The Craft of Research

We have a bunch of stuff getting in under the wire as the semester comes to a close…

Nicole Turso wrote about a Balloonatic in the Queens Courier.

Karina Ioffee also had a byline in the QC about a Sari maker.

Collin Orcutt and Michael Preston are still on the case of the newest Villanova Wildcat.

On the New York City News Service, Nicholas Martinez and Brian Winkowski produced a video on the battle to save Admirals’ Row.

Geneva Sands-Sadowitz took on the dirty topic of urban composting.

Last but not least, Kate Nocera provides a great Christmas laugh.  (See where a little self-promotion gets ya, Kate?)

So I’m finally done reviewing all 22 beat memos in both sections.  Phew!  I spent at least an hour on each one.  You do the math.

First of all, special congratulations to the 7 who merited a check-plus.  For those who didn’t, take heart that this will be your least significant research grade.

Kudos also to those who had the tenacity to navigate the user-UNfriendly Census Bureau Factfinder to get any 2007 ACS PUMA data.  I was perfectly willing to accept the equivalent 2006 data available on the more easily-navigable NYC.gov, so that was impressive.

It was actually one of a handful of things that impressed me.

A few of you discovered good sources that I hadn’t listed on the blog or in handouts.  One was the 2007 Community Snapshots in the Children’s Services section of NYC.gov.  Mind you, these snapshots weren’t great in all the cases people cited, but they were particularly good for CD income and unemployment data (although there may be some issues with unemployment…more on that later).  Another was the Association of Religion Data Archives site, a perfectly acceptable alternative to Social Explorer for 2000 religion breakdowns by county.

What else stood out? (more…)