University Projects

A worthwhile source to look into is University Projects.

Credibility, Contact, and Availability
Many researching authors overlook universities as sources of information. The universities seem too lofty, too scholarly, and too separated from the rest of the world.

In reality, interesting things are happening at universities throughout the world. Students and professors are setting up projects, doing research, and giving conferences on subject which are of interest to authors like us. Of course, not all projects interest all of us all the time. It all depends on the novel we are researching.

Universities are both credible and transparent sources.

The historical researchers can contact them with their questions and also ask for advice.

Because these universities all have elaborate websites for their projects most of the research and documents are available on line.

Here are some Interesting Examples:

Yale Law School
- The Avalon Project
- Law, history, and diplomacy documents dating back to the 18th century.

Harvard University
- The Civil Rights Project
- Research and conferences to bridge the world s of ideas and action in civil rights.

The University of Rochester
- The Camelot Project and related projects
- Arthurian texts, images, and bibliographies.

The University of Leicester
- Space research projects
- A series of space-related projects which will certainly interest sci-fi writers.

Strategy
1. Know what you are looking for.
2. If you contact the universities, be specific. Avoid messages along the lines of tell me everything about space.
3. Fill out an evaluation sheet even though universities have high credibility.
4. Follow up

I contacted the University of Liege a couple of years ago because of a mining project I found on-line. The data and documents available did not interest me. They concerned coal mining and I needed information on lead mining around Verviers.
However, I exchanged e-mails with a student doing his PhD and spent about an hour on the phone with a professor. With their help I completely re-organized my research.