Presented at LILAC 2024.

1. Karen Fisher
Academic Librarian
Leeds Beckett University
Email: k.j.fisher@leedsbeckett.ac.uk

2. Serendipitous searching: taking art
students on a visual research journey
LILAC Conference
Leeds Beckett University, 25-27 March 2024

3. Today’s
presentation
1. What is
serendipitous
searching?
2. What are
the benefits?
3. Embedding
within
information
literacy
delivery
4. Sharing
good practice

4. Serendipity
“…making happy and
unexpected discoveries
by accident.”
OED Online (2023) [Online]. Oxford: Oxford University
Press. Available from:
<https://www.oed.com/dictionary/serendipity_n>
[Accessed 20 February 2024].

5. What is
serendipitous
searching?
• Literature searching
done for inspiration
rather than answering a
question.
• Scoping and seeing
what’s out there.
• No predefined end-point
or preconceptions.
• Browsing rather than
searching?

6. What are the
benefits?
• An important tool for
artistic stimulation.
• Can unlock new ideas or
research questions.
• Can lead to hidden
connections and links
between sources.
• Helps develop meta-
literacies.

7. Further reading
Arnold, J. (2012) The WWW cabinet of curiosities: a serendipitous research tool. Journal of Education and Learning. [Online]. 1
(2), pp. 238-251. Available from: <https://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jel/article/view/21357>.
Cobbledick, S. (1996) The information-seeking behavior of artists: exploratory interviews. Library Quarterly. [Online]. 66 (4),
pp. 343-72. Available from: <https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/602909>.
Collins, H. (2018) Creative research: the theory and practice of research for the creative industries. 2nd ed. London: Bloomsbury
Visual Arts.
Cory, K. A. (1997) Discovering hidden analogies in an online humanities database. Computers and the Humanities. [Online]. 31
(1), pp. 1-12. Available from: <https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1000422220677>.
Dyki, J. and Glassman, P. eds. (2017) The handbook of art and design librarianship. 2nd ed. London: Facet Publishing.
Edwards, J. A. (2022) Word (and/or/not) play. The Journal of Play in Adulthood. [Online]. 4 (2), pp. 84-105. Available from
<https://doi.org/10.5920/jpa.1037>.
Foster, A. and Ford, N. (2003) Serendipity and information seeking: an empirical study. Journal of Documentation. [Online]. 59
(3), pp. 321-340. Available from: <https://doi.org/10.1108/00220410310472518>.
Greer, K. (2015) Connecting inspiration with information: studio art students and information literacy instruction.
Communications in Information Literacy. [Online]. 9 (1), pp. 83-94. Available from:
<https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2015.9.1.177>.

8. How can we embed serendipity into
information literacy delivery?

9. Taking a visual journey

10. Designed to help students
develop their visual
literacy and confidence in
finding images from
credible sources.
► Students took photos
around campus.
► They then used the
photo as a starting point
for a visual research
journey.

12. Birmingham
Canal
“Gas Street Basin”
Barge
Narrowboat
Reflections
Water
Red brick
“Industrial Revolution”
1760s
Glass
Hexagon
Ripples
“Regency Wharf”

13. “Olafur Elliason”
sculpture
“stainless steel”
“Multiple Grotto”
2004
21st century
mirrors
silver
“installation art”
reflection
metal
Icelandic-Danish
multifaceted

14. Great for explaining
keywords and introducing
visual databases and other
sources.
Shows that creative
research can be a journey.
One source/image can
lead to another, then
another, then another…..

15. The incident room

16. • Allows the students to
present their research in
a visual way.
• Uses the ‘researcher as
detective’ analogy.
► A week after a literature
searching session,
groups of students
(investigating team)
explain their research
findings to the librarian
(Detective Chief
Inspector).

18. Gives the librarian the
opportunity to offer
advice: asking questions
(where did you get your
evidence from?) and
suggesting further sources.
Allows the students to
start seeing connections
and where their research
might be leading.

19. Good old-fashioned
browsing

22. “Students find magazines
particularly beneficial for visual
inspiration, underscoring their role in
fostering creative exploration.”
“Students that only [search online] are purely reliant
upon the words they type into a search engine (the
library, or otherwise), and miss out on just being in
the library and seeing what is front of them.”
“I encouraged them to spend time going through the
art, design and architecture periodicals and just look
for things that were of interest to them, with no pre-
conceptions of what they would find.
Some found images and used these to form the basis
of research ideas and projects. Others found articles
and text in sources they wouldn’t have looked in if
they had just focused on search engines.”
“Working directly in the library opens up
new avenues that are either not available
via search engines, or more difficult to
navigate.”
“Starting in the library and just seeing what you
can find enables students to consider a broader
range of research e.g. industry focused, or outside
of the typical areas of research within the topics.”
“To encourage a culture of browsing, L5
Contextual Studies seminars were
delivered in the library.
Initial feedback from students suggests
that these activities helped them
recognise the real world relevance of
Contextual Studies and also suggested
that the new resources would make
them spend more time in the library.”

23. Student work from BA (Hons) Fashion Marketing,
Leeds Beckett University, 2024.

24. Any questions?
Have you done anything similar?
Karen Fisher
k.j.fisher@leedsbeckett.ac.uk

25. Thank you to the following academics from the Leeds School of Arts at Leeds
Beckett University who I have developed these case studies alongside:
• Dr Joanne Leah (Senior Lecturer – BA Product Design, BA Interior
Architecture and MA Creative Research Methods)
• Will McMahon (Lecturer – BA Architecture and BA Interior Architecture)
• Dr Christopher Harris (Course Director – BA Fashion Marketing and
MA Fashion)
• Dr Richard Hudson-Miles (Senior Lecturer – BA Fashion Design,
BA Fashion Marketing and MA Fashion)