Part of my daily job is ensuring that people doing costume and fashion history research get the prepping they need for their research. To aid that purpose, I offer classes on this research several times a year. A class is coming up: I’ll offer “Researching Costume and Fashion History” on Thursday March 27 at 12:30 p.m. in the South Court classrooms. The next one will be Thursday, May 8, at the same time and location. 

For those far away, or who cannot get away for a class, I do have a Research Guide on our Library website on Costume and Fashion History. It’s a great way to start in. One of the primary hurdles for people doing such research is understanding that library research isn’t as simple as doing a Google search. When you work with library catalogues, including our the library catalog, your best approach is not a word search, but choosing the right subject heading to get to the material you want. And this is a bit dictatorial, for we all use Library of Congress Subject Headings. This means, for example, that searching under the subject heading Fashion History will prove disappointing, when what you really want is Costume—History. Want to know why? Come to my class and I’ll explain...