Harp Student Ethics Question

[unknown-user]

I’ve seen two requests here for information about harpists in the last couple days, that appear to come from students who are doing school reports.

Since I

[unknown-user]

I don’t think any student should rely on this as a source at all, except to suggest where to research further. This is a bunch of conversations. None of it can be verified, academically speaking. I guess you’d call it hearsay or something. Our answers are quick, off the top of the head, sometimes well thought out, but never the whole picture (almost never). What we do need, perhaps, is more reference material for the harp in general.

[unknown-user]

That fixes me for keeping my sarcasm too thickly veiled!

[unknown-user]

I always take people at “face” value.

[Misty Harrison]

There are also problems with “the professional harpist” posting messages under false names and using other peoples answers without credit and sometimes this is even done in publishing articles and other things that people should get honest credit for.

[kreig-kitts]

As a professional research librarian, I’d suggest students start by going into their library and asking a reference librarian. If they’re in a conservatory, they should have a library loaded with information, but even general libraries will have some resources. For example, my public library has the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians online, and this is a good starting point for a lot of research, particularly if the student knows very little about a topic and needs an introduction.

If they come here asking for “where to find out” type of information, they’re doing alright. But if they come here asking for the answer to their question, then they’re asking the members here to do their homework. And if they do that, I hope they’re at least putting a footnote in their paper saying where the information came from. If they put credit where credit is due, at least they’re not engaging in dishonest research, just sloppy research.

[kreig-kitts]

As an addendum for anybody doing research, here’s a lovely group of research and information links put together by the librarians at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University.

http://library.music.indiana.edu/music_resources/

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