WorldCat is an excellent place to start collecting the writings of any author because of the breadth of collections the system has access to. Apart from books, WorldCat also lists items in archives, computer files, serial publications and sound recordings held by thousands of libraries around the world. It is not completely exhaustive, but WorldCat will produce one of the widest varieties of media for each search.

Note that Sladen's name, which is beside the Author(s) heading, is an active blue link, .

By selecting this link, WorldCat provides you with everything in its listings attributed to Douglas Sladen.

You will notice the rather daunting amount of items at the top in a series of tabs.

These tabs can also tell us how many of which types of media are included. For now, let's skip the books and take a look at other types of media.

Computer Files

Let's look at the computer sources first. Just select the appropriately labeled tab. A glance at the list will tell you that your items are scattered around the world; libraries in Tokyo, Melbourne and London. Notice the words Computer File next to the heading Document. That means there is a very good possibility that we can receive it digitally in a very short period of time. In fact, it may already be available online, since some libraries create catalog records for free Internet resources. Select the title of one of the items, then scroll down to the Borrow this item from another library option. For a review of how to borrow items from other libraries, visit our Interlibrary loan module.

Now let's move on to the archival material.

Archival material

We've found a record for a collection of letters by Sladen. On the full item record, you will notice that we are not given the option to automatically order this collection through interlibrary loan. Archival material is generally not in circulation. But we are not without options. Make a note of the location (the library and area in the library), author, title, publisher, publication date and accession number and then connect to your interlibrary loan system. For purposes of demonstration, we will discuss the system at Rice University, Illiad. Select "other" for type of material. In the section for user notes, just explain to the staff that your item is in an archive and you would like them to try to obtain a photocopy, digital copy or any sort of reproduction possible. There is always the possibility that, with archival material especially, no copies are allowed. But it is always worth the time to inquire.

Books

We have one hundred and fifty five books attributed to Douglas Sladen. Scrolling through, you will probably find that many works are repeated due to subtle differences in the entries from different libraries. The list produced by WorldCat will be very comprehensive, but it is not everything. For instance, WorldCat will probably not index Sladen's publications in magazines and newspapers, which would be available through separate periodical indexes. So that you can easily collect a list of all of Sladen's works available through WorldCat, mark the box beside each listing on each page. You can save time by just scrolling down to the bottom and selecting mark all. Skip to the next page and repeat. Once you have marked every one, select the Email or Print option at the bottom of the page.

Notice that you have the option to email a specific page of entries or all that you have marked; make sure you select Marked Records. Also, notice that you have the option for a brief or detailed entry for each work. You may not need the detailed entry, but you never know when that kind of information may come in handy. Select either before you enter your email or print the page.

Tracking down all of an author's publications in newspapers and magazines is a much more intensive process than finding his or her books, since there are so many possible periodicals where he or she could publish and indexes to them can be spotty. Since Sladen was writing in the nineteenth century, we may be able to find relevant information using the Nineteenth Century Index, which includes the Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue, The Wellesley Index and Periodicals Index Online. (Note that coverage extends only from 1770 to 1919). According to the Nineteenth Century Index, Sladen published 57 articles, with titles such as "SOME YOUNGER AMERICAN POETS" and "MILAN CATHEDRAL." We could also use the Nineteenth Century Masterfile, which contains extensive indexes for the nineteenth century. Here we will focus on the online archives for the Times of London and take a look at what we found by our author.

The Times of London

The Times has been the daily newspaper of record in England for hundreds of years. Douglas Sladen was born in England and published most of his books there. Of all the newspapers we could search for Douglas Sladen, the Times of London seems the most promising. It would have been the newspaper he would have been most interested in as a figure in the London literary scene and the newspaper that most interested in him as an Englishman.

Fortunately, the archive of the Times of London is available online to subscribers.

A basic search produces five articles for us to choose from.The first two articles were written by Douglas Sladen himself, while the other three were written about him and his work. Let's look at the second of his contributions, "Morrison of Peking," which was published in 1937. Notice the paragraph about one third of the way down: Sladen mentions his association with Sir Walter Besant, their co-establishment of the Author's Club and his wide relations with London journalists in the 1890's. Whether or not this helps you in your research project, the fact that you are able to access a letter to the editor of the London Times from the 1930's should tell you that very little lies outside of your reach as a researcher if you know where and how to look for it.