It’s really valuable to keep an eye on (and share!) the tools our colleagues in allied fields are using to do their research. This past week I stumbled upon these five great resources I wanted to share with you.
ONE AND TWO
First off, I’d like to mention two books, the Verification Handbook for Investigative Reporting and the Verification Handbook; a Definitive Guide for Verifying Digital Content, both edited by Craig Silverman a leading expert on media errors, accuracy and verification, and (among other things), founder of Emergent and former fellow with the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University.
Both books are available free to download in pdf format – scroll down the page here – or you can purchase them if you prefer hard copies. They are written by experts in research, journalism and investigative reporting including Paul Myers (more on him in a minute), Fergus Bell, and Steve Buttry. Don’t miss chapter 10 of the Verifying Digital Content volume, called Verification Tools. There are tons of handy tools there for you to check out!
THREE AND FOUR
Paul Myers runs the Internet Research Clinic, which would be a helpful enough resource on its own with its many links and pointers to useful sources, but Paul (and several others) also do videos through the BBC Academy that are aimed at investigative journalists (but anyone can view them for free). Want to learn how to find information on a company or person and be sure that the information you’re finding is reliable? Have a look at the videos on the BBC Academy site.
FIVE
Private investigator Tamara Thompson’s PI Buzz weekly blogroll of her favorite (and usually free) web research links always has something worth looking into. Tips include advanced searching for Google, Facebook and LinkedIn as well as public-source websites and resources PI’s use. Some may not be appropriate for our use, but take a look to find some real gems in the list.
WHAT ELSE?
I’m constantly delighted by the abundance of books, guides, webinars and blogs created by talented and generous researchers and librarians in fields similar to ours, including business intelligence, journalism, and private investigation.
What other resources have you found from allied professions?
