How to Find Out Anything: From Extreme Google Searches to Scouring Government Documents, a Guide to Uncovering Anything About Everyone and Everything

214 Pages·2012·0.87 MB·English

“How to Find Out Anything is an indispensable guide to the information age. It’s
written with great clarity and wit, and crammed with useful tips and resources,
as well as sage advice on how to organize and plan your research. My only
complaint is that it didn’t come out a long time ago. It would have saved me a lot
of time and frustration.”
—John Strausbaugh, author and journalist
“I use Don’s tips every day at my proofreading job and for my own writing
research. I’d love to sing his praises on the record. I do so daily, as it is.”
—Leigh Angel, proofreader
“I remember one thing in particular that Don said—something to the effect of no
matter how obscure an interest or passion may be, if there are two people in the
world who share it, they will find each other and they will form an association! I
thought that was hysterical and it’s true! Don taught me how to Google in a
whole new way!”
—Jen Fernicola Ronay, attorney
How to Find Out
Anything
From Extreme Google Searches to Scouring
Government Documents, a Guide to
Uncovering Anything About Everyone and
Everything
DON MACLEOD
PRENTICE HALL PRESS
PRENTICE HALL PRESS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
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Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin
Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England While
the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers, Internet
addresses, and other contact information at the time of publication, neither the
publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that
occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and
does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their
content.
Copyright © 2012 by Don MacLeod Text design by Tiffany Estreicher All rights
reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or
electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage
piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only
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PRENTICE HALL PRESS is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA)
Inc.
First edition: August 2012
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data MacLeod, Don, 1955– How
to find out anything : from extreme Google searches to scouring government
documents, a guide to uncovering anything about everyone and everything / Don
MacLeod.—First edition.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN: 978-1-101-61734-2
1. Research—Methodology. 2. Information resources. 3. Electronic information
resources. 4. Internet searching. 5. Electronic information resource searching. 6.
Google. I. Title.
ZA3075.M33 2012
001.4’2—dc23 2012010974
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Most Prentice Hall Press books are available at special quantity discounts for
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Special books, or book excerpts, can also be created to fit specific needs. For
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New York, New York 10014.
ALWAYS LEARNING
PEARSON
To Lisa
Of all the things I have found out over the years, the one thing I learned that
matters most is how lucky a guy I am.
Saber es poder.
CONTENTS
1. How to Think Like a Researcher
The Process of Research | Think Like a Detective | Require Proof | Never
Give Up
2. Google and the Deep Web
Google | The Deep Web
3. The Ins and Outs of Google
The “Advanced Search” Template | Google Collections | Other Google
Tools
4. Why You Still Need a Library Card
Get to Know Your Library | Special Collection Libraries
5. A Reference Desk to Call Your Own
Basic References | Reference Portals | Finding Additional Reference
Resources
6. Associations
Types of Associations | Mining Association Information | How to Locate
Associations
7. Finding People
Searching for a Specific Person | Research Tools for Finding People |
Searching for Types of People | Library Resources | Commercial Services
8. Company and Business Research
Public Companies | Private Companies | International Companies |
Nonprofit Organizations | Research Guides
9. Researching the Public Record
About Public Records | Types of Public Records | Finding Public Record
Information | Working with Public Records
10. Pulling It All Together
Acknowledgments
Index
1
How to Think Like a Researcher
How much money does my boss make? Where is my great-grandmother buried?
Who did my college girlfriend marry? How many other card stores are there in
the town where I want to open mine? How can I change careers at the age of
fifty? What companies would want to buy what my company produces and whom
should we contact?
Welcome to the information age. Questions like these were once no more
than things to ponder as you fell asleep, but now the answers are at the tips of
your fingers—if you know where, and how, to look.
Research is the process of finding out for yourself what somebody else
already knows. Every time you consult a book on how to cook a flounder filet or
Google for information about your daughter’s college or ask the advice of your
doctor about that strange pain in your arm, you make the assumption that an
answer to your question is out there. You assume that someone has written a
cookbook or built a website or studied physiology thoroughly enough to
correctly diagnose what ails you. Your instincts are right, because we live in the
Information Age.
In our literate society, people record what they know. They research and
publish books. They create websites. They tweet on Twitter. They write articles,
make videos, and appear on TV. They store knowledge in their own heads.
Information surrounds us as surely as water surrounds a fish, simply because
someone decided to record what he or she knows. As evidenced by everything
from ancient cuneiform writing pressed into clay tablets to the latest breaking
news story online, humans need to put what they know into a form more
permanent than speech. Whether the record is private, like a diary, or public, like
a newspaper, ideas, thoughts, and data are stored in written form.
Paradoxically, for all the uncountable words and pictures we can conjure up
with the click of a mouse, the Information Age poses it own unique problem: