Blog / Preliminary bibliography

There are several reasons why, before you begin to do your research, it is important to prepare a preliminary bibliography even though it will include books you will never see or use.

1. You must be sure that adequate information on the subject is available to you and that your thesis is not hackneyed.

2. You must allow time to order any pertinent published materials that you may need to obtain through the interlibrary loan service. There is often a nominal charge for postage, and you should be prepared to wait at least a week.

3. You need to become familiar with the type of research that has been done on your topic.

4. From seeing a variety of titles, you will learn how your chosen thesis might be further limited or broadened.

5. You will be given clues about titles, subjects, and authors relating to your particular subject; for example, in looking up Mythology, you will find a section on Creation Myths which would lead you to Types of Creation Myths or Origins of Creation Myths as well as Theories of Creation Myths and thence to the specific names of mythologists who have much to say about creation myths, such as Sir James Frazer or Joseph Campbell.

6. As you prepare your bibliography and later as you browse through the material, it is urgent that you evaluate and critically examine your sources. Certainly not everything in print or available through the Internet is valuable. By considering some important questions you will be able to evaluate your sources with some confidence:

a. Does the author document sources in footnotes at the bottom of the page or endnotes at the end of a chapter or book or Internet site? It is important to know where the information that you are reading came from. Does the author include a bibliography? This is an indication of the author's awareness of other research that has been done in the field.

b. What is the date of the publication you are using and of the sources the author is using? If your topic requires current information, outdated material will be of no use, and if further research has been done even on something that is not current, what you say will mean very little.

c. Is the author an authority in the field? Often the book jacket or information at the beginning or end of an article or Internet site gives the author's credentials. You might want to check in such works as the Dictionary of American Scholars or American Men and Women of Science to find out something about the author's background.

d. Have you seen references to the author in the bibliographies of other works dealing with the same subject? Usually experts in a particular field are referred to frequently in other works.

e. Who has published or sponsored the material? A university press usually publishes scholarly, well-researched material and some of the best known publishers are usually reliable. However, a vanity press or a popular magazine would normally not be a valuable source, whereas periodicals that cater to specialists would be.

f. Is this Internet site reliable and authoritative? The caution with which you approach research materials applies even more to Internet sites than to print material. Often the titles of these sites are misleading, indicating for example, that they are "the official" site of this or that organization when, in fact, they are no such thing. An Internet site created by an individual may be called anything that individual wishes to call it and may contain anything he or she wishes to put there. You must be extremely careful in using these sites, but fortunately there are several criteria that can help you to evaluate them in addition to those previously listed. The Internet address is the first indicator. Sites in the .edu and .gov domains are likely to be trustworthy since they are affiliated with educational and governmental institutions, just as books and journals published by university presses and governmental agencies are likely to be authoritative. Be particularly wary of free sites available to individuals in the .com domain. Second, look at the sites from which the site you are evaluating may be reached. If an authoritative site includes a link to this site, that is a good indication that it has been evaluated positively by an authority in that field. Third, make use of the available means of evaluating sites. The Internet Public Library , the Librarian's Index to the Internet , and The Argus Clearinghouse , for example, have links to sites they have evaluated. While these pointers can help you to evaluate a site, probably the best advice is to be cautious and use the knowledge you have accumulated. If a particular site has information or ideas you find nowhere else, be suspicious.

There are many places where you will find a listing of materials that you can include in your preliminary bibliography, but the two primary sources are your library and your personal computer. Of course, your bibliography will change considerably before it becomes final because many of the titles you find in your preliminary search will not be available, some will not be useful, and you will add new sources constantly as you come across them in your reading. Do not look in only one place for your sources; use the library as well as the Internet. Try to investigate all of the resources available to you.