A little bit back in the groove
Another afternoon in the British Library, gathering material (of which I probably already have far too much, but one boils it all down to make a savoury stock) for chapter I have contracted to write.
And while I do not think that the BL will ever become one of my fave places to Do Research, it has actually been going fairly well -
- though, I will remark, it is a salutory exercise in humility to discover that negotiating the catalogue, for all my years and experience, is still a fraught endeavour, even if it no longer involves heaving up large heavy volumes. While certain disadvantages have been obviated, the fact that it is now online by no means means that the path is entirely smooth. Says one who had to spend rather more time than she would have liked finding the journal that she wanted to look at in the catalogue, and ascertaining that it was the right one (as it was a title that lots of people had thought would make a whizzy title for their new periodical), and discovering that although some of it has been digitised this is a) only the bits when it becomes Rad Modernist Journal rather after the date in which I am interested b) and anyway only available if you have institutional login to university libraries which have access. But I have ordered up the relevant volumes for my planned visit next week.
So I was perhaps in greater charity than I sometimes am towards an enquirer expressing a certain horror that they might have to come to a particular fairly easy to get to library to consult a particular text ('let me tell you about my research journeys...').
Also managed to combine this trip to BL with lunch with a friend. This entry was originally posted at https://oursin.dreamwidth.org/2736467.html. Please comment there using OpenID. View
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