Free Writing the Paranormal Novel: Techniques and Exercises for Weaving Supernatural Elements Into Your Story. by Steven Harper Page A

However, even a small, local library can offer several advantages the Internet simply can't match.
    First, Google is not your friend. (I'll cover this in more detail in the Internet section on page 62.) You've doubtless already figured out that if you enter “vampire” into Google — or any other search engine — you'll end up with hundreds of millions of entries, most of which are movies or Wikipedia. (Another site that's not necessarily your friend.) Most libraries, however, subscribe to a host of research databases, including ERIC, SIRS, Gale, and others. These databases gather magazine articles, scholarly journals, newspapers, electronic books, and more. They winnow out the useless junk and categorize it for you. And they're usually free for library patrons. All you need to do is register for a password. At the library.
    Second, the libraries have people on staff who can help you, who love to help you. These people are called reference librarians, and they live for those odd questions. Their eyes positively light up when someone walks up to their desks and says, “I'm looking for information on Japanese fox spirits. Can you point me in the right direction?”
    Third, the local library is the place to go if you're looking for local history or local folklore. They're likely to have old newspapers, yearbooks, photo albums, maps, letters, diaries, and more. And if you live in a city with an actual historical library in it — heaven! Historical librarians know everything . Use them. They love it.
    Finally, when you go to the library, you're more likely to work than become distracted. Hey, you made a special trip, perhaps even through bad weather, so your mind-set is likely to be I'm here to get things done . You won't be tempted to check your e-mail, post something on your favorite social network, or play a “quick” game of solitaire. You'll get your work done.
AN INTERVIEW
    Reading has its advantages, but it has limitations as well. You can't ask a book a question. It won't bring up information you didn't think to ask. It can't clarify anything. A real person, on the other hand, instantly overcomes these limitations and may even hand you information you didn't realize you needed.
    But just how do you find someone to talk to? And how do you ask? Won't he get mad that you're bothering him? How much do you pay her? What's the etiquette at an interview? These are some daunting questions, so let's take them one at a time.
    The first step, obviously, is finding someone to consult. Sometimes you just get lucky. My first book was about a man suffering from what psychologists call dissociative identity disorder (DID). (That's multiple personalities to you and me.) I read everything I could get my hands on, but there were a lot of things the books didn't say. As it happened, my wife was taking a psychology class at the time and she mentioned my book to the professor. He was fascinated! DID, it turned out, was his specialty. When I heard about this, I hurried to call the psych department to confirm his office hours, and I went down to see him the following day. As I said — lucky.
    Luck, of course, doesn't work all the time. A more reliable way to find contacts is simply to ask all your friends and family if they know anything about the field you're researching. You'd be surprised at some of the contacts you can find this way. (“Didn't you know your great-uncle Ben worked as a lumberjack for fifteen years?”) Even if this doesn't yield a direct contact, it can lead you to the friend-of-a-friend system. When I first expressed interest in contacting the FBI, for example, a friend of mine told me his parents knew an FBI agent assigned to the Kalamazoo Field Office.
    You can also do cold contacts. This involves getting hold of people you've never heard of (and vice versa), and it oft en calls for some preliminary research. I was working on a supernatural piece that involved advanced botany, and the friend-of-a-friend system was