I just spent the last 40 minutes chatting with a student researching native contributions to the Canadian Justice system. He was stumped with database searching, and I can't say I blame him. But over the course of chatting we came up with a number of items, plus some additional strategies. This just demonstrates that while Databases are wonderful tools, they are just one in the toolbox, and nothing can fully replace human interaction with intelligent informed librarians.
He began by outlining his topic, and while he was chatting, and telling me he didn't have any good keywords to search, I was madly writing down some of the keywords from what he told me, which he claimed he didn't have. His discussion also allowed me to recalls some key texts, I hadn't immediately thought of, and before long we ended up having a lengthy conversation with me occassionally interrupting and saying, 'Oh lets search that term, or that database'. He also seemed to gain the confidence to talk to some people he knows who work directly in the field. It was a nice a ha moment for him. Me, a bit frustrated at first that nothing was coming up with simple searches, but nice feeling as he left, that indeed there was hope, and no doubt he will find something, as there have been, in recent years some notable contributions. Thanks to the folks at the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards for having a category for Justice and Law and recognizing these contributions.
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