Because of the wide availability of resources through the web, all types of users can now engage in types of research formerly only possible for elite readers. But while the web seems to offer an easier alternative to library-based research, it can offer confusing and unreliable results. How can we contribute to the dissemination of information and ideas through the use of digitization without harming not only academic standards but even our cultural heritage?
I use my web pages to create an immersion experience that leads readers to consider texts within contexts.
Perhaps the best examples I can offer of this practice are my syllabi. For specific examples see the Puritan Assignment, and the Captivity Narratives Assignment shown above.
I provide
a gateway to available resources that offers recommendations about
reliable and useful website and provides introductions to the types of
resources available.
This search page is also designed to encourage experimentation with new sources of information while also promoting new uses of traditional resources, including library catalogues.
I construct "research packs" on specific topics.
By providing introductory comments, questions, multiple "lenses" and points of entry, links to primary and secondary sources, and a connection between web-based and library-based resources, I attempt to provide mentoring within a web environment. One example of this can be found in my research pack, "Contextualizing Frederick Douglass." Formal assignments are usually accompanied by similar resource packs, as in the case of Project One and Project Two for Survey of American Literature, Spring 2001.
