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Mary Ellen Bates
Bates Information Services, Inc.
8494 Boulder Hills Dr.
Niwot, Colorado 80503 USA
Tel: 303.772.7095
Email: mbates@batesinfo.com
Skype: Mary.Ellen.Bates
Twitter: www.twitter.com/mebs
LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/maryellenbates
Bates Information Services, Inc.
8494 Boulder Hills Dr.
Niwot, Colorado 80503 USA
Tel: 303.772.7095
Email: mbates@batesinfo.com
Skype: Mary.Ellen.Bates
Twitter: www.twitter.com/mebs
LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/maryellenbates
One of the things I love about doing online research is all the tangents I get to follow…or that I would like to follow if I had all the time in the world. “Oh, I never thought of that aspect of it!” and “Ah, that looks like an interesting angle, even if it isn’t really on point.” Sound familiar?
I faced this issue when working on a recent project for a client—an info pro who needed studies on the cultural beliefs and taboos related to pregnancy in various countries. Given that pregnancy is an experience shared by many (at least for half the population), I expected to find plenty of information in the published literature. A quick check in a couple of search engines didn’t turn up much useful information on the specific topic I was researching, so I wound up going down my mental check-list of Plan Bs.
First, I thought about what finding tools were likely to give me access to content beyond mere web pages. For my project, I headed over to Google Scholar, Google Books and Amazon.com – three resources that let me search (although not necessarily view) the full text of many books and academic articles. I looked through the book resources simply to get a sense of who the major authors are, who is being cited and quoted the most, and some of the buzz words.
My next step is often to identify professional or trade associations on my topic of interest; once I learned that there are dueling associations of Santa Clauses (The Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas and The Fraternal Order of Real Bearded Santas), I figure there has to be an association or two that I would find useful on just about any subject. My favorite sources for relevant associations are the venerable Encyclopedia of Associations and the American Society of Association Executives’ ASAE Gateway to Associations Directory, but I also find myself frequently checking Wikipedia’s External Links to identify useful pointers to organizations that focus on a topic.
After I’ve poked around in the associations’ web sites and followed those leads, I usually encounter a fork in the search road. Do I head over to the fee-based online services? Is there a specialized government database that would be helpful? Should I look for a good subject portal or specialized search engine? Should I focus on Web 2.0 content? Is it time to pick up the phone and actually—gasp!—talk with an expert?
To decide where to go next, I think about what my client was using the information for. Does she need a few talking points or an exhaustive search of the literature? Does she want only authoritative sources or is she looking for public sentiment? Is she already familiar with this topic (in which case I will focus on sophisticated sources and outliers that she might not have noticed), or does she need some background material to familiarize herself with the subject? And, perhaps most importantly, is she looking for information or answers – in other words, should I now focus on expanding my search or distilling the information I have and seeing what else, if anything, I need?
I have found that I now search Web 2.0 content for almost all my research projects, even—particularly—those that do not at first glance appear to be on cutting edge or consumer-driven topics. Although many of my clients don’t think to ask specifically for a search of the blogosphere, a scan of Google search terms over time, or an overlay on a map showing the relationship between a dense elderly population and the location of hardware stores, I usually spend at least 10 minutes seeing whether collaborative content or data mining will help my client with her information need.
My key to navigating all the decision points within a search is to keep watching for the forks in the road, and to always consider choosing a newer, less common approach.