Web research essentials
From a seminar I taught this summer, a list of some of the most useful sites I use again and again:
Investigative Reporters & Editors: This organization is a lifesaver. If you’re not a member, you’re missing out. The Web site features several invaluable e-mail listservs on investigative and computer-assisted reporting (with full archives of past conversations), beat guides and resource lists for nearly any beat you can imagine, as well as tipsheets, tutorials and ideas for stories on a massive array of topics. This should be your first stop anytime you’re covering a new beat or a new topic.
Google Advanced: Make your Internet searches more useful by using the advanced features. You can search only certain domains (http://www.state.nj.us/) or for certain file types (Excel spreadsheets or PDFs). Here’s a tipsheet.
American Factfinder: The Census’ Web site allows you to do your own digging through its voluminous databases. You will want to use this resource weekly, if not more often. If you don’t know how, sign up for this month’s research skills session.
Dataplace: Sponsored by Fannie Mae, this site makes it even easier to get basic demographic, housing market and economic data for your towns. It also has some nifty mapping functions that will help you easily visualize your town’s demographics.
New Jersey’s Election Law Enforcement Commission: Get all the skinny on who is giving money to your elected officials. If you missed February’s class on how to mine ELEC for stories, check out the backgrounder on PageOne.
FeedMap: Find local bloggers quickly.
Inflation Calculator: The Federal Reserve helps you easily figure out how much the dollar has changed over time. Great for comparing incomes or home prices over decades.
State Climatologist: Indispensable local resources for the dreaded weather story (http://pageone/weather.html)
Trulia: Local real estate search engine that can give you a feel for recent home sales. It also has fantastic mapping functions.
Guidestar: The first stop whenever you’re writing about a charity. You can get the IRS form 990 for free.
If you don’t find a charity there, check the state’s directory.
If a group isn’t listed, it’s not a legal charity in New Jersey. [Make sure that you look for all variants on a name. Charities are often listed in the directory using uncommon spelling or punctuation, so be sure to cover your bases.]
NJ Business Gateway: Anybody doing business in the state needs to register his company at this pay site run by the Department of Revenue.
Inmate finder: Wanna know if someone has ever done time in NJ on a felony? They’ll be listed here. First stop in backgrounding anyone in a crime story.
Depth Reporting: A fantastic blog chock full of the latest killer Web sites and research resources.
Acronym finder: This can help cut through jargon and demystify governmentese.
Municipal codes online: Your mayor says the city code has a law on the books. Check here to make sure he’s telling the truth. A searchable directory of municipal codes for New Jersey and neighboring states.
