Recent Changes

Caitlin Arndt
Emily
Emily Fairey
Lauren
Lauren Orso
20
20 October 2010
Professor
Professor Pattueli
Assignment
Assignment 2: Literature Review, Bibliography
Literature
Literature Review
The
The ancient art "specialty" biographers?
The
The word "specialty," different types.
In
In our literature the historical.
Librarians
Librarians have historically biography today.
On
On the premise graduate levels.
In
In recent years a growing.
A
A study by necessarily synonymous.
A
A thread that and humanists.
A
A study that must perform.
There
There are some American history."
The
The realm of of sources
Levasseur
Levasseur (2000) discusses "film-bio" information. Rak.Bale (2004) writes on the techniques of sports biography and the problems associated with this genre, providing methodological and conceptual questions for writers and biographers of sport figures, and discussing whether sports biography is of the same essential nature as other biographies. Rak (2008) has like blogs, wikiswikis, personal pages, search engines.
Bibliography
Bale,
Bibliography
Bale, J., Christensen, University Press.
Bloom,
Bloom, L Z. 3(3), 225-339.
Bresler,
Bresler, L., Stake, learning, 75-90.
Carmichael,
Carmichael, J.V. (1991). 31(4), 329-356.
Case,
Case, D. O. 61(1), 61-82.
Cole,
Cole, C. (1998). (1), 33-54.
Cole,
Cole, C. (2000). (1) 86-109.
Dalton,
Dalton, M. S., 65(5), 400.
Delgadillo,
Delgadillo, R., & 60(3), 245-259.
Duff,
Duff, W.M. & (4), 472-496.
Green,
Green, R. (2000). 70, 201-229.
Hudson,
Hudson, L.M. (2009). 21(4), 138-140.
Labaree,
Labaree, R.V. (2006). 55(1), 121-139.
Lee,
Lee, H. (2009). University Press.
Levasseur,
Levasseur, A. (2000) 23(1), 176-192.
Miller,
Miller, R. (2005). London: Sage.
Orbach,
Orbach, B.C. (1991). (1), 28-43.
Rak,
Rak, J. (2008). 38(3), 325-331.
Rayward,
Rayward, W.B. (1991). Science, 23,135-145.
Taylor,
Taylor, U. (2008). (1), 195.
Tibbo,
Tibbo, H.R. (2003). 66(1), 9-50.
Wengraf,
Wengraf, T. (2001). Calif: SAGE.
Wiberley,
Wiberley, S.E., Jones, (5), 421-31.
Annotated Bibliography
(EF) Citation: Bale, J., Christensen, M. K., & Pfister, G. (2004). Writing lives in sport: Biographies, life-histories and methods. Århus: Aarhus University Press.

Professor Pattueli
Assignment 2: Literature Review, Bibliography
Literature Review
The ancient art of biography was traditionally more "popular" than history because it was more personal. Plutarch's Lives of Great Men, and Suetonius' Caesars are among the first works that defined biography as a distinct prose genre. It used the same tools as history to make a portrait in gossip. The modern word "biography" now has many shades of meaning, from the psychological case study to the short web bio. In specifically selecting “historical” biographers as a subject, the intimation is that their practice is closest to history, the original source of biography. We cannot compare all the different brands of biography. Since this is beyond our scope, we have kept in mind a focused question of comparison: Is there a difference in research methods between historical biographers and "specialty" biographers?
The word "specialty," being a generalization, requires explicating. For the purpose of this study and for our literary review, "specialty" denotes a modern, popular portrait with a commercial slant, whereas "historical" signifies a biography with the goal of scholarly advancement. The difference is not one of subject matter as much as tone, but some subjects do seem to lend themselves more to popular recension than historical analysis: Hollywood stars and sports heroes are two examples. On the other hand, biographies of people who played some major role in history tend to be deemed "scholarly." The biography of Napoleon is scholarly, while that of Mick Jagger is popular. This distinction between the seriousness of history and the tabloid tone of biography is one if the original distinctions between the two genres. Although it is possible to blur it, and write an historical account of a popular phenomenon, or a popular version of a powerful figure of history, there is a real difference in prestige and market between the different types.
In our literature review, we have striven to get a good general sample of historical and scholarly methodologies, as well as insights into popular biographic techniques. The weight of literature on biographic techniques is very much heavier on the side of historical biography. Perhaps this is because the historical element is taken more seriously. There is a fairly wide range of recent sources on modern methodologies and sources for general biographic techniques of the academy, as well as for a few sub-genres, such as music. A few good general studies and surveys include Wengraf (2001), and Miller (2005). Wengraf has created a highly practical manual on proper practices for semi-structured interviews that encompasses the entire process, from creating good questions to behavior in the interview setting. This could be useful as a way to see how biographers construct interactions with subjects. It is highly technical, so it is difficult for the non-professional to understand, but it would be interesting to see to what degree our interviews match this sort of methodology. Miller has collected a four volume, encyclopedic range of 65 articles on biography that represent the last 5 decades of professional and academic descriptions of biographers conducting research in practice. On the whole, though it records debates of approach, the scholars in the book do not propose a theory of biographic method that is distinct from the historical.
Librarians have historically been interested in biographic methods, perhaps since they were the gatekeepers of much biographic source material. Labaree (2006) is a very useful article on biographic methods from a librarian’s perspective, that explores the use of life histories as method. He discusses the design of a life history research study and looks at issues of methodology and qualitative research for those within the library construct. There is also one interesting "biography of a biographer" in Rayward's (1991) study of early librarian and information professional Paul Otlet's work, in particular his theory of "documentation." Rayward looks at Otlet as a pioneer of biographical methodology, and discusses how his approaches are still relevant to biography today.
graduate levels.
In
In recent years a growing.
A
A study by necessarily synonymous.
A
A thread that and humanists.
A study that deals with the financial problems facing biographical historians is Carmichael (1991). This ALA Library History Roundtable describes the result of a survey sent to 102 library biographers to identify "the extent of their work in biography and to garner information regarding funding, sites visited in conducting research, and problems encountered." The financial problems of biographic historians do represent a different type of information seeking they must perform.
There are some interesting articles on specific historical biographic sub-genres. Biographies of traditionally discounted minorities have generated much commentary in the last few years as requiring a different approach to sources than those of dominant cultural subjects. Taylor (2008) focuses on the way biographies of African-American women in the 19th century are "hidden" in traditional sources, and must be approached in a different way. This article may seem excessively skewed towards the theoretical. Nevertheless it does have a strong emphasis on the methodology of research; how to approach archives, and learning how to discover the right documents has bearing on our topic. Hudson (2009) discusses some of the problems the author encountered when dealing with a historical figure whose life was rather risqué, so that the task of uncovering what fits the eulogistic demands of "feminist biography" was more difficult. She found that the sources had either "dried up" in disapproval, or were be skewed in the direction of sensationalism. Notice what she considers the expected places for a biographer: "archives, public libraries, microfilm reading rooms, and the like." Therefore her other sources are coded as more unusual: "audience members at book signings, bed and breakfast owners, and the men and women who collected pieces of California’s African American history."

Biographic Historians
Emily Fairey, Lauren Orso, CaitlinCaitlin Arndt
Literary Review:
The
Emily Fairey
Lauren Orso
20 October 2010
Professor Pattueli
Assignment 2: Literature Review, Bibliography
Literature Review
The ancient art first works whichthat defined biography web bio. It seems arbitrary to select "historical" biographers, except inIn specifically selecting “historical” biographers as a subject, the intimation is that they aretheir practice is closest to beyond our scope,wescope, we have kept a focused pointquestion of comparison: TheIs there a difference in and "specialty" biographers.
Thebiographers?
The word "speciality,""specialty," being a to be deemed "scholarly." The and the trashytabloid tone of different types. (sales records?)
In
In our literaryliterature review, we popular biographic techniques.Thetechniques. The weight of Wengraf (2001), Tibb (2003) and Miller (2005). Tibb focuses on the availability of primary resources for biographers, and discusses whether advances in descriptive markup languages now employed by librarians and information professionals really helping biographic historians. Her very useful article gives a history of studies that have been done on historians information seeking behaviors, and then reports the finds of a new study of American historians at sixty-eight top-ranked institutions. Tibb finds a range of use from print to use of on-line databases, Web searching, and makes suggestion as to what this implies for archives and virtual repositories. Wengraf has useful as a a way the historical.
On
Librarians have historically been interested in biographic methods, perhaps since they were the gatekeepers of much biographic source material. Labaree (2006) is a very useful article on biographic methods from a librarian’s perspective, that explores the use of life histories as method. He discusses the design of a life history research study and looks at issues of methodology and qualitative research for those within the library construct. There is also one interesting "biography of a biographer" in Rayward's (1991) study of early librarian and information professional Paul Otlet's work, in particular his theory of "documentation." Rayward looks at Otlet as a pioneer of biographical methodology, and discusses how his approaches are still relevant to biography today.
On the premise with history, itsit was usefulworthwhile to look at someexamine surveys of historians' techniques, on which we have the usefulwith this broader scholarly context. The studies of Dalton & CharnidoCharnigo (2004), and Delgadillo & Lynch (1999).
Case(1999) and Orbach (1991) have been particularly useful and enlightening. Case describes a 20 American historians. Focuseshistorians that focuses on their motivations and The study surveys 20 historians, and asked about such sources are discussed. Dalton out); 33 followupfollow-up surveys were to read.
Two studies studied biographers use Orbach strives to develop a fuller picture of archives specifically. Using semistructured interviewsarchival use by history scholars. Specifically, Orbach believes that too little study has been undertaken that deals with what leads to archival searching in the scholar’s information-seeking process. Her small-scale, qualitative study was conducted with ten historians at the professional historians, Duff studiesand graduate levels.
In recent years there has been increased interest in analyzing how humanists and historians approach digital resources. For much of the digital age, there has been a preconception of historians (and humanities scholars in general) as Luddites with incredibly complicated search strategies. The result of this attitude has primarily been neglect in creating digital resources designed specifically for this group. Now, more attention is being paid to the information-seeking habits of this academic community, and the field of “digital humanities” is a growing.
A study by Tibbo (2003) focuses on the availability of primary sourcesresources for biographers, and discusses whether advances in descriptive markup languages now employed by librarians and information professionals are locatedactually affecting the research practices of historians. Her very useful article gives a history of studies that have been done on the information seeking behaviors of historians, and then reports the findings of a large-scale, international study of U.S. historians at whatsixty-eight top-ranked institutions. Tibbo’s results point out that across the board, these scholars make use of a wide array of digital (on-line databases, Web searching,) and print resources, and makes suggestion as to what this implies for archives and virtual repositories. Also, due to her breakdown of strategies based on type of historical research, we can see that the biographical historians cast the widest net in their search process. Tibbo study reveals that historians do, in fact, have an interest in and regularly use of a variety of digital resources. Tibbo’s further planned research should provide more workable suggestions for how the digital finding aids created by information centers can be improved to match the historians’ habits. According to Wiberely’s research, humanists weigh the worthiness of incorporating new technologies into their search patterns against how much time it would take for them to learn the technology (Wiberley 2000). It is also clear through Wiberley’s work that it technophobe and historian are not necessarily synonymous.
A thread that runs through much of the literature on historical information seeking is how researchers use informal search strategies, especially in archival materialsettings. One predominant method includes finding and searching with proper names, typically names of individuals in searching for materials concerning a certain topic or period. The consequence of this behavior is used (Duff 2002). Duffthat even historians that are not strictly concerned with biography are searching for people and using personal names as an access point. Charles Cole in multiple studies (Cole 1998, Cole 2000) describes the research behavior of history Ph.D. students. One of the most important concepts to emerge from this work is ablethe formal analysis of the cognitive benefits of performing searches based on proper names. This strategy is particularly useful when accessing archival collections, a crucial step in obtaining information from primary sources. Duff suggests that the prevalence of historians that gather a list of names from secondary literature to identify four typesemploy in seeking primary materials may be due to the lack of subject or keyword access to most archival collections (Duff 2002). In Duff’s analysis of information seeking, including orienting oneselfseeking in historical, archival collections, she emphasizes the importance of using these names in each stage of her process of orientation to archives/finding materials,the collection, seeking known material, building knowledge,knowledge (and context) and identifying what materialrelevant material. In addition to the aforementioned proper-name searching, citation linking is relevant. She focuses on knowledge acquisition and contextual learninganother leading informal strategy, one Green deals with in terms of archival materials. Orbach also surveys uses of archival materials (Orbach 1991),detail (Green 2000). While this study provides insight into a dominant strategy and at what point researchers turnits efficacy, further research is required to determine the archives,implications of the findings for which ten historians' practices were studied via interview.
Alibraries and information centers serving historians and humanists.
A study that type of information-seekinginformation seeking they must perform.
There
There are some (2008) focuses anon the way a different way.Thisway. This article may the problems a the author was rather risque,risqué, so that American history."
There
The realm of popular, mass-marketed biography has less self-documentation than the scholarly sector. Perhaps this is also onebecause unlike a serious educational or historical endeavor, biographers who write for the amusement of the general public and for financial gain have no wish to reveal their techniques and sources. Lee (2009) in a book of the “very short introduction” series from Oxford University Press has created an overview of the biographic genre, including the methodologies of popular biographers. He marks a recent trend to a stronger stress on “disreputable and salacious aspects of one's life,” suggesting that this represents a substantial change in the tone of the field. Thus the methodologies of this sort of biography have much in common with investigative and tabloid journalism, relying extensively on forces interviews, spying, and second hand reports. Bloom (1980) defined “popular” and “super-pop” biographies as discrete categories, discussing their different uses and acknowledgments of sources
Levasseur (2000) discusses the rise of biography as a multimedia genre extending to audiovisual forms. It is an interesting "biographyquestion whether the format of a biographer"biography substantially affects the methodology of the biographic researcher. Although this article concentrates primarily on the types of subjects that film biographies take on, rather than the techniques used to gather information, some technical information is inherent. For example, self-biographies imply information taken from "self-filming." Likewise, "biographical concert performances," would imply that that footage of a star at a concert is used. This article has limited use for our subject, but may be a place we could begin to look for more "film-bio" information. Rak. (2008) has brought together a collection of essays that deals with the current wide range of biographic formats including personal documentaries, graphic books, song lyrics, personal zines, and celebrity memoirs. She makes the interesting point that although “official” biographies written by professionals are doing no better than usual, there is a drastic proliferation of personal memoirs and informal biographies that make use of generally available web information like blogs, wikis personal pages, and search engines.
Bibliography
Bale, J., Christensen, M. K., & Pfister, G. (2004). Writing lives in Rayward's (1991)sport: biographies, life-histories and methods. Århus: Aarhus University Press.
Bloom, L Z. (1980). Popular and super-pop biographies: definitions and distinctions. Biography, 3(3), 225-339.
Bresler, L., Stake, RE. (1992) Qualitative research methodology in music education. Handbook of research on music teaching and learning, 75-90.
Carmichael, J.V. (1991). Ahistoricity and the library profession: perceptions of biographical researchers in LIS concerning research problems, practices and barriers. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 31(4), 329-356.
Case, D. O. (1991). The collection and use of information by some American historians: a study of earlymotives and methods. The Library Quarterly, 61(1), 61-82.
Cole, C. (1998). Information acquisition in history Ph.D. students: Inferencing and the formation of knowledge structures. The Library Quarterly, 68 (1), 33-54.
Cole, C. (2000). Inducing Expertise in History Doctoral Students via Information Retrieval Design. The Library Quarterly, 70 (1) 86-109.
Dalton, M. S., & Charnigo, L. (2004). Historians and their information professional Paul Otlet's work,sources. College & Research Libraries, 65(5), 400.
Delgadillo, R., & Lynch, B.P. (1999). Future historians: Their quest for information. College & Research Libraries, 60(3), 245-259.
Duff, W.M. & Johnson, C.A. (2002). Accidentally found on purpose: Information-seeking behavior of historians in particular his theoryarchives. The Library Quarterly, 72 (4), 472-496.
Green, R. (2000). Location sources in humanities scholarship: The efficacy of "documentation." Rayward looks at Otlet as afollowing bibliographic references. Library Quarterly, 70, 201-229.
Hudson, L.M. (2009). Lies, secrets, and silences: writing African American women’s biography. Journal of Women's History 21(4), 138-140.
Labaree, R.V. (2006). Encounters with the library: Understanding experience using the life history method. Library Trends 55(1), 121-139.
Lee, H. (2009). Biography: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Levasseur, A. (2000) Film and Video Self-Biographies. Biography 23(1), 176-192.
Miller, R. (2005). Biographical research methods. London: Sage.
Orbach, B.C. (1991). The view from the researcher's desk: Historians' perceptions of research and repositories. American Archivist, 54 (1), 28-43.
Rak, J. (2008). Pop life: an introduction. Canadian Review of American Studies, 38(3), 325-331.
Rayward, W.B. (1991). The case of Paul Otlet, pioneer of biographical methodology,information science, internationalist,visionary: Reflections on biography. Journal of Librarianship and discussesInformation Science, 23,135-145.
Taylor, U. (2008). Women in the documents: Thoughts on uncovering the personal, political, and professional. Journal of Women’s History 20 (1), 195.
Tibbo, H.R. (2003). Primarily history in America: how his approaches are still relevant to biography today.U.S. historians search for primary materials at the dawn of the digital age. American Archivist 66(1), 9-50.
Wengraf, T. (2001). Qualitative research interviewing: Biographical narrative and semi-structured. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE.
Wiberley, S.E., Jones, W.G. (2000). Time and technology: A decade-long look at humanists' use of electronic information technology. College & Research Libraries, 61 (5), 421-31.
Annotated Bibliography
(EF) Citation: Bale, J., Christensen, M. K., & Pfister, G. (2004). Writing lives in sport: Biographies, life-histories and methods. Århus: Aarhus University Press.

{Valkenburg_27949158-3.pdf}
Walther, J. B., & Parks, M. R. (2002). Cues filtered out, cues filtered in: Computer-mediated communication and relationships. In M. L. Knapp & J. A. Daly (Eds.), Handbook of interpersonal communication (3rd ed., pp. 529--563). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. (Nicki Vance)
Walther,[I'm not sure this is used in our lit review. I never got a chance to read it. -Nicki] Walther, J.B., Van 36, 229--253. (Nicki Vance)
Wang, H., & Lu, X. A. (2007). Cyberdating: Misinformation and (dis) trust in online interaction. Informing Science: International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline, 10, 1-15.
Abstract: Through an analysis of the unique features of the Internet as an environment for cyberdating, this work examines the issues of (mis)information and (dis)trust in romantic endeavors and encounters in the virtual world. With a critical application of Grice’s Cooperative Principle to a reported case of fraud in cyberdating, this paper offers practical suggestions for cyberdaters.

Bishop, R. (2005).“The Essential Force of the Clan”: Developing a Collecting-Inspired Ideology of Genealogy through Textual Analysis. Journal of Popular Culture, 38(6), 990-1010.
Abstract: A study was conducted to investigate the popularity of genealogical research and to explore the cultural meaning of genealogy. Data were obtained from a textual analysis of 42 newspaper and magazine articles and 4 broadcast news transcripts on genealogy from 2001–2002. Findings indicated that, at its most fundamental level, genealogical research is self-exploration, an attempt to redefine oneself. This assertion supported by the work of reporters.
Archivists, 20(1), 61-74.Becky:61-74. {Archivists and Family Historians (Boyns).pdf} Becky: This article
Abstract: Until the 1990s, archivists gave very little attention to studying their user population. None of the user studies that have been conducted in the last decade have focused solely on genealogists, one of the most frequent users of archives. This paper gives the results of a study involving in-depth interviews with ten genealogists. The findings provide information on the stages of genealogical research, how genealogists search for information, the access tools they use, the knowledge required, and the barriers they face. The findings of this study can be used to improve the design of archival information systems that will facilitate access for this important group of users.
Genevieve: This article focuses on the search process and tools used by professional genealogists in their search for people. It specifies the importance of names, geographic location and dates in the genealogist's search, as well as historical context. In discussing the tools that genealogists use, it is clear that they are their own information specialists. They utilize online resources, as well as sources often found in archives. Due to the configuration of most archives (in that they are organized for historians/archivists, not genealogists or people-seekers), genealogists tend to have their own systems for record retrievals, and often use each other as information sources. While the study's interview with 10 genealogists tends to limit the ability to generalize genealogists, it does seem as though there is an entirely different search process than the typical researcher, one that is more of a learned behavior. This article seems like it will be quite useful for this study, and it seemed to have some potentially useful references listed in it, as well.


{Valkenburg_27949158-3.pdf}
Walther, J. B., & Parks, M. R. (2002). Cues filtered out, cues filtered in: Computer-mediated communication and relationships. In M. L. Knapp & J. A. Daly (Eds.), Handbook of interpersonal communication (3rd ed., pp. 529--563). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. (Nicki Vance)
Walther, J.B., Van Der Heide, B., Hamel, L.M., & Schulman, H.C. (2009). Self-Generated Versus Other-Generated Statements and Impressions in Computer-Mediated Communication: A Test of Warranting Theory Using Facebook. Comm Res, 36, 229--253. (Nicki Vance)
Wang, H., & Lu, X. A. (2007). Cyberdating: Misinformation and (dis) trust in online interaction. Informing Science: International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline, 10, 1-15.
Abstract: Through an analysis of the unique features of the Internet as an environment for cyberdating, this work examines the issues of (mis)information and (dis)trust in romantic endeavors and encounters in the virtual world. With a critical application of Grice’s Cooperative Principle to a reported case of fraud in cyberdating, this paper offers practical suggestions for cyberdaters.
Warkentin, D., Woodworth, M., Hancock, J. T., & Cormier, N. (2010). Warrants and deception in computer mediated communication. In Proceedings of the 2010 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work (pp. 9-12). Savannah, Georgia, USA: ACM.
In this article, the four authors discuss their findings from a quantitative study designed to compare the effect of three types of warrants (name, photo, and acquaintance) on preventing deception in five types of social media (IM, Forums, Chat, Social Networking Sites, and Email). Warrants are methods of authenticating information about oneself (this study looks at the effect of warrants provided by users for others to access) or allowing ones' online identity to be possibly tied to their real life identity. The study chose these types of media to test a theoretical model that states that non-persistent (no record is kept), synchronous (real-time) media (Chat, sometimes IM) allows for more deception than persistent, asynchronous media (SNS, Email, Forums). The results give evidence to the contrary by finding that the fewest deceptions occur in Email = SNS > IM = Forum > Chat, showing that Forums (persistent and asynchronous) have a relatively high rate of deception. SNS is the most highly warranted form of media as responses tallied up over 90% for each type of warrant. However, since warrants are only some features of these media, the factors that prevent deception are likely to be more than just the warrants. (Nicki Vance)
Walther, J. B., & Parks, M. R. (2002). Cues filtered out, cues filtered in: Computer-mediated communication and relationships. In M. L. Knapp & J. A. Daly (Eds.), Handbook of interpersonal communication (3rd ed., pp. 529--563). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. (Nicki Vance)
Walther, J.B., Van Der Heide, B., Hamel, L.M., & Schulman, H.C. (2009). Self-Generated Versus Other-Generated Statements and Impressions in Computer-Mediated Communication: A Test of Warranting Theory Using Facebook. Comm Res, 36, 229--253. (Nicki Vance)
Westerman, D., Van Der Heide, B., Klein, K.A., & Walther, J.B. (2008). How do people really seek information about others? Information seeking across Internet and traditional communication channels. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13, 751-767.
This article looked at how people seek information about other people, in particular looking at college students. They considered two categories of people: less-known (stranger, potential romantic partner) versus well-known (friend, classmate). They found that the better you know someone, the more you are willing to use channels that might reveal your interest in them to get information--this includes actually talking to the person of interest. However, the finding that is useful to our project is that they found the participants likely to use a social network to find information about anyone except family members, no matter how well they knew the person. They also allude to some papers that discuss how online information-seekers evaluate the information they find, including Ellison, Heino & Gibbs. (Alexa)

On the premise that the historical biography shares a methodological basis with history, its was useful to look at some surveys of historians' techniques, on which we have the useful studies of Case (1991), Dalton & Charnido (2004), and Delgadillo & Lynch (1999).
Case describes a study of 20 American historians. Focuses on motivations and results of information needs of historians. The study surveys 20 historians, and asked about research topics, specific projects, use of archives, categorizing materials, writing habits and computer use. Suggestions for future use of such sources discussed. Dalton & Charnigo's article "examines which materials historians consider most important and how the discover them" including use of electronic materials. They found that print format (book reviews and browsing) remains most popular, though electronic resources "increased use of catalogs and indexes…to identify appropriate primary and secondary sources of information." 278 surveys were returned (27% of those sent out); 33 followup surveys were returned (out of 66). Many historians said that AV materials were important to their work, but very few ever cite them. This study could be a useful methodological model for our current study. Delgadillo & Lynch's paper investigates whether graduate students exhibit the same information-seeking behaviors as established scholars and questions how they use new technologies vs. reference services at the university library. It is limited in scope to one program at one university (22 history graduate students at UCLA in 1995), and makes the general assumption from students is that library will have what they need, whether or not the library does. This topic may be too specific as a model for us, but the paper is extremely well designed and easy to read.
Two studies studied biographers use of archives specifically. Using semistructured interviews with ten professional historians, Duff studies how primary sources are located and at what point archival material is used (Duff 2002). Duff is able to identify four types of information seeking, including orienting oneself to archives/finding materials, seeking known material, building knowledge, and identifying what material is relevant. She focuses on knowledge acquisition and contextual learning in terms of archival materials. Orbach also surveys uses of archival materials (Orbach 1991), and at what point researchers turn to the archives, for which ten historians' practices were studied via interview.
A study that deals with the financial problems facing biographical historians is Carmichael (1991). This ALA Library History Roundtable describes the result of a survey sent to 102 library biographers to identify "the extent of their work in biography and to garner information regarding funding, sites visited in conducting research, and problems encountered." The financial problems of biographic historians do represent a different type of information-seeking they must perform.
There are some interesting articles on specific historical biographic sub-genres. Biographies of traditionally discounted minorities have generated much commentary in the last few years as requiring a different approach to sources than those of dominant cultural subjects. Taylor (2008) focuses an the way biographies of African-American women in the 19th century are "hidden" in traditional sources, and must be approached in a different way.This article may seem excessively skewed towards the theoretical. Nevertheless it does have a strong emphasis on the methodology of research; how to approach archives, and learning how to discover the right documents has bearing on our topic. Hudson (2009) discusses some of the problems a the author encountered when dealing with a historical figure whose life was rather risque, so that the task of uncovering what fits the eulogistic demands of "feminist biography" was more difficult. She found that the sources had either "dried up" in disapproval, or were be skewed in the direction of sensationalism. Notice what she considers the expected places for a biographer: "archives, public libraries, microfilm reading rooms, and the like." Therefore her other sources are coded as more unusual: "audience members at book signings, bed and breakfast owners, and the men and women who collected pieces of California’s African American history."

Biographic Historians
Emily Fairey, Lauren Orso, Caitlin Arndt
Literary Review:
The ancient art of biography was traditionally more "popular" than history because it was more personal. Plutarch's Lives of Great Men, and Suetonius' Caesars are among the first works which defined biography as a distinct prose genre. It used the same tools as history to make a portrait in gossip. The modern word "biography" now has many shades of meaning, from the psychological case study to the short web bio. It seems arbitrary to select "historical" biographers, except in that they are closest to history, the original source of biography. We cannot compare all the different brands of biography. Since this is beyond our scope,we have kept in mind a focused point of comparison: The difference in research methods between historical biographers and "specialty" biographers.
The word "speciality," being a generalization, requires explicating. For the purpose of this study and for our literary review, "specialty" denotes a modern, popular portrait with a commercial slant, whereas "historical" signifies a biography with the goal of scholarly advancement. The difference is not one of subject matter as much as tone, but some subjects do seem to lend themselves more to popular recension than historical analysis: Hollywood stars and sports heroes are two examples. On the other hand, biographies of people who played some major role in history tend to be "scholarly." The biography of Napoleon is scholarly, while that of Mick Jagger is popular. This distinction between the seriousness of history and the trashy tone of biography is one if the original distinctions between the two genres. Although it is possible to blur it, and write an historical account of a popular phenomenon, or a popular version of a powerful figure of history, there is a real difference in prestige and market between the different types. (sales records?)
In our literary review, we have striven to get a good general sample of historical and scholarly methodologies, as well as insights into popular biographic techniques.The weight of literature on biographic techniques is very much heavier on the side of historical biography. Perhaps this is because the historical element is taken more seriously. There is a fairly wide range of recent sources on modern methodologies and sources for general biographic techniques of the academy, as well as for a few sub-genres, such as music. A few good general studies and surveys include Wengraf (2001), Tibb (2003) and Miller (2005). Tibb focuses on the availability of primary resources for biographers, and discusses whether advances in descriptive markup languages now employed by librarians and information professionals really helping biographic historians. Her very useful article gives a history of studies that have been done on historians information seeking behaviors, and then reports the finds of a new study of American historians at sixty-eight top-ranked institutions. Tibb finds a range of use from print to use of on-line databases, Web searching, and makes suggestion as to what this implies for archives and virtual repositories. Wengraf has created a highly practical manual on proper practices for semi-structured interviews that encompasses the entire process, from creating good questions to behavior in the interview setting. This could be useful as a a way to see how biographers construct interactions with subjects. It is highly technical, so it is difficult for the non-professional to understand, but it would be interesting to see to what degree our interviews match this sort of methodology. Miller has collected a four volume, encyclopedic range of 65 articles on biography that represent the last 5 decades of professional and academic descriptions of biographers conducting research in practice. On the whole, though it records debates of approach, the scholars in the book do not propose a theory of biographic method that is distinct from the historical.
On the premise that the historical biography shares a methodological basis with history, its was useful to look at some surveys of historians' techniques, on which we have the useful studies of Case (1991), Dalton & Charnido (2004), and Delgadillo & Lynch (1999).
Case describes a study of 20 American historians. Focuses on motivations and results of information needs of historians. The study surveys 20 historians, and asked about research topics, specific projects, use of archives, categorizing materials, writing habits and computer use. Suggestions for future use of such sources discussed. Dalton & Charnigo's article "examines which materials historians consider most important and how the discover them" including use of electronic materials. They found that print format (book reviews and browsing) remains most popular, though electronic resources "increased use of catalogs and indexes…to identify appropriate primary and secondary sources of information." 278 surveys were returned (27% of those sent out); 33 followup surveys were returned (out of 66). Many historians said that AV materials were important to their work, but very few ever cite them. This study could be a useful methodological model for our current study. Delgadillo & Lynch's paper investigates whether graduate students exhibit the same information-seeking behaviors as established scholars and questions how they use new technologies vs. reference services at the university library. It is limited in scope to one program at one university (22 history graduate students at UCLA in 1995), and makes the general assumption from students is that library will have what they need, whether or not the library does. This topic may be too specific as a model for us, but the paper is extremely well designed and easy to read.
A study that deals with the financial problems facing biographical historians is Carmichael (1991). This ALA Library History Roundtable describes the result of a survey sent to 102 library biographers to identify "the extent of their work in biography and to garner information regarding funding, sites visited in conducting research, and problems encountered." The financial problems of biographic historians do represent a different type of information-seeking they must perform.
There are some interesting articles on specific historical biographic sub-genres. Biographies of traditionally discounted minorities have generated much commentary in the last few years as requiring a different approach to sources than those of dominant cultural subjects. Taylor (2008) focuses an the way biographies of African-American women in the 19th century are "hidden" in traditional sources, and must be approached in a different way.This article may seem excessively skewed towards the theoretical. Nevertheless it does have a strong emphasis on the methodology of research; how to approach archives, and learning how to discover the right documents has bearing on our topic. Hudson (2009) discusses some of the problems a the author encountered when dealing with a historical figure whose life was rather risque, so that the task of uncovering what fits the eulogistic demands of "feminist biography" was more difficult. She found that the sources had either "dried up" in disapproval, or were be skewed in the direction of sensationalism. Notice what she considers the expected places for a biographer: "archives, public libraries, microfilm reading rooms, and the like." Therefore her other sources are coded as more unusual: "audience members at book signings, bed and breakfast owners, and the men and women who collected pieces of California’s African American history."
There is also one interesting "biography of a biographer" in Rayward's (1991) study of early information professional Paul Otlet's work, in particular his theory of "documentation." Rayward looks at Otlet as a pioneer of biographical methodology, and discusses how his approaches are still relevant to biography today.
Annotated Bibliography
(EF) Citation: Bale, J., Christensen, M. K., & Pfister, G. (2004). Writing lives in sport: Biographies, life-histories and methods. Århus: Aarhus University Press.
Abstract: This is a book of stories about sports persons: sports stars, less-known athletes and relatively unknown physical education teachers and sports scientists. More exactly, these 13 essays all deal with problems associated with writing sport biographies - how does an author navigate among myths and truths? Why do some athletes live on in the public mind while others, whose achievements may have been greater, fade from memory? Are sports biographies different from those dealing with people from the non-sporting realm? The subjects range from direct theoretical explorations of writing sport biographies to discussions of biographies themselves. Topics include the following: The German-American sports- and physiology scientist Professor Ernst Jokl; Danish gymnastics pedagogue Niels Bukh; two studies of physical education teachers, including Martti Silvennionen's work on autoethnographical pedagogy in PE teacher training; women's sport in Denmark's intermediary period of 1920-1950; writing about women and sport, and the Finnish worker sports movement experience from a woman's viewpoint. Another essay observes the contrasts in the legends of two sports stars in twentieth century Britain, the English footballer Jackie Milburn and the Olympic athlete, Godfrey Brown. Other topics include the English sports hero from the 1940s and '50s, Denis Compton, the Swedish footballer Lennart "Nacka" Skoglund and the Danish cyclist Niels Fredborg. Writing Lives in Sports provides lively discussions of individual sporting lives as well as important methodological and conceptual questions for writers and biographers of sport figures and other genres.