Today we will learn how to:
- Practice formatting research needs into individual parts & steps
- Break down your research topic into parts.
- Figure out what bits of information/data you need to answer each part.
- Understand where you need to look to find the information/data you need.
- Search multidisciplinary library databases & public sites to find data
- Do you need to find newspaper articles? If so, search our newspaper databases.
- Do you need to find journal articles? If so, search our journal databases.
- Do you need statistical data? If so, then search Census.gov
- Business round table/economic development data? Then search Google for your site-specific data.
- City Data? Try the two city data sites linked in this guide.
- Evaluate sources based on given criteria (currency/relevancy/accuracy/authority/purpose)
- How up-to-date is your data?
- Was your journal article written by an expert?
- Is your city data as recent as you can get it?
- Does your newspaper source or journal article have good sources?
Today Do These Steps
Today everyone needs to think about where their magical sports team will need to be located. You cannot just pick a city and drop a new team down there -- it needs to be chosen carefully, given a number of economic considerations. Today you will be researching possible cities, to make sure that you end up picking the right place for your team....
by David Yu. No changes made, used with Creative Commons license permission.
FOLLOW THESE STEPS
1. Google your city + "economic development corporation" and then also do another Google search for your city + "business roundtable". Read up & take notes on what you find.
2. Go to the Find City Information tab at the top of this page and using the resources there, look up your city.
- Find the top 10 employers*
- Look up unemployment rate & note it down.
- Look up US unemployment rate for comparison.
3. Go to the Company/City History Info tab at the top of this page to get company information & using the two websites linked there and the criteria already discussed in class, research the "health" of the major company employers for your chosen city.
4. Take each major company employer of your chosen city, and using the ValueLine search engine linked on the Company/City History Info tab at the top of this page, look up industry reports for each employer and assess the overall "health" of each industry area.
*make sure to check if companies are actually headquartered in your city versus just having a bunch of stores there!