Becoming a geographical researcher

I will have to be a good ‘hunter-gatherer’ and get myself organised to keep

things…..

I will need to think like a detective….finding, sifting and filtering

information from a range of sources

Research options

Books – including standard A’Level texts

Lots of choice

Articles – the ‘big 6’

Range of articles newspapers

Guardian & Independent

GeoFactsheet

GeoFile online

GeoNews Review

Geography Review

Geographical ‘dossier’

Further Journals

Remember to use their websites

National Geographic

The EcologistNew Scientist,

Nature

Getting additional help

• Try the exam boards

Probably the best

geography websites - CENSUS

Probably the best

geography websites:

Fieldwork - OTHERSGoogle Books Search

http://books.google.com/

Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com/

Blogs and forums (also newspapers / editorials)

Consider ‘Ethnography’ ???

• Direct, first-hand observation of daily behaviour. This can include participant observation, e.g. monitoring movements

• Conversation with different levels of formality. This can involve ‘small talk’ to long interviews.

• Detailed work with key consultants / stakeholders e.g. teachers, publicans, post-office personnel etc about particular areas of community life. Can be recorded focus groups.

• Virtual or online ethnography – online conversations and text based research. Email research.

Ethnography is a qualitative field of research intended to construct in-depth depictions of the every day life events of people, through

active researcher participation and engagement

‘Miro’ – video search and saving software (freeware)

On the web…always consider• Who published the information - a site maintained by a university

or government organisation is probably more reliable than one maintained by a private individual.

• Who wrote the information - you can probably assume that material provided by a known expert in the field is likely to be reliable.

• The age of the material - if you need current statistics, carefully check the age of the material you've found. A site dealing with historical hazards information may not need updating as frequently as one related to news and current events.

• Why the material exists - many special interest groups have web pages. And while this doesn't necessarily mean the material is biased, it's something you should consider. Think about whether they might have some reason, other than pure helpfulness, for posting information

Web evaluation checklist?

Library vs internet

Library •Has helpful staff to help you

find things. Organised!

•Provides free access to print and paper copies of items, e.g. journals

•Archived information available

•Doesn’t always have what you want

•Not always up to date copies

•Closes after hours

•Cant always take out reference copies

•Nearly all in written form

Internet •Open all hours

•Provides access to global resources, e.g. newspaper from India

•Complete multimedia experience

•Updated information

•Two way communication

•No universal system of cataloguing and organising resources

•Anyone can publish things

•May have to pay for internet time

•May have to pay for some resources