Research Week: Day 1

Today, was the first day of research week, the Cooperstown Graduate Program's crash course in how to effectively research.  Coming up to New York with a History degree, I walked in this morning thinking that it was going to be an onerous day.  Really, how much is there to know about research?  You choose a topic and you find documents and evidence to support the claim that you make.

I have used libraries, archives, databases before to research for both classes and internships.  Research is something new, and at the beginning of the day I certainly didn't feel like I needed a week of learning the basics of how to go about researching information.

I changed my mind a bit by the end of the day.  We started with a tour of the library and the location of different items and books.  While it was a little tedious, it was nice to actually know where to go find things, and what we had access to and when.  The afternoon consisted of a "Research  Challenge." We were given a question and in groups had to go find primary documents that helped us answer it.  While the process of looking up information on books and finding them is by no means new, it was an opportunity to have a chance to see what kind of resources the library had. and learn a little something new.  Its hard to believe, but I even got excited about a sermon written by John Edwards the younger.  Finding something with Connecticut origins (home state) was definitely cool.

We will have to see if my opinion about research week is revised by tomorrow.