Picture by Alexei Maridashvili through Unsplash
I keep in mind a time once I would name up a authorities company and ask them to fax me the newest authorities report, or once I would ask a suppose tank to in a single day me a white paper. By some means, I managed to get my palms on the info and analysis I wanted to report my tales.
Lately, I’m grateful for the wealth of knowledge out there on-line. Nonetheless, discovering, accessing and deciphering it may be overwhelming. That’s the place your native public or tutorial librarian may also help.
Freelance journalists most likely don’t use these human assets as a lot as they need to. Once I labored as a correspondent at NPR, I may name up the workers librarian, describe the story I used to be engaged on and get all kinds of analysis assist. However once I switched to freelancing, I didn’t suppose to hunt out the data specialists on the public or close by college library.
That’s why I used to be excited to see that the National Press Club’s Journalism Institute was providing this webinar in early September: “Behind the Paywall — Leverage library resources for your research and reporting.” The webinar was recorded and is obtainable for viewing.
The hour-long coaching gave a style of the “goldmine of assets for journalists” that libraries comprise, because the institute’s follow-up tip sheet mentioned. The tip sheet is posted at AHCJ’s Freelance Middle.
April Hines, the journalism and mass communications librarian for the George A. Smathers Libraries on the College of Florida, talked about how journalists can faucet the in depth data of topic librarians and the array of databases, archives and analysis that libraries maintain. This contains entry to materials behind paywalls like medical journal articles.
“I’ve had lots of conversations with journalists the place they had been very shocked by the wealth of assets which can be out there to them in public and tutorial libraries,” Hines mentioned.
Listed below are among the highlights from Hines’ discuss.
- Collaborate with librarians. They’re expert at discovering and utilizing info. Many librarians are topic specialists with deep data of a particular subject and connections to sources.
- Go to your native tutorial library in particular person. Most public universities will permit members of the general public to entry its bodily house, proprietary assets and subscription databases with a visitor cross.
- Chat with a librarian on-line. Many college libraries have a chat characteristic, and so they typically received’t thoughts serving to an area reporter.
- Entry subscription databases out there at many libraries. These embody:
- Statista, a statistical search engine.
- Web of Science, which offers entry to scientific and tutorial analysis.
- Academic Search Complete, a database with articles from magazines, newspapers, vetted open entry journals and different sources.
- Add context to your reporting. Librarians may also help you discover archival supplies, together with maps, manuscripts, previous pictures and movies and authorities paperwork.
- Make the most of the library at your alma mater. For instance, right here is the coverage on the University of Virginia:
- Alumni “have entry to EBSCO’s Educational Search, Enterprise Search, Enterprise Books Summaries, CINAHL, and Well being Library on-line databases. These 5 databases present entry to a big selection of full textual content articles from newspapers, journals, paperwork and magazines. The Engagement Workplace pays for entry to those databases for all UVA alumni and the Library offers help for his or her use.”
Librarians are prepared that will help you along with your reporting. Don’t be shy about looking for them out.
