In this week's session we were showered with information courtesy of Julia from Library Services. I left the session full of hope and armed with some tools destined to take my research to another level. I'll have to watch the recording again as I'm sure there were parts of the discussion that shot in one ear, got jumbled up with other thoughts like "this flat is so cold today" and "what do I fancy for dinner", before exiting straight out the other ear.
One frustration I often face whilst researching topics around the black experience is the bias towards US-centric data in comparison to the little that speaks of my exsistence. Whilst the black male has and continues to face similar challenges to our American cousins our journeys and timeline of events and achievement are worlds apart.
During my BA Photography studies I was introduced to the African-Caribbean, Asian & African Art In Britain Archive based at Chelsea College, the collection proved to be a treasure trove of publications, posters, flyers and other artefacts of interest that I had found difficult to source elsewhere. Whilst I can freely access the Chelsea archives (well, by appointment anyway), JSTOR documents and countless other databases as a UAL student it bothers me that I may lose much of this access on completion of the masters course. Yes, some access is offered for a short period after graduating but after that you're on your own.
This got me thinking about the access to knowledge and how this is governed largely by money and association. Arguably the information is out there but without the means to fund a university education thus gaining access to resources, or the knowledge on how to conduct effective searches, it's literally like looking for that needle in a giant haystack. Whilst writing my dissertation on racial bias and representation in British arts I came across numerous dead-ends during my research, Google could only take me a certain distance before running out of gas, algorithms that favour popularity buried much of my search terms under a gazillion bytes of data.
But I remain hopeful, I intend to establish more permanent links to archives over the coming terms, determined that my research capabilities are not curtailed after I graduate.
I've listed some of the resources covered today for easy access..
Academic Support Online
African-Caribbean, Asian & African Art In Britain Archive
Documenting the work of contemporary artists practicing in Britain and of African-Caribbean, Asian and African descent.
Community Archives and Heritage Group
CREDO Reference Library
DAAP
Digital Archive of Artists' Publishing.
Google Scholar
London Metropolitan Archives
RefWorks
Online database search and referencing tool.
SCONUL
Society of College, National and University Libraries. Shared resources across the UK.
Stuart Hall Foundation
UAL Library Search
Zotero
Free tool to help collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share your research.
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