Research Guides in English

Abstract

Our profession is virtually identified with the use of books, yet more emphasis has often been put on what we do with books once we lay our hands on them (the art of reading or interpreting) than on how w.e bring books to hand (the art of research). For help with the latter a useful but widely neglected tool is the research guide. This learner's map shows the terrain of knowledge in a given academic field and aids in choosing the best route to take while acquiring or extending that knowledge. Put more technically, a research guide present[s] in systematic fashion the over-all information system of a field. Ordinarily this encompasses the basic pattern of organization of the literature, and the major publications and retrieval tools. It sometimes includes other matters as well, such as sources of data relevant to the field (statistics, laws, etc.), organizations acting as sources of information, descriptions of major library collections and archives. Many [research] guides identify the classic or landmark books in their fields, or include basic bibliographies.1 Stated in such general terms, the potential usefulness of research guides is obvious. Yet they are little used. They are seldom missing from their places on the reference shelves, ripped up, or ripped off. Students typically do not know what they are, and faculty almost never mention them. So a survey of the research guides most commonly recommended in the field of English should be instructive to many. The general and most basic purpose of all research guides, certainly including ones in the field of English, is to help make learners more self-sufficient. For that reason they embody a philosophy of education that is controversial, but this is not the place to debate the matter. Rather, it is pertinent to look more specifically at what research guides in English may be used for and to find criteria by which they may be compared.