QUESTION: how would i find more information about these 1970s activist groups?

Major full text commercial databases have very little on these 2 groups. The search: "Hard Times Prison Project" gets zero hits in JSTOR, Lexis Academic, Factiva, Academic Search Premier and Masterfile Premier "TX-All Text, and Dissertations and Theses Full Text (searching "Document Text"). The search: Triangle Area Lesbian Feminists DOES get 3 hits in Dissertations & Theses Full Text:

1. Singing for our lives: Exploring the interaction of community, feminism and musical performance in the common woman chorus. by Womack, Jennifer L., M.A., The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2009, 131 pages; AAT 1467319. 59 references.

2."Thank you Anita.": Gay and lesbian activist and experimental filmmaking of the late 1970s
by Youmans, Greg, Ph.D., University of California, Santa Cruz, 2009, 303 pages; AAT 3384782

3.Women's organizations and grassroots politics: Denver, Durham, and Indianapolis 1960--1975. by Blair, Melissa Anna Estes, Ph.D., University of Virginia, 2008, 284 pages; AAT 3312197

But even if you ordered these on interlibrary loan, it's quite possible that "Triangle Area Lesbian Feminists" was mentioned only in passing. To be sure, Proquest's PDF search is probably not the most accurate in the database business, and there may even be MORE there than appears to be.

But clearly, since Lexis and Factiva "All dates" search gets no mention of these in even regional news sources, your best bet appears to be the Web. Google gets "about 2450" hits for the search: "Triangle Area Lesbian Feminists", and 10 even if you limit to site:edu. Google gets only 6 hits for: "Hard Times Prison Project". Google Books gets 3.

You might try searching for any names of major figures mentioned in these groups - especially the ones that appear to be listed along with where they currently work. Also, if any of the sites found in these web searches (even the .com or .net ones, etc.) appear to be based at a college or university, or a local library or museum, it may help to go to the main websites of those organizations, to see if they mention research on North Carolina activist history. Google and all other search engines are limited in how many levels down into a site they can search. The home pages of organizations - even "official" mainline state and local history sites - may well have more information, or their own local catalog or database.

Jim Miller
jmiller2@umd.edu