FROM BOBST LIBRARY

Interdisciplinary Research in the Humanities and Sciences

Tom McNulty and Peg Eby-Jager

[Ed: Links to web pages and/or e-mail addresses which have become inactive since the publication of this article have been enclosed in curly brackets { }. Replacement links have been provided where possible.]

As the borders between disciplines become less distinct, contemporary research grows increasingly interdisciplinary. Until recently, scholars limited themselves to a standard roster of indexes, books, journals, and other resources in their respective fields. The literature scholar would consult the MLA Bibliography (still a standard tool for literary research), specialized bibliographies, and the like; similarly, art historians would consult the Art Index, exhibition catalogues, artists' monographs, and other products of the art press. Like their counterparts in the humanities, researchers in science, medicine, and technology have their own highly specialized resources. In the not-too-distant past, only rarely did academics from one discipline venture into another.

In the last installment of this column (Summer 1996) we discussed basic techniques for searching very general databases. In this article, we'll use three hypothetical research topics to demonstrate the use of scientific resources for the humanities scholar. All of the science titles discussed here are available in the Coles Science Center on the 9th floor of Bobst, while the humanities resources can be found in the General and Humanities Reference Center on the main floor.

"Bullseye" Interdisciplinarity

When a research topic is clearly split between the humanities and sciences, it is advisable to explore the literatures of both disciplines. For example, historians interested in current medical thinking on Vincent van Gogh might go directly to the source they're most familiar with - the Art Index. While this is, at first glance, an art-history question, we're really looking for medical professionals' views on the issue. Undoubtedly some art historians will be aware of the relevant medical literature, and indeed it might be reported in art history monographs and journals.

Medical resources including Medline, the nation's largest database of medical literature, provide a significant number of critical works on the medical history of the Van Gogh. These include "Vincent: the Self-Portraits" (Psychoanalytic Quarterly, Jan. 1993) and "The Wing of Madness: The Illness of Vincent van Gogh" (Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, Sept. 1993) among several others.

Historical Context

The polio epidemic had a tremendous impact on American society in the earlier part of the twentieth century. One of the major political figures of this century, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was afflicted with the disease, and it is important to consider contemporary ideas about poliomyelitis when taking the measure of Roosevelt's accomplishments. The researcher might begin with America: History and Life - one of the major indexes to the literature of US history. Indeed, this strategy yields a few significant articles including one gem, "FDR's Extra Burden" (American Heritage, 1973). Like our previous example, however, this topic has medical as well as historical aspects, and the resources of both disciplines will help us to round out the picture. Two science and medicine databases in particular - MedLine and History of Science and Technology (HST) yield a wealth of contextual information, including articles like "Dirt, Flies, and Immigrants: Explaining the Epidemiology of Poliomyelitis," (Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 1989). HST will also identify important monographs like A Summer Plague: Polio and Its Survivors (Yale University Press, 1995). The Medline, Health, and CINAHL databases (see sidebar) provide a number of additional citations dealing with aspects of the history of polio, the development of the poliovirus vaccine, and public health measures employed to combat the epidemic in the United States.

Pieces of the Puzzle

Science resources often provide a piece of the puzzle on a topic that fits squarely in the humanities. In the literature of music history, for example, the researcher might encounter references to the Fibonacci sequence, a numerical system that is based upon sums of integers and that has applications not only in music but also in architecture and computer science. To research the musical applications it is reasonable to expect that the vast majority of information will come from indexes such as the Music Index and Muse, and a recent search produced thirty relevant hits from the latter music index alone. What's missing from these sources, however, is an explanation of how the sequence was formulated and how it works mathematically. "On Approximation Methods of Leonardo Fibonacci," from the journal Historia Mathematica (vol. 3, 1976) provides this important piece of the puzzle and it too comes from the History of Science and Technology database.

These hypothetical research problems, selected to showcase some of the resources offered by Bobst Library's Coles Science Center (9th floor), represent just a few of the possibilities available to the researcher. Once an interdisciplinary perspective is taken, the possibilities are limited only by the imagination of the scholar. [ C ]

Peg Eby-Jager is a former science librarian at Bobst.
Tom Mcnulty is Bobst Library's Fine Arts Librarian and Coordinator of Services for Students with Disabilities.
{mcnulty@is.nyu.edu} Replacement address: tom.mcnulty@nyu.edu

Posted 26 September 1996. Revised 24 May 2004.