Trampoline 5 of 12: Step three - Predict likely publishers

<This series of posts is aimed at the current RADIUS Trampoline cohort – but will be of use to anyone learning to do secondary market research. Click on the table of contents to go to the first post.>

So... you're now equipped with a long list of questions – sort of a wish-filled, letter to Santa.  Your next step is to decide where you’ll search for answers. 

For instance, if you need information on trends in the ages and incomes of Albertans, you can probably predict that a government agency of some sort might have that data.  You’ll save a lot of time by just going straight to the best site: Statistics Canada – the folks responsible for the census.

Or if you need information on barriers that keep people from going camping, you might be able to guess that a camping industry association would be interested in removing such barriers and could have reports or anecdotes about their efforts.

The types of organizations that collect and publish the sort of information you need tend to fall into the following categories:

You could, of course, use Google at this point.  But even if that does end up being your starting place, it will still pay to spend a few minutes thinking about who is most likely to collect and publish the information you need. 

• At worst… you’ll then be able to spot those publishers among thousands of search results. (saving time)
   
• At best… you may be able to go straight to the perfect source!   (saving even more time)

I’ll discuss each category in more detail in the next few posts… along with some links to samples of specific resources. 

All set to see some actual resources?  Let's start with >> Governments

– MarkB
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Mark Bodnar
Business & Economics Librarian
mbodnar@sfu.ca