When it comes to using books within my historical reasearch, it is difficult to find the exact book I am looking for. Books tend to be broadly focussed and can hold a variety of information. This can be both extremely useful, but also problematic. Of course books can offer that exact piece of information or argument one may be looking for. However, they are a much larger source that invovles sifting through the "useless" information for something valuable. Books are a good source of information to start a study from. By reading a book you may find something that sparks your interest in which you would like to pursue. This is where journals come into play.
Journals have aided me quite frequently throughout my study. Journals are much more narrowly focussed on specific topics. You can take your topic of interest discovered in a book and attempt to track down more focussed concerns about that topic in journals. If you can find a journal that is related to your topic of interest, the entire piece of writing becomes a valuable source that does not need sifting. However, journals too can be tricky to track down. With the vast amount of online sources and journals available today, it can sometimes be difficult to locate exactly what you are looking for. Furthermore, if you do not have access to online journals through such academic or public facilities like our library, it can become quite expensive.
Overall, books and journals are extremely helpful sources to use. Although different in their own way, they can provide the reader with tremendous amounts of information and knowledge.
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I really liked the way that you focused on how you use books and journals to find information. Do you think that has changed as you are progressing with your education? How open are you to getting your information in other forms? What would you need to make sure that the information is reliable?
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