The Unexpected Treasures of Digital Detours

Rabbit holes - those unexpected tangents we follow while researching - often carry a negative connotation as productivity killers. But what if these digital detours are actually where the magic happens?

Today I'm pulling back the curtain on my research process, particularly the way I embrace going off-script when following information trails. Just yesterday, what started as a simple search to enhance an advertisement led me through a fascinating journey connecting women's histories in ways I never anticipated. A single image search revealed blog posts I didn't know existed, uncovered that a woman was the granddaughter of a college president, and connected to another woman's hotel business I'd been documenting separately. These unexpected connections enriched my understanding and added crucial context to my work documenting the 400+ women of substance from Raleigh whose stories deserve telling.

These research diversions have practical challenges too. When you find yourself with 40-50 browser tabs open (we've all been there!), how do you manage that information effectively? I share my system for documenting sources, preserving disappearing web content, and organizing research materials for future use. I discuss how finding an oral history interview in an Ohio college archive - something I never would have specifically searched for - provided 30 pages of invaluable background on a respected community elder. The excitement of these discoveries fuels my passion for learning something new every day.

Whether you're researching for writing, personal projects, or professional work, I encourage you to see rabbit holes not as distractions but as opportunities for discovery. What unexpected connections might you uncover by following your curiosity down that next digital pathway? Join the conversation by sharing your own research rabbit hole stories and the treasures you've discovered along the way.

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Carmen Wimberley Cauthen is an author, speaker, and lover of history, Black history in particular. As a truth teller, she delights in finding the hidden truths about the lives of people who made a difference - whether they were unknown icons or regular everyday people.

To Learn more of Carmen:
www.carmencauthen.com
www.researchandresource.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Unseen, unheard.
We've lived like that far toolong.
I'm Carmen Coffin and this isQuiet, no More.
So you've heard me talk aboutresearch and you've heard me

(00:22):
talk about my process, sort of,but I want to talk about rabbit
holes.
Do you ever fall down a rabbithole?
So you know rabbit holes are inAlice in Wonderland.
She falls down, she tumblesdown into the rabbit hole and

(00:42):
ends up somewhere else, and youknow that's what research is all
about.
When I am writing or researching, I go down rabbit holes all the
time, and it's probably why Idon't sleep a whole lot, because
I get really excited when I godown a rabbit hole and find

(01:02):
something new.
When I go down a rabbit holeand find something new and you
know, for me, learning somethingnew every day is just I have to
do it, I have to do it.
So yesterday I was researchingI was actually working on an ad
for a program and the young ladyhad bought a half page ad and

(01:25):
she only had one line to go onit and I was like, okay, she's
not giving me anything else.
What can I do to spice up thisad so it doesn't look like
there's a mistake or, you know,there's just not enough
something there.
And so I went and looked forthe picture for the woman that
she was honoring and the picturethat I was sent was it's not a

(01:49):
good picture to work with.
So I went to to Google to do asearch and I searched the lady's
name and before I hit images no, I think I hit images.
No, I think I hit images.
And then I saw all this.
She had written, this woman hadwritten a blog post and she had
written actually two blog posts.

(02:12):
And then I saw some other stuffthat was attached to a college
that I knew I had seen her whenI spoke at the college, but I
just assumed she was an alum.
So it was a rabbit hole.
It was a rabbit hole that Ispent a couple of hours going

(02:32):
down, because I not only foundinformation out about the lady,
I found information out about acollege, a president of a
college, another woman to add tothe list of women of substance
you know we're at 400 women nowjust from Raleigh and then I

(02:53):
found out information aboutanother lady who I knew went to
church with when I was growingup and grew up with her daughter
, and I knew a little bit ofinformation about the business
that she ran.
But then I found some moreinformation and more pictures
about the hotel that she ran andit was just fascinating and it

(03:20):
was important informationbecause even though I'd gotten
some of the pictures and thingsfrom the daughter to honor her
mother, I didn't have some ofthe other information that I
found.
So rabbit holes while they canbe distracting, they can also
give us so much additionalinformation, something that we

(03:43):
weren't looking for to beginwith, but something that we
found that enhanced what we weredoing and what we knew and what
we know.
And sometimes nobody else hasthat information.
You don't know where they gotit from.
One of my dear friends who isalso researching, he found some

(04:07):
stuff at a college that was likea thousand miles away from
where he's researching and hereached out and purchased the
information that they had.
Sometimes you find informationfor free and sometimes you have
to make a choice.
Do I want to pay for thisinformation?
Sometimes it's important to paybecause you don't know what you

(04:30):
will find.
One day I was researching hmm,I'm not even sure what I was
researching that day, but Ifound out that a gentleman that
I knew as an elder when I wasgrowing up, who's the editor of
a newspaper had actually done anoral history interview at, and

(04:51):
that was housed at a college inOhio.
Now I'm in North Carolina.
I would not have thought tolook in Ohio for this oral
history interview, Didn't evenknow it existed.
It was buried with a bunch ofother interviews that I just
decided, since they were there,I would look and see if there

(05:13):
was anything there that I coulduse as background information.
As background information, 30pages worth of information from
this gentleman is amazing.
I was able to share thatinterview with his son and his
granddaughter, both of whom havebeen involved in the publishing
business.
He was part of a nationalpublishers organization.

(05:35):
Yesterday, the first lady thatI was looking to get information
out about, I found out she wasthe granddaughter of the
president of the college and Ihad no idea that she had that
connection to that college.
And then the lady she mademention of this hotel across the

(05:57):
street from the house that shelived, and the hotel was the one
that was owned by another womanthat I had been researching and
I was able to find out moreinformation about her.
You just don't know where rabbithole will take you, and
sometimes it takes you off thetopic that you were originally

(06:18):
researching or away from theinformation that you were
originally looking for.
And I have been known to have40 or 50 tabs open on my
computer, on my Internet site,and when I realize it's too much
I will take a document and Iwill go to each tab and click

(06:45):
and copy and paste that URL to asheet of paper and title that
paper what all those things youknow what that research was
about and store it in a placewhere I know I will go back at a
later date and look at theinformation.
And a lot of times I'll justcopy and paste the information

(07:06):
to a document and I make sure Iput the link where I found it
and the date that I accessed it,because I've learned as I'm
writing books that I need to putthe date that I access the
information.
Sometimes the pages get goneand if I'm worried about that
then I will definitely copy andpaste the information.

(07:29):
So I have it.
But I always want to be surethat when I'm researching
whether I'm going down a rabbithole or whether it's just the
straight research that I haveaccess to, where I got
information from, Even if it's apicture, I'll create a document
to go with the picture and nameit the same thing as the

(07:50):
picture and say this is wherethis came from, Because I don't
want to start to use somethingin a document or a book and then
be told or sued down the roadbecause I've used somebody
else's information.
It's one thing to use theinformation to write, but it's a
total another thing toplagiarize, and so I'm not doing

(08:12):
that.
I am taking whatever andwriting it in my own words, not
chat GPT's words, my words,Because research shares stuff
with us.
Somebody else has done some ofthe work that you've done,
Unless you're a scientist, andeven scientists build on other

(08:34):
work that somebody else has done, and so I just want you to know
that a rabbit hole is not a badthing.
I wanted to share that with youand I wanted to tell you
because that's something elseI'm not going to be quiet about
anymore.
You've been listening to Quietno More, where I share my

(08:58):
journey, so you can be quiet.