Remember that you have built an understanding of a topic and the discussion around it from your previous research. Now you need to start thinking about practical solutions and applications with a proposal and plan for a local audience.
Steps to Gathering Community Information:
Determine at what geographic levels you want to build evidence (e.g. UND, local, state, national)
Reflect on different dimensions that may influence the problem you want to solve (e.g. economic, social, psychological, etc.)
Identify stakeholders already invested in your community of interest
Visit their website to locate materials they produce
Go beyond their website to determine their credibility and evaluate their potential biases
Consider alternative communities to compare or contrast with your community of interest
You do not have to start from scratch! Through becoming an expert internet searcher, you will discover reports, commonly known as "grey literature," that detail the mission and goals of community organizations and institutions. Look at how these are working on your issue: how do they present it? Where do they get their data? What can be applied to your situation? What are the opportunities and barriers?
The library offers databases for newspaper articles in addition to academic journal articles. Searching these is a critical part of building evidence about the community you are researching and the changes you believe they need to make.
Now that you've watched the video, you can complete the hands on activity below.
Access nearly 4,000 US newspapers, along with coverage to 28 North Dakota newspapers, including the Grand Forks Herald and the image edition of the Bismarck Tribune.