FIRE Workshop on Computer-assisted Research

Introduction

http://www.lme.mankato.msus.edu/mankato/mankato.html

http://www.d-b.net/dti/ cloning controversy

http://www.rnc.org/ vs http://www.democrats.org/index.html

Home Pages

http://www.refdesk.com/index.html -- Excellent Home Page.

http://www.powerreporting.com./ -- An excellent home page for journalists.

Search Engines/Index

http://google.com/ -- Judged by CAR reporters as the best of all general search engines. Simple, fast and excellent on general subjects.

http://www.google.com/help/operators.html ­ Advanced searching

http://www.google.com/news/newsheadlines.html -- Google news headlines

http://www.google.com/news/ -- Google news page to other news outlets.

http://directory.google.com/ -- An interesting search “group” and example of future of search engines to specifics.

http://labs.google.com/ -- Google experimenting.

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/SearchEngines.html -- A “tell all” web site about search engines.

Reporting Aids

/ -- Morgue/Archives; Gen. Information; Internet links; e-mail

http://www.census.gov/prod/2000pubs/cff-2.pdf -- Good example of PDF file, Acrobat. Word and other formats to follow soon.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/uninformed_consent/ -- Example of great documentation, citation, attribution. Using PDF files for documentation.

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html-- Download Adobe Acrobat Reader.

http://www.notrain-nogain.org/Default.asp -- Excellent training material, tips and help specifically for journalists. A ton of useful information for reporters and editors.

http://www.bartleby.com/141/ -- The Elements of Style by Strunk and White ­ the standard. To order the AP Style book: http://www.ap.org/pages/order.html

http://www.apstylebook.com/ -- The Associated Press stylebook. Buy hard or online. See
http://www.missouri.edu/~jschool/missourian/style.htm for a “band aid version.”

http://www.nicar.org/ -- Investigative Reporters and Editors newsletter on story possibilities and ideas for computer-assisted reporting.

http://www.cjr.org/ -- Columbia Journalism Review; good to read, lots of tips. Go to Resource Guides

http://home.earthlink.net/~cassidyny/jourlinks.htm -- Ideas and links for investigative reporting ­ one reporter to another.

http://chronicle.com/stats/genderequity/ -- Gender equality in your state universities Title IX

http://www.anywho.com/ -- Talk about Google

http://www.domainsurfer.com/ -- finding domain names

State-Specific Sites/FOI Sites

http://www.attribution.net/fire/northcarolina-specific.htm -- North Carolina-specific

http://www.attribution.net/fire/southcarolina-specific.htm-- South Carolina specific

http://www.attribution.net/fire/georgia-specific.htm -- Georgia-specific

http://www.attribution.net/fire/tennessee-specific.htm -- Tennessee specific

Adding Color and Interest

http://www.nhmccd.edu/contracts/lrc/kc/decades.html-- A great history site for quick information about a given era, such as 1950s.

http://www.halfhill.com/inflation.html-- Inflation calculator is indispensable. Do Google search. Also bookmark  http://minneapolisfed.org/research/data/us/calc/

http://www.eh.net/ehresources/howmuch/dollarq.php­ A cost of living calculator back to 1665. See source note.

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/movecalc.asp ­ Comparing cities for cost of living.

http://www.usconstitution.net/consttime.html -- Historic timeline.

http://www.refdesk.com/factency.html -- Extensive list/links of encyclopedias available on the Web. Note source. Talk abut refdesk

http://www.yourdictionary.com/ -- All sorts of very useful dictionaries; language, special, medical etc.

http://www.nytimes.com/ -- The famous Gray Lady (New York Times) in Cybergarb. Pay-for archives are excellent. Use “north carolina” AND pollution --http://www.dallasnews.com/  

Lexis-Nexis discussion -- http://web.lexis.com/xchange/ccsubs/cc_prods.asp Special pricing.

http://www.altavista.digital.com/ -- Translator ­ go to: http://www.monitor.co.at/ (Moniskop)

http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/indexgeo.html -- Official CIA factbook. Great maps of countries.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/ -- How stuff works. Great site. See “nuclear power plants” or “pulley.”

http://www.adherents.com/ -- An excellent source for basic information on religions.

http://www.indo.com/distance/ -- How far is it. Strange place for this service?

http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/stats.html ­ Excellent statistics on lots of subjects

http://bioguide.congress.gov/biosearch/biosearch.asp -- Historical information on Senators and Reps, dead and alive.

http://www.mealeys.com/index.html ­ Who is suing whom.

http://www.searchsystems.net/search.php ­ Public databases; corporation names, farm subsidies, etc.

Priceless Price Pages ­ Invisible Web

http://www.freepint.com/gary/direct.htm -- Direct Search is a growing compilation of links to the search interfaces of resources that contain data not easily or entirely searchable/accessible from general search tools like Alta Vista, Google, and Infoseek. While general search tools are essential for retrieval of Internet materials many users do not realize that large amounts of information are not easily searchable via these tools. Small, hard to find handbooks, fact books, full Congressional Records search, books, entertainment, newspapers, news centers, bibliographies, major Library Catalogs; Business/Economics Government, Humanities, Librarian Interests, Meta Collections of Subject; Bibliographies, Science/Engineering, Social Studies.

http://www.freepint.com/gary/listof.htm -- List of lists.

http://www.freepint.com/gary/speech.htm -- A large collection of links to translated speeches and sound tracks from sound-based media.

http://www.freepint.com/gary/state.htm --Links to State and City resources.

Mail Groups/News Groups

http://www.topica.com/-- Best place to search for a mailing list (listserv) appealing to your interests.

http://groups.yahoo.com/ -- Excellent mail list group where you can start your own mail list.

http://groups.google.com/ -- Link to Newsgroups on UseNet. Used to be called Déjà vu.

Examples

CARR-L is a list for computer-assisted research and reporting was set up to provide an electronic place where both working journalists and journalism educators can "meet" and discuss resources on the Internet.

How does somebody subscribe to the list?

Send the one line in body of message

SUBscribe CARR-L <your-real-name> <organization>

To LISTSERV@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU

using your-real-name, not a computer ID.

NICAR-L is a list used by members and non-members of Investigative Reporters & Editors to exchange resource information. To Subscribe send email to

listproc@lists.missouri.edu

with the following request in body of message:

subscribe NICAR-L Your-Name

http://www.attribution.net/fire/nicar.htm -- Typical letter you MUST save and follow.

GOV-L is a list for reporters covering local government agencies. Go to web page

http://www.reporters.net/gov-l/

Newsletters About Research News

http://www.virtualchase.com/index.shtml -- Genie Tyburski’s Virtual Chase site.

http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/ -- Gene Sherman (Invisible Web) newsletter.

http://www.researchbuzz.com/ -- Basically legal, but very good.

http://resourceshelf.blogspot.com/ -- Gary Price’s Blog of new Internet databases.

Government/Congress

http://www.firstgov.gov/ -- The best comprehensive government search link.

http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas.html?72,10 ­ The best place for federal legislative information. Library of Congress.

http://www.lib.lsu.edu/gov/fedgov.html -- Listing from LSU of every U.S. Agency or Office in the U.S.

http://www.bea.doc.gov/ -- Bureau of Economic Analysis ­ basis for good economic stories even locally.

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/-- United State Supreme Court. Excellent site. Provided by Supreme Court.

http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/supreme.html -- Another top site for Supreme Court and Circuit Court decisions. Probably the best.

http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/ -- One that I use often.

http://air.fjc.gov/history/index_frm.html -- Biographical information, plus more, on all federal judges.

http://www.census.gov/epcd/cbp/view/cbpview.html ­ A statistics page on county economic climate for all counties is the U.S.

http://www.ci.asheville.nc.us/-- City of Asheville page. Most cities and counties have a page. Learn it.

http://www.fedstats.gov/ -- Quick information about your city or county or one nearby.

http://poynter.org/index.cfm -- Good “learning” area. Give out the books. Director, University Of Minnesota (Institute For New Media)

E-mail: evan@ncpress.net

A little extra for Eager Beavers

http://www.politicalgraveyard.com/ -- Lists dead or alive politicians.

http://marylaine.com/neatnew.html -- Good librarian Marylaine Block lists new stuff she finds on the net. A popular site for CARR newspeople.

http://www.gao.gov/pressmain.html ­ GAO is not listed in some government links. It is an independent agency.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/ -- There are a lot of hoaxes floating around the Internet. This is a good page to use or to recommend for readers.

http://www.campaignfinance.org/powersearch/ -- Another “follow the money” on campaign finance. Hot story this year come election time.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2003/index.html -- Here is the 2003 Federal Budget, in its entirety as submitted by Pres. Bush.

http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/01statab/vitstat.pdf -- National vital statistics; births, deaths, fertility, life expectancy, marriage, divorce, abortion. From National Center for Health (NCH).

http://homefair.com/homefair/calc/ls_basic.html ­ A lot of different calculators for comparing cities, crime, schools, salaries, etc.

 

And this is the end.