Practical Research for Community Asset Mapping
Research workshop for PEAC 9
Simon Elichko • they/he
Social Sciences & Data Librarian
Assessing Community Assets
& Desires (2/24)
4. Summarize the community-based evidence you gathered that suggests priorities for future development:
Describe the community-level indicators that reflect community vitality and capacity (e.g., engagement rates, local leadership strength, participation in civic life).
...
1. Describe the makeup and history of the community to provide a context within which to collect data on its current assets, aspirations, and capacities.
Comment on the types of information that best describes the community's assets (e.g., demographic, historical, political, civic participation, key leaders, existing strengths, geographic).
...
The intention of this assignment is to provide you with practice conducting a community assessment, honing your place-based research and analytical skills while deepening your understanding of community dynamics. ...
Learning
Where do people learn about what's happening?
How do they gain and share their knowledge?
How might this vary by age, gender, population density, or other differences?
Deciding
How do decisions get made?
Who has authority? Who has influence?
Brainstorming Questions
Connecting
What makes people come together in this community? When and where do people gather?
Good research // good listening
| Search / Closed-Ended |
Browse / Open-Ended |
|
|---|---|---|
| News | Learning about a local nature center by finding news stories about their recent reopening celebration | Does this community have any news outlets that pay journalists to write about local issues? What were some recent top stories in the local news? |
| Social Media | Searching Google for videos posted on Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram about an annual community event | Looking for active (public) Facebook groups in your community |
| Government Records | Reading a meeting transcript from the Philadelphia City Council Committee on Education to find out how Lift Every Voice Philly (parents' group) is advocating for changes in public schools | What were the agenda items at recent city council meetings? |
| Maps & Streetview | Using PolicyMap to identify the locations of libraries and non-profit organizations in your community Finding out what benefits a local park offers the community by looking it up in Google and reading the reviews |
Using a street view service like Google or Mapillary to take a virtual walk around different areas in your community. What do you notice? |
Consider a mix of closed- and open-ended questions
Focus on actively building your knowledge
Regular reflection, mind-mapping, screenshots, Zotero
Use specialized databases when needed
Government decisions, maps + locations, statistical data, books, archived websites
Make the most of search engines
Social media, local organizations + institutions, news
Focus on actively building your knowledge
Some ideas to take charge of your learning process:
- Reflect on your process and how your understanding keeps evolving
- Make a mind-map of your topic, questions, findings
- Create a table to help you track findings & sources
- Take screenshots and give them descriptive filenames
- Use Zotero to organize your research
- Lost track? Browser history may help
Have you experienced
Directionless Tab Overload?
More:
Facebook posts from Feb 2026:
danville vermont site:facebook.com after:2026/2/1
Using Google to search TikTok:
Example 2
Expand to include results from Instagram and Reddit:
danville vermont site:facebook.com | site:instagram.com | site:reddit.com
Example 1
Limit your Google search results to just Facebook:
danville vermont site:facebook.com
Social Media
Get around social media algorithms by using Google to find posts
Content warning
Make the most of search engines
Example:
These results are limited to the public school district website and Instagram, and the local government site.
awards site:lindenps.org | site:linden-nj.gov | site:instagram.com/lindenpublicschools
Local Sites
By limiting search results to local organizations and websites, you can do more open-ended exploration. (more: DIY Search Engine)
Make the most of search engines
More:
Street view + mapping services
Saved copies of websites: Internet Archive
Academic research (books, articles)
Government
NCSL 50-State Legislation Databases
updated, track by issue & state
Local governments often have their own databases for searching records (for example, meeting minutes)
Explore data about communities (US-only) including non-profit locations, voting rates, languages spoken, and social determinants of health (e.g. social support)
Specialized resources
Get around social media algorithms by using Google to find posts
Use specialized databases when needed
Practical research:
Develop your research skills
& get support with your projects
Meet with Simon
- Schedule at bit.ly/selichk1
- Email them at selichk1@swarthmore.edu
- (including if you need an alternative meeting time)
Use the chat in Tripod to get help from librarians
You can also email librarian@swarthmore.edu