Renaissance Art in Florence & Environs




Roberto Vargas

rvargas1@swarthmore.edu

Today:

>Research

>Frameworks

> Tools

Reflect on your past research experiences in other classes. What do you find difficult about research/finding resources?

BACKGROUND

EXHIBIT

ARGUMENT

METHOD

A rhetorical understanding of resources

Background

Materials used to establish facts. When used as background, you take them as fact and do not question them. If you do, they will become part of your argument. Implies membership in a community based on shared references

Exhibit (Evidence)

The materials to be analyzed, examined or interpreted

Argument (Authority, Antagonist)

Sources you engage with or respond to directly by countering, extending or refining the claims made. You engage in conversation. They-Say....

Method (Model)

Sources from which you borrow an approach, key concept, idea, or method, or sources after which you model your own approach to inquiry, writing, or argument.

source: McMaster University Library

Library Book Basics

Example call number:
N6923.L33 C53 1993

N: Fine Arts

Call number starts with Floor in McCabe
A-E Lower Floor
F-K 2nd Floor
L-Z 3rd Floor

Tutorial: How to find a book in McCabe

Related to Leonardo da Vinci

Renaissance Art

20th century Modernist Literature

Italian Artist

Scholarly books (published by a university press or academic publisher  - cite other research)

How do you find a book in McCabe?

 Example: Raphael Florence patrons

10 minutes

1) Search for a book related to your research topic or one that is of interest to you

2) Go find it and pick another book around it that might be of interests

Tools for finding secondary sources

Art History focused databases:

Oxford Art Online

International Bibliography of Art (IBA)

International Bibliography of Art

 

General databases

Jstor

Project muse

 

Citation Chaining

 

Book 1

 

Article

 

Book 3

 

Book 4

 

Article

 

Book 6

Requesting material that we don't have

Interlibrary loan 

&

Ask me!

 

All search bars are not created equal

Kosmyna, Nataliya, et al. "Your brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of cognitive debt when using an AI assistant for essay writing task." arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.08872 4 (2025).

easy access to external information can diminish the brain's tendency to internally store and connect information

while they enhance accessibility and personalization of education, they may inadvertently contribute to cognitive atrophy through excessive reliance on AI-driven solutions

When individuals fail to critically engage with a subject, their writing might become biased and superficial. This pattern reflects the accumulation of cognitive debt, a condition in which repeated reliance on external systems like LLMs replaces the effortful cognitive processes
required for independent thinking.

 

Easy access

 

Atrophy

 

Cognitive Debt

ZOTERO

Beware of the PDF/TAB graveyard

(where papers go to die)

Thank you,

rvargas1@swrathmore.edu

Salvator Mundi, Leonardo da Vinci.  Accessed via artnet

Thank you

rvargas1@swarthmore.edu

or make at appointment

https://swarthmore.libcal.com/appointments/libraries

& scholarly production

#

BOTH AND

TRIPOD

How do you approach research?

Conversation

(waropen OR austronesian) AND language* AND phonolo*

A phonological sketch of Waropen

How do you approach research?

Specific Issue

Frantz Fanon and Language

afropessimism + other authors

General

Colonial and Post Colonial

How do you approach research?

TOPIC & TERMS

EXCERCISE

Where do you go?

Interlibrary Loan

WorldCat - or how to know what you don't know

LLBA

Oxford Bibliographies

Methods

Controlled vocab - the # of libraries

LLBA / Tripod

Methods

(waropen OR austronesian) AND language* AND phonolo*

  1. OR:          Joins ~similar~ concepts
  2. AND:       Joins different concepts
  3. *:            Searches root
  4. ():            Separates concepts

Staying organized

• Document your process

• Save consistently

• Annotate sources

Three ways to stay organized
while doing research: 

{ ideas, searches, sources }

{ done & to-do }

{ while you still remember }

This sounds like a lot of work...

Staying organized

but it's important. 

Because research is
messy.

You don't necessarily know what path you'll take, or where you'll end up. And there's a lot of stuff involved.

Staying organized

Useful Tools

• Zotero  { personal research library }

• Coggle  { mapping ideas visually }
• Search logs  { example, blank version }
• Saving searches  { persistent links }
• Browser history

zotero

Zotero Basics Libguide

Roberto Vargas
rvargas1@swarthmore.edu

Office #120

Or schedule appt here:

swarthmore.edu/libraries/staff