LibrarySources of Information on the Web
Nonprofits, Foundations, Think Tanks
Many organizations exist in order to raise awareness of certain issues, promote changes in public policy, or pursue learning in various spheres. These organizations can produce well-researched, in-depth reports. Their websites also often have shorter articles, interviews, graphs and multimedia materials that could be of use in your research. Click the images to see some examples of what these sites look like.
Here are some examples of how these kinds of materials might be useful.
- If you were doing a paper about the impact the Internet and electronic media are having on society, you might want to use the report on the "Digital Youth Project" from the MacArthur Foundation.
- If you were writing about ethnic and racial diversity in the United States, you would probably benefit from looking at a survey done by the Pew Research Center on American attitudes toward diversity.
- If your paper was on health care issues, the Kaiser Family Foundation has a number of useful websites. Their State Health Facts site is an excellent resource on the topic.
Of course, not every non-profit produces high-quality material, and bias can sometimes be a problem; you need to evaluate the site. We'll discuss how to do this shortly.
