Research
Mar 31, 2022
Research projects have been mostly non-existent recently. This has been incorrectly blamed on COVID–19 which has limited visitors and walk-in patrons. Primarily, it is because of lack of focus on initiating research campaigns through outreach initiatives. We need a research volunteer who can think of ways to start and encourage research projects. Our president, who claims to be in charge of research, is not doing much to enhance research at ANRL.
Research & Open Research Projects
There are two ways to conduct research at the American Nudist Research Library.
Far the most satisfying is to visit the library and have all of its resources at your fingertips: books, magazines, club newsletters, miscellaneous files, and videos. An increasing number of these things are available on the library computers—most of those pages search-enabled. If you let us know when you are coming, we have a research coördinator to help steer you toward useful materials. It is well worth the trip.
A recently released benefit of ANRL Membership is Remote Search. All you need to do is send a search request to admin@anrl.org and we’ll search with our tools and then send back document names of interest. You can find help to craft a search query on this page. ANRL’s Search Page has useful information on search.
If travel is not practical, you can do some well-focused research from a distance. Once you know exactly which pages of which publications you want to read, you can order a reasonable number of black-and-white photocopies at 10¢ each. (Remember to count first AND last pages. For instance, pp. 28–38 is eleven pages—not ten.) Also be aware that you may be paying for some unrelated nude photographs that the editor interspersed to give a better appearance to the pages of print.
Unless you are looking for something very specific, your research will probably begin with these useful tools:
Bibliography of Scholarly Articles in nudist magazines (mostly from the 1960s, and mostly nude art). Besides books, academic journals, and dissertations, this is the place to look for reputable scholarly writing on topics related to nudity.
Tables of Contents of major nudist magazines. Here you find the raw details from the history of organized nudism, itself. And the contents are searchable electronically. This is an ongoing project; feel free to suggest other nudist magazines whose contents you would like to see. But be warned: titles don’t always reveal what the article is about.
Books (listed in ‘Shelf Code’ order)
People are welcome to drop into the library and browse anytime we are open. But efficient research requires that you do your homework in advance, and know what you are looking for before approaching us. Then we are happy to help you in your search.
Scholars who do research for publication are expected to donate a copy of the finished article, thesis, dissertation, or book to the library.
A sampling of open research projects (Jul 18, 2016)
Research Ideas by Howard Wallace
Research at ANRL - 2015 by Howard A. Wallace
Professors & Researchers Special Interest Group of The Naturist Society Note: This page is very old and needs to be updated.
