Klarinet Archive - Posting 000847.txt from 2002/11

From: "David B. Niethamer" <dnietham@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] Poulenc Sextet for Winds and Piano
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2002 00:01:15 -0500

on 11/19/2002 8:18 AM, George Kidder wrote:

>To say nothing of the fact that proper attributing ideas and the authority
>of sources is an important part of a research paper, at least in my
>field. It a student of mine came to me with a paper with references taken
>mostly from the Internet, they would be severely disappointed in the
>grade. II presume that the same is true in music education? That is, we
>as educators have to set the standards and correct accordingly.
>
>Having said that, conversations (including Internet conversations) with the
>knowledgeable can be important as leads to the sources desired, and there
>is no reason I can see that a student should not seek help in finding the
>sources. It is when the help is substituted for the sources that the
>trouble starts - or ought to start.

First let me start by saying that I'm not an academic, not by a long
shot. But my tangential academic experience leads me to the following,
using Mr. Kidder's remarks as a jumping off point.

I have noticed with some interest that U of Richmond now has a
university-wide policy/procedure for citing references taken from the
Internet. This is new, after a period where such sources were basically
considered to be unsatisfactory. As with any source, you have to know
where *they* got the information they are providing, and make your own
judgments about how reliable that information might be. Since there's no
peer review for internet sites, it's probably harder to establish the
accuracy of some of that information. OTOH, scholarly books sometimes
perpetuate misinformation (at least in music) for generations to the
point that it becomes difficult to correct. So, going a step beyond, you
have to know about your sources of information, be they print or
electronic.

Several people mentioned CD booklets as a source of information, and I
think this is a great idea for a start. Sometimes these are quite good
and well documented. But our U of Richmond music librarian was reluctant
to accept these notes for student program notes on the basis that they
are "not primary source material." At first I thought that this was a bit
pedantic, but having looked more carefully since then, I can see that
there is a danger in taking these materials as gospel. In some cases
they're more promotional material than scholarly information.

My $0.02

David

David Niethamer
dnietham@-----.edu
http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/

---------------------------------------------------------------------