“Once a sleuth, always a sleuth”: A study of fan publications as secondary materials for research in girls’ series books.

by Bradley, Alison D

This paper describes a study of two fan-based periodicals devoted to the study of girls’ series books. The study was designed to evaluate the usefulness of these publications as secondary research resources for research collections that focus on historical children’s literature or girls’ series books in particular.

The periodicals studied were Susabella Passengers and Friends and The Whispered Watchword, each produced by a group of amateur writers and editors dedicated to collecting girls’ series books. A total of 537 articles from 33 issues were examined, using a set of ten criteria developed to ascertain the emphasis on research quality or fan-oriented material.