Paranormal Research: National Library of Australia’s TROVE (Part 3)

Referencing on Trove

Prior posts on this topic: 

Paranormal Research: The Manning Index of South Australia 

Paranormal Research: National Library of Australia’s TROVE (Part 1) – Basic Search

Paranormal Research: National Library of Australia’s TROVE (Part 2) - Advanced Search 

It is essential that researchers and writer in the paranormal field reference their work. Not only does this stop criticism from potential sceptics, as you can show where ideas and events are sourced from, it also stops plagiarism. Plagiarism is already rife in the field, and the more we stop it, the less infighting we will have.

Another valid point, that I am very vocal about on social media, is referencing our writing, showing our legitimate sources lends credence and respect to the field. It shows those in the scientific and research fields that we are serious about finding the truth about whatever it is we are researching. That we are more than just pseudoscience. 

So whether you are planning on writing a book or blog about ghosts, it is essential that you reference the materials you use in your research. It proves what you are talking about was reported widely. It proves you are not making the story up yourself, but it also proves you are not stealing the original work, word for word, or even worse, changing the story to fit your own narrative, as so many tour groups in this field are guilty of doing. 

Referencing is a standard convention within the academic and professional research communities, which is designed to inform the reader of the sources of information used in a piece of written work. 

There are several referencing systems in common use, with certain systems being preferred in different academic disciplines., my preferred styles are Chicago and Australian Harvard. I tend to lean more toward Chicago style now, and use extensive footnoting. (which we will get to in another blog post) 

There are two parts to every referencing system (or footnoting): 

1. The “in-text reference”; a reference to a source of information placed within the body of the work. 

In text Referencing Example: “Doyle write about looking for a Skeleton on Rundle Street. (The Register, 1921).” 

2. The “reference list”; a list of all sources referred to in the work, located at the end of the work. (A slight variation is the Bibliography). 

Luckily for us, Trove makes things a simple for referencing. 

If we search a newspaper story on Trove. You will find on the left-hand side are several symbols. The first is an information symbol, this is where Trove cites the work for you. Most of the time the 3rd citation down is Harvard. 

So, you can copy and paste, or write it down as is, and add it in your Reference List/Bibliography or in-text referencing: 

(Harvard Example)

‘1921 'GHOSTS AND SKELETONS', The Register (Adelaide, SA : 1901 - 1929), 25 February, p. 3. , viewed 05 May 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55150338

Because of the layout of Blogger, I cannot add the content of this talk in its entirety in one blog post. This transcript was originally presented as an interactive video presentation at the City Library in Adelaide and does not transcribe well to this format. 

© 2017 - Allen Tiller - originally presented by Allen Tiller as part of the 'Haunted Buildings in Adelaide' - Paranormal historian in residence project at the Adelaide City Libraries in conjunction with the City of Adelaide.

Paranormal Research: National Library of Australia’s TROVE (Part 1) - Basic Search

Paranormal Research: National Library of Australia’s TROVE (Part 1) - Basic Search

www.trove.nla.gov.au
Prior Posts related to this Blog:
Paranormal Research: The Manning Index of South Australian History

Trove is one of the biggest public databases in Australia, it contains more than 370 million resources, spread across ten content zones which includes: Books,  Photos, Journals, Newspapers, Government Gazettes, Music, Maps, Diaries and Letters, Archived Websites, People, and Lists.

The focus here is on content in digitised newspapers. (Trove also supplies a specific section with  information about searching newspapers.)

1. In this exercise, we are going to enter the term "Death of the Arcade Beadle" in inverted commas into the search bar. And hit enter, we can see our entry from the Manning index in slot two (see prior blog post The Manning Index <click here> )…

now let’s find it without the inverted commas. As you can see in the example below, we now have a ton of related content spread across all States and various newspapers. What we want to do now is to refine our search

Example 1

2. The easiest way to refine our search: we know that the newspaper we are looking for is from South Australia, so in the first left-hand side drop-down menu we choose South Australia – we then skip the newspapers and go straight to category – we know it’s an article, so we click that option. (see example 1)

Example 2

3. Next, we click "Decade" and scroll down to 1880-1890, which gives us 29 options of newspaper to read through, all from 1887. Our particular newspaper is second on the list, so we can click it and read it if we like. (example 2)

  From here, we can do many things, we can look through the various newspapers, most of which are the same, we could open up our search to the whole nation, which is sometimes useful because you will find that the newspapers in the state where an accident or crime happens will sanitise their stories so as not to offend the family, so an interstate newspaper may have a more in-depth story about the death or crime you are researching.

Because of the layout of Blogger, I cannot add the content of this talk in its entirety in one blog post. This transcript was originally presented as an interactive video presentation at the City Library in Adelaide and does not transcribe well to this format.

 Next week I will look at Advanced searching options on Trove.

© 2017 - Allen Tiller - originally presented by Allen Tiller as part of the 'Haunted Buildings in Adelaide' - Paranormal historian in residence project at the Adelaide City Libraries in conjunction with the City of Adelaide.