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By Risa Sacks
 While ‘Find' usually focuses on online searching strategies and sources, this article concentrates on a resource to use when, to quote FreePint's Robin Neidorf, ‘web-based searching reaches the limits of its usefulness.' I speak of the telephone - the once humble and old-fashioned tool that now, used in combination with online resources, can lead you to information that spans the globe, subjects, and time.
This article encourages you to think of situations where you can use phone research to find the unique information you need. We'll look at ten categories as examples, although in your searching life, you'll likely to find many more.
Conflicting information
We've all had the experience of finding almost too much information online - especially if some, or all of it, provides conflicting results, statistics, conclusions. Economist John says it's going up by 15% while Analyst Marie says it's going down by 8%. That's a perfect time to pick up the phone and call. Ideally, you can speak to both. Ask John why he's predicting or concluding a 15% rise - what are his sources, his methodology, his underlying assumptions and degree of certainty? Describe Marie's information and ask what might cause the difference. With John's answers in hand, see what Marie has to say.
You may well come out with a deeper understanding than either sets of information alone could provide. And Industry Expert Rupert may provide an independent insight into both their ‘takes' that rounds out the picture - how are each of them viewed within the field? Who has been proved right in the past? What axe might each have to grind?
Out of date information
If an article or study was published six months ago, what's happened in the meantime? Often a call to the author of the study can net you the latest data that won't even be published for another six months. Yes, thanks very much, you'd be happy if they'd email you the draft version!
Even if the next study isn't ready for reporting, what's their view of new innovations in the field? What factors are already influencing how things are developing? Ahead of the curve statistics and emerging insights can provide the critical competitive edge.
Information too narrow
While we're speaking of studies, sometimes you think that the data you need is there in some published study but it's aggregated up under a larger heading. Or just not split out the way you need.... You want statistics on all the grain attacked by weevils within a particular town, but the report only shows it by county? I've phoned researchers who were so delighted that someone really cared about their work that they were willing to run the particular subset of data I needed and email me the ‘individualised' results. They may even know of a fellow researcher in their field who is attacking that exact issue and put you in touch.
Information too broad or too complex
Everyone has his or her favorite ‘weird' searches. One of mine was finding the number of stolen rental cars involved in injury accidents in California from 1985 through 1991. Not online? Too true! But using experts from various sources found online - the auto industry, safety experts, the rental world, crime statisticians - we were able to extrapolate some estimates that we would never have found online directly.
As the descriptors pile up - ‘stolen' ‘rental cars' ‘injury accidents' - it's a good time to think phone, and get the experts to focus on, and contribute to, solving your own very specific issues.
‘Soft' information
When you need to find out how someone feels about a topic, their opinions, emotions - the nuances and ‘flavour' of a topic and reactions to it, that's another time to pick up the phone. In addition to what they say, you can tell so much from people's tone of voice, enthusiasm (or lack thereof) for the topic, even the silences and what they don't say - all information you can't get from the printed word.
When doing due diligence, for example, if all the customers provide very guardedly neutral to negative responses, that's at least a warning sign to dig deeper. And if their voices go from warm and friendly to icy and disdainful in a heartbeat, red flags start waving!
Confusing information
You can't figure out a piece of data in an analyst's report that you've purchased? You read and re-read the paragraphs or pages, and it's no clearer. What in the world did they mean by that? Calling the analyst can provide the explanation you need. If you can't reach the analyst, perhaps you can call Customer Service or similar departments and have them research and resolve the issue for you.
The same principle applies to articles, PowerPoint presentations, blog entries, videos - any of the wealth of sources you might find in online searching. With articles, for example, in addition to calling the author(s), you might contact people quoted in the piece, editors at the publication, those referenced at the end of the report, even people ‘thanked for their support' - consider anyone who might shed light on the topic. Even with ‘direct quotes,' words may get mangled by writers or editors, and meaning or implications altered by the addition or deletion of a comma. Getting as close to the source as possible may clear up the confusion.
Archived information
Need to track down a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant from 1970? What were the three factory sites involved in that buy-out in 1985? What about a death notice from 1967? All instances where the information has not yet, and may never, make it into the digital world. While online searching may provide the contacts who can help you track down the information, actually calling them is often what gets you the data/documents you need.
Have the old NSF grant documents been moved to the National Archives and Records Administration? Will someone there dig through the 9K square feet of boxes for you? Does the small town newspaper editor personally know the local resident who used to be production supervisor back in 1985? And does that retired supervisor remember the buy-out perfectly after more than 20 years? You bet! Will the newspaper librarian dig through the ‘morgue' and fax you the obituary that provides the information you need? It's on your desk by the afternoon.
While online is still limited by boundaries of time, the phone can help you reach back through the years to access memories and documents you can't get any other way.
Information too recent
On the other end of the time spectrum, if something is still in development, or just announced today, the phone can get you the most up-to-date information available. Even though time lags between event and online information are shrinking - with the explosion of blogs, online versions of major publications etc.-the phone can help to fill in remaining gaps.
If, this morning, a study reported shortened life expectancy for women in some US locations, by afternoon you can have spoken with the people ‘on the ground' in those locations, as well as critical investigators. While new studies will not have taken place yet, you can get an immediate take on what new work will examine this phenomenon and its implications. Often phone researchers report that information they learn on the phone is seen in publication months later.
No information
Sometimes, no matter how hard and how cleverly you search online, there's just no info on the topic.
It may be that only five people in the world care about this particular slant on a body of information - and of those five, three of them are your client, and the other two are now you and your supervisor.
It may be that the way you're asking the question is wrong - for example looking for the difference between two categories of metals, when now those old distinctions have disappeared and new terminology and classifications are needed.
When you find no information online, that's a good time to talk with industry experts. Is there an association relating to this topic area? Their job is to help disseminate information - or at least get you to an expert who can help. How about professors at universities who offer degrees or do research in relevant areas? Trade and scientific publications relating to the broader topic can be a source for names of authors or editors who might provide answers. Conferences can lead you to presenters, sponsors and attendees with whom to speak.
Often finding out why there is no information online, in itself, provides very useful data. You then use an iterative approach where each new phone conversation may lead you to new online avenues to explore, and each new online discovery can then take you to experts ever closer to your target.
All the rest of the time
Ok, I confess. Anytime online results could be a bit richer, have more depth, hit the bull's-eye more closely, I consider the phone. Won't you join me?
By Risa Sacks
As owner of Risa Sacks Information Services, Risa specializes in
custom tailored phone inquiries and in-depth interviews in addition to
manual and online research. She has provided research, writing and
training to government and business from Fortune 100 companies to small
start-ups for over 25 years. She literally ‘wrote the book' on phone
research - Super Searchers Go to the Source: The Interviewing and
Hands-On Information Strategies of Top Primary Researchers - Online, on
the Phone and In Person. Risa frequently works with other
researchers and research departments, helping them meet their phone
research needs and provide complete answers for their clients - online
and beyond.
She recently received the prestigious Sue Rugge Memorial Award from
the Association of Independent Information Professionals (aiip.org).
FUMSI articles by Risa Sacks »
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