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)

Improve your search
using filters:
 

site:nytimes.com | site:nypost.com

before:2021

before:2021-03-01

after:2021-03-19

Social Media

Social Searcher

Find public social media posts across platforms

Find social media posts using Google:
keyword site:twitter.com | site:facebook.com

example:
walter wallace site:twitter.com | site:facebook.com

example 2:
walter wallace after:2021-01-01 site:twitter.com | site:facebook.com

 

 

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:

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