Finding your materials, part 4:
...........Snowball!!

"Snowballing" is an old-fashioned and very efficient strategy to build your bibliography and to find the info you need. Imagine what life was like when there were no computer databases available. A researcher would have to go through hard copy indexes. It literally could take months!) The term "Snowballing" is a metaphor. Think of how children make a snowman by rolling a small snowball so that it gets bigger and bigger as it picks up more snow.

To snowball: Choose a source that you find very helpful. And then use this source as a springboard or signpost for where to go next:
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• Make use of an author's footnotes: If they mention something of interest to you and provide a footnote, look up that source, and snowball from there.
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  Not sure what a footnote is? In the Chicago Style, which is we use in the field of Art, a footnote says where information in a book or paper comes from. The author places a small raised number (or superscript) in the text. Then at the bottom of the page--or at the end of the chapter, book, or paper--they put a matching superscript with the "citation." This citation identifies the source and page number that information comes from. There's an example of a footnote after the quotation from C. S. Lewis near the bottom of this page. See how it answers the question of "How can I see the full context of the quotation"? Note that the footnote includes the author's name, title, place of publication, publisher, date published, and page number.
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• Check out the bibliography. Is there anything there that sounds promising? Look it up, and continue snowballing!
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• Does the author mention a topic that relates to your interests? Look it up then continue snowballing!
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• An encyclopedia article usually is NOT considered an appropriate source for a serious paper. And an Internet source aimed at a popular audience usually is not appropriate either. But you can certainly use these resources for snowballing. For example, Wikipedia is a useful site for quick reference, but it can contain errors. But Wikipedia articles often have footnotes and a bibliography. Check these out! The writer of the Wikipedia article may have misinterpreted a source. But you can go to that source and read it for yourself.
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• IIt may seem counterintuitive, but... Remember that you can snowball quite productively from sources that you KNOW are unreliable.If a savvy reader saw these in your Select Bibliography they would probably view them as "red flags." These sources could raise questions about the quality of your research. But they still can be helpful. How could this be? Sister Mandeleve, C.S.C, of Notre Dame, Indiana wrote to C. S. Lewis. You probably know him as the author of the Chronicles of Narnia. She was writing a work relating to the Middle Ages, and needed help with her bibliography. In his reply, Lewis included this tip.

Remember (this has been all important to me) that what you want to know about the Middle Ages will often not be in a book on the Middle Ages, but in the early chapters of some history of general philosophy or science. The acccounts of your period in such books will, of course, usually be patronizing and ill-informed, but it will mention dates and authors whom you can follow up and thus put you in the way of writing a true account for yourself.¹
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Do you see how snowballing lets other writers do much of your work for you? They've already found good material on your topic, and all you need to do is follow up on what they've done. But there's an important limitation to be aware of. When snowballing, remember that your author will of course refer to works published before theirs! So, be aware of the dates of the works you snowball from and be sure to check more recent sources as well.

............¹C. S. Lewis, ed. W. H. Lewis, Letters of C. S. Lewis (New York: Harcourt, Brace, & World, Inc., 1966) 157.