Report Post 5 - Evaluations and Conclusions

As my first closing point I would like to briefly address the issue of print resources concerning my topic. I became aware early on that I might have some difficulty finding print resources on my topic, as I realised that M. Night Shyamalan is neither very old, nor overwhelmingly famous. During the course of my research I did find one print resource, an autobiographical book. However, reading about both the book and people's opinions on it I decided that it would not really be a suitable information source. I did note it down as a point of interest previously in this blog, along with a DVD mockumentary. This leads onto another point that I thought about. M. Night Shyamalan enjoys mystery and intrigue. The mockumentary caused a great deal of scandal, many people became disgruntled when they learned that the facts of the film were false. This doesn't so much lead me to suspect that information about him might be false, but it does make me aware that perhaps there might never really be as extensive a library on M. Night Shyamalan as there is on other people in the film industry, as he enjoys maintaining some sense of the unknown.

For the most part my searches were conducted quite quickly and simply. I think that this was mostly in part becuase I already knew what I was searching for and also becuase M. Night Shyamalan is a rather unique name. I think perhaps I was lucky, in that I found results that were what I wanted quite early in the list, with further results becoming less relevant to what I wanted.

At this time I would like to talk about the shortcomings of my own work, specifically in regard to print items. During my early research, when I realised my problem with print resources, I had the thought of looking for magazine articles, as I was sure I might find something there. However, I had very little luck searching for articles and so I gave up. I realise now, when it's too late that I was forgetting about a resource that I have had access to all this time, namely the General OneFile database, which does in fact have articles in it under the subject heading "Shyamalan, M. Night". I feel a bit silly for not realising that I had that resource available to me sooner. As it is, I feel as though I have an overwhelming amount of digital information and almost no information of any other form.

I've attempted to compile a list information that I felt was relevant, however with a free-form project like this I can't help feeling that I could have done more research, gathered more information and been more thorough. Although I did use delicious for a while and find some information, I could probably have spent much more time on that than I did searching for useful bookmarks.