A Tip For The Real World

Image via WikipediaOne of my favorite sayings is "Fortune favors the prepared." While our online world is wonderful, it doesn't always have everything we need. Sometimes we have to enter the real world. They have some wonderful resources available in those brick and mortar buildings. But we need to enter "prepared."

You're at your local library, courthouse, or historical society and you're working the copying machine. Behind you is a line of people coughing, restless, looking over your shoulder and asking you how long you're going to be. They want you to hurry.

But if you hurry, you may miss some really important information. Information pertinent to your source and that essential citation.

Here is something I bring with me to save time and money ( yes, I'm cheap). My tickets.

I create a word document tailored to the resource (books, magazines, wills, directories, etc.) I will be researching. In this example, I was copying a photographic article in a magazine and would be researching a couple of books, so my tickets are geared to those resources.

This ticket is created from the source citation examples in Evidence Explained. I have a binder and I keep two copies of each set I've created. Just in case I find a resource I wasn't expecting.

Word Document

Now, you can always copy the title page for the book or magazine. Making a copy takes time and costs. They're still in line behind you. Or you can copy the information by hand to each page. Not efficient.

So, prior to using the copy machine, I fill out one of these tickets. Then I place the ticket on the front page of my article, face down in the copy machine, being sure not to obscure any important information. You can reuse the ticket, placing it on each page of the article, in the event that the stapler is out of staples and you drop your pile of copies on the way back to your table (Yes, I've done this.), or on one page only.

Fill out the information once,
use a dozen times.

Now I have all the information necessary to write a source citation, and I know which real world repository holds the resource.

It works for me. Do you have a great copying tip? Put it in the comments, please.