Department of Health and Human Services
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
 |
|||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Heart-Healthy and Stroke-Free: A Social Environment Handbook
This document is also available in
Portable
Document Format (PDF - 1.4M).
Chapter Eight: Practical Methods—Library Resources and NewspapersLibraries offer a wealth of information about the social environment—from books and periodicals to videos, slides, and Internet access. Since libraries offer different types and scopes of information, you should check around your community for all libraries—county, university, institutional, or private. A comprehensive list of libraries can help you create a targeted plan of action. Typically, university and college libraries will offer more academic information, whereas public libraries will offer more information about the local area. Getting StartedBefore making a trip to the library, create two lists:
Preparing for the LibraryPhone the library or check online for information about its collections and lending policies. County and city libraries usually require residency and issue library cards. Some materials at public college or university libraries are available to the public, particularly public records and government documents, but cannot necessarily be removed from the library. Private colleges and other private libraries may under certain circumstances allow you to view and photocopy materials if you obtain formal permission first. Bring writeable compact discs (CD-R or CD-RW) or a USB flash drive for downloading material you may find. Plan to photocopy materials you may not be eligible to borrow, and budget accordingly. Bring cash, since some systems are coin-operated. Devise a thorough, efficient way of citing sources, both for record keeping and bibliographic reasons. Even if it is just a few pages from a book or a couple of slides, keeping a checklist of details for each source—such as the card catalogue number, title of work, and author’s name—will be useful if you need to consult a source later. Resources in the LibraryThe foremost resource in a library is the librarian. Don’t hesitate to ask for help. Many libraries have computerized or Internet-based card catalog systems that allow for fast, efficient, and comprehensive searches of resources. Some libraries, usually university libraries, offer access to “full-text databases,” collections of articles that you can download to your disk or print in their entirety.
Most libraries are also part of an interlibrary loan program, which allows libraries to request materials from other libraries that participate in the program. If your local library does not have material you need, you can ask the librarian to help you obtain it through an interlibrary loan. Potential Sources of InformationLocal libraries are usually the best sources for locally published information, such as small historical collections or newspaper archives. Large institutional libraries contain more formal information, such as local or state government texts, research studies and abstracts, and theses and dissertations. Other potential sources of information include census records, journal articles, maps, and microfiche. See the table below for some specific examples.
NewspapersNewspapers offer excellent insight and data about communities. Depending on how often the local newspapers are published, information can be gathered daily, weekly, biweekly, or monthly. Getting StartedA good place to start is by researching all of the newspapers published in the community, and then deciding which are necessary and relevant to your needs. Aim for articles that are specific to the area you want to look at or tied directly to issues that affect the local social environment. Sorting out what information is worthwhile can be a daunting and sometimes confusing task. You should, however, keep several key things in mind while flagging articles (see table below). Although national news stories usually fall into the “what not to flag” category, an exception would be when a local story becomes national news, in which case articles from wire services such as Associated Press or Reuters may be relevant. After searching through each newspaper and flagging relevant articles, photocopy, print, or clip advertisements, pictures, and articles you want to save. Remember to save pictures and captions related to any articles of interest. Sometimes a picture doesn’t have an article counterpart and vice versa. Be sure to keep thorough bibliographic information for each article, such as newspaper title, section, page number, date, author, and place of publication. Series Articles and Related TopicsNewspapers sometimes publish a series of articles about the same topic. These articles may be continuing coverage of an event, editorials expressing community members’ opinion of an issue, or articles that reference a related or past article. If an article is suitable, save the related articles too. When organizing and citing, relate these articles with keywords or phrases. By ensuring that corresponding and related articles are saved and linked, you will have more complete data and you will reduce the chances of gaps in information about an event or topic. Sometimes a newspaper story may reference an article from an issue you do not have. In such instances, many newspapers offer online archives through the Internet. (See Searching the Internet, Chapter Nine). If not, the local libraries’ newspaper archives may have what you need (see Library Resources above).
Date last reviewed:
07/09/2007 |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
Newspaper
archives are also extremely helpful. Newspaper archives that can’t be found
online can sometimes be found on microfiche in libraries.
