Painstaking paper research methods rival what databases now achieve quickly
Evidence
Keith Thomas has performed his life’s work with scissors and ink, staples, index books, old envelopes, cardboard boxes and a forest of slips of paper: “some of them get loose and blow around the house, turning up months later under a carpet or a cushion.” He admits, “The sad truth is that much of what it has taken me a lifetime to build up by painful accumulation can now be achieved by a moderately diligent student in the course of a morning.” — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 730
Categorization
- SEED: Essay angle: what analog research practices — and the slow accumulation they forced — gave scholars that databases cannot.
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 730
- XREF: connects to: Painstaking analog research methods relied on physical accumulation of paper slips. — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 730