[Sca-cooks] Search Techniques

Johnna Holloway johnnae at mac.com
Thu Oct 4 08:38:22 PDT 2012


This may seem a bit offbeat, but I thought maybe this list might like the topic.

For a talk I am scheduled to give at a cookery conference down the road, 
I have been looking once more into the larger question of how people go looking for information on historical Medieval and Renaissance cookery, foods, and/or recipes.

Where do you look for information and ideas on medieval foods and feasts in 2012 as opposed to say back in 2002 or 1992? The web and lists first? 
Have the lists of yesteryear been supplanted by Facebook?

If seeking information, do you post the query before attempting to look on your own? 
Or do you Google first? Is this being driven by use of cellphones and not computers? Is it easier to post the query than to search
on the smartphone? Do people also not respond to a query now because it's harder to do so from a smartphone? 

How about Resources at home? Do you buy fewer books? 
How about using Resources/databases through a library? Do you ever look through a book at home first?

How have your search techniques changed?

Medieval recipes? Do you look at books at home first or turn
to the web?  Which sites do you use and trust? 
Have you dropped out of researching ? After an N number of years, you no longer care to keep up with the field. You've retired.

I was told recently that someone did all of his/her medieval cookery research for an SCA "cookbook"
by using Yahoo and the term "medieval". The author didn't check the validity of the sources. 
Yahoo was good enough! "All of the information [needed] is just there!" 
When questioned if this was good enough, the author was of the opinion that everyone's research was equally valid  and ok because this
was the SCA. 


Johnnae



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