8.2 Finding resources

This can be a challenging for an era when today’s everyday communication and recording choices were not available.

• When looking for and at resources consider:
  • Who might have been responsible for creating or storing records on this topic? e.g. people, organisations, government agencies.
  • Is the information available publicly? e.g. social media or in journal articles that could support the content.
• Record your search strategies as you go.
• There could be finding aids available for your topic that could provide further insight.
• Start broad and be prepared to experiment with terms. Items may be described in a way that is not immediately obvious or language may have changed over time.
• Are copyright or permissions required to use any of the discovered content? Check the licence and record the URL.
• There is the issue of bias around content available in GLAM institutions. Take care when using resources to consider who curated them at the time they came into existence and where the current debate is at. Do they reflect the broader society present, such as those living in populated and less populated areas or all social levels? Who was the content written for or developed by? Not everyone had the ability to record events at the time. Is content being written on behalf of others or about them rather than by them? For example, has the Indigenous narrative from any culture been accurately portrayed?
• A range of GLAM institutions may hold content on the topic telling a different aspect of the story that may fill in gaps. Check other sources to see what they have. Gaps in initial sources might be filled in, remain or show a different view.

Ask questions around these sources, especially where a level of interpretation has been undertaken on the source. How accurate is that? What evidence has been used to come to that conclusion? Does the artefact in question support the story being told? Why are there gaps in the story? Why might this information have not been collected or been lost in history, ignored or not deemed important? If the latter, who is or was responsible for making the decision? What authority/credentials do they have? What context was in place at the time?