Peeling the Onion: A Workshop on Research

Are you frustrated by how long it takes to find useful information about a given topic? Overwhelmed by the Internet and all the data out there? Unsure when to trust a source? Unable to translate your information needs to concrete queries?

Learn about the current information environment and how to navigate its layers for more fruitful searching sessions. Whether you're a student, a community activist, an independent journalist, or just someone who wants to be more efficient, come for research tips and tricks (and bring your own to share)!

On Saturday, November 17, 2012, the Boston Radical Reference Collective hosted a free symposium, Practical Choices for Powerful Impact: Realizin

This is our all-encompassing resource sheet, with a printable PDF version attached below.

Getting Started

On December 1, a few members of Rad Ref conducted a business research workshop for the Labor Outreach Committee of Occupy Wall Street. This is expected to be the first in a series, so stay tuned for more research resources in the coming year!

This page represents the introduction to the workshop, and four more sections plus a resource guide follow (links are also at the bottom of the page):

• The Research Process
• Access to Research Collections
• DIY FOIA Requests
• Case Studies
• Resources for Strategic Research

Case Study #1: Wendy's (a publicly-traded corporation)

Public libraries

The Freedom of Information Act

• 1966: Enacted by Congress
• 1996: Amended to encompass electronic records

Planning and managing the research process

• Construct a research plan in order to stay on track, organize findings, allocate tasks, and track progress.

We are still in the process of getting going, but we're starting a local collective in Eastern Iowa. Folks can get in touch with us via radref.iowa@gmail.com

Maria Taesil Hudson Carpenter