Case Study Research Workshop

Policing, Prosecution, and Racial In(Justice) in America

Simon Elichko (selichk1)
Social Sciences & Data Librarian

Workshop Agenda

• Getting to know your case study location
• News and social media
• Government and public records
• Existing research (books, articles, reports)
• Time to work on your case

Local Leads

Finding News

Databases

Search Engines
(google, duckduckgo)

Licensed resources in Tripod*
Avoid paywalls
Fewer ads
Can be easier to search
*some are free

Examples:
Access World News
Nexis Uni

ProQuest News

Vanderbilt TV News Archive

Internet Archive TV News*

(more news databases)

Social Media

Social Searcher

Find public social media posts across platforms

City Council agendas, bills, resolutions: Legistar (example)
- Consider searching names, neighborhood(s), police OR policing
 

Search Systems: identifies sites with public records

MuckRock: users share public documents requests

Dept. of Justice Police Reforms: guide up to 2017

Google tips for finding government docs:
Limit to .gov:  keyword site:.gov

Limit results to PDFs:  keyword filetype:pdf

Government Documents & Public Records

Databases & Search Engines:

• ProQuest Social Sciences (database of articles, reports)
• Find Policy: Public Policy (searches think tanks)
• Worldcat (books in libraries worldwide)

Research Articles, Books, Reports

Key Tip: Found something relevant
on Google or Google Scholar?

1. Check Tripod for the PDF / book
2. If you can't find it in Tripod, ask for help

• Work independently on your research
• Try out some of the resources and strategies covered today
• Ask questions and get support

For the rest of today's class:

Research Help & Support

• Ask questions through chat in Tripod  (librarians and RIAs)
• Meet with Simon: help finding sources, searching, organizing
• Email selichk1@swarthmore.edu with any questions