends studying in other fields or programs, family members who have access to library resources, professional mentors, and others, depending on your own experience.

Can you ask your friends, family, and colleagues for library resources? The question has been posed in the New York Times Magazine advice column, The Ethicist (at the bottom of the page, the last question of three that week). “I frequently ask my son to get me copies of scientific articles, and he does so using his privileges as a student,” the anonymous advice-seeker wrote. “It dawned on me recently that this might be unethical. …Is it OK to ask my son for articles?”

I liked the answer given by the Ethicist (the philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah) very much. He wrote back at length, nicely explaining a number of library principles and practices, and ending with:

“When your son downloads an article for your use — one that you can’t legally access in some other way — he’s almost certainly violating an agreement that his university library made and expects him to respect” [ … however … ] “if everyone with access to research materials shared some with a parent, the system would be little affected. For that reason, while I don’t condone what you and your son are doing, I can’t say I condemn it very much either.”

For my part as an academic librarian, I will always strive to put you in touch with every resource at my disposal. I hope you will consider me part of your research network, and that I’ll speak with you soon and throughout your progress toward your degree.

Karyn Hinkle
Director of the Fine Arts & Design Library
University of Kentucky Libraries
Liaison to the College of Fine Arts Department of Arts Administration