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How to Research the Subject of Your Next Book or Article!
by Greg Spence
http://www.getpub.comWhen writing a book or article on a particular subject it is important to have as much up-to-date information on it as possible.
Before the Internet came along research involved multiple visits to the local library, ploughing through newspapers, periodicals and journals, and took many months to complete.
Fortunately the Internet can short circuit a lot of the time and effort involved when researching. Unfortunately though it can also slow us down.
With millions of websites, mailing lists, forums and newsgroups covering just about every topic under the sun, it can be a daunting task for a technologically challenged author to get to the information needed for that next masterpiece.
Hopefully this article will help you find your way through the data jungle, and help you to be more time and cost effective by finding those sites dedicated to your topic.
Once you have found them you can then bookmark them in your browser so you do not lose them again!
Finding sites that cover your subject
The first thing to do is to locate any websites that are dedicated to your chosen subject.
The AskJeeves search engine is a good place to start. The engine allows you to ask a question in plain English such as "Where can I find information on Bill Clinton?".
AskJeeves will return all resources that answer this question including any websites dedicated to this topic and associated topics (such as Monica Lewinsky!).
Neat eh?
Try it for yourself by going to http://www.askjeeves.com. AskJeeves will get you started and will help you to home in on your topic quite quickly. However this is not the only place to look for help.
Libraries are still extremely important and useful resources and many of the larger libraries around the world are now online. Just imagine being able to browse through libraries across the world from the comfort of your own home or office!
How do you find them I hear you ask?
My starting point is always "LibWeb", a site dedicated to listing links to major libraries across the globe. You can find them at http://sunsite.Berkeley.EDU/Libweb/. They currently link to 2,700 pages from libraries in over 70 countries.
To get more help then try these two sites:
The BBC Webguide
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/webguide/
Research a wide range of subjects at Beaucoup
http://www.beaucoup.com
These links should give you more than enough material to work with.
Keeping on top of your subject
Finding sites dedicated to your topic is only half the battle. If you are to do your job properly as an informed author you will need to keep abreast of the changes in your chosen field. This you can do by perusing newspapers, magazines and trade periodicals but this can be time consuming.
Here again the Internet can help us.
Most newspapers and magazines can now be read online and even better can alert you to changes and significant events happening in your field. They do this by sending you an email on a regular basis containing news items of relevance to you.
The question we need to answer then is how can I find such sites and start this flood of targeted information to my email box?
Well you basically need to visit the following websites. Some of these will keep you updated for FREE, others will charge you a fee. Take my word for it, you do not need to pay a fee to get good quality information to your email box!
Try these sites for size:
PR Newswire - http://www.prnewswire.com
NewsBytes - http://www.newsbytes.com
PR Web - http://www.prweb.com
WebWire - http://www.webwire.com
Internet News Bureau - http://www.newsbureau.com
Each of these sites has a facility to register for news updates on topics of your choice and have them sent to your email box.
Once you have registered you will start to receive press releases, company information and news items from the major publications around the world. You can then use this information as the basis for your books and articles giving the credit for your sources where necessary.
Summary
When using the Internet for your research it is important to remember the old saying "Work smarter not harder".
Hopefully this article has shown you how to do that by getting targeted information quickly and easily without having to sift through millions of websites.
Greg Spence
Get Published! Online Website
