Resource of the Week: A Hub for “Third Sector” Research
Resource of the Week: IssueLab
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor
DocuTicker, our sister site, “offers a hand-picked selection of resources, reports and publications from government agencies, NGOs, think tanks and other public interest organizations.” We’ve often been asked where we find “so much stuff” to post on there. Well, we can tell you that it’s never a problem finding enough stuff to post. The real problem is finding enough time to cull through the never-ceasing torrent of materials emanating from a staggering range of sources.
We use a variety of techniques to try and keep up with the flow — RSS, page change notifiers, e-mail alerts…and when we find a site that aggregates materials from a variety of other sites, we are quick to latch onto it. When it also offers an RSS feed…well, as far as we’re concerned, that’s as good as it gets. Which is why we like IssueLab — and we think you will, too.
IssueLab, which has been around for just about two years, is a project of the Chicago-based New Media for Nonprofits, which basically assists third sector organizations in creating and managing an online presence. Gabriela Fitz, IssueLab co-director, describes the site as “an online publishing forum focused solely on research being produced by the third sector. Its mission is to bring nonprofit research into focus by giving a broad audience easy and open access to this extensive body of work.” We would describe it, more simply, as a searchable archive of full-text nonprofit organization research and policy papers.
Says Fitz — and she’s right — there is a great deal of interest in nonprofit sector research. And as we know from our experience with DocuTicker, there is plenty of it available. But unless you take the time to browse a bunch of different organization websites, you can’t really know what is available. On the flip side, nonprofits have had no easy way to disseminate their research to a wider public, thus increasing their visibility. IssueLab solves both of these problems.
Fitz explains the concept:
After seeing the organizations we worked with over the years produce engaging and valuable research, only to have it end up tucked away on their web sites or sitting on a shelf, we decided it was time to launch a free service for nonprofits to bring both their current and historical work to a broader audience.
We believe that the third sector, which has been mandated to address social inequities and engage the public in imagining solutions to these inequities, brings a unique perspective to their research. And we think it’s about time that research - with an agenda - gets the attention it deserves.
IssueLab is a no-brainer to use. From the home page, you can do a keyword search or click the dropdown menu to browse by any of a broad range of issues — Aging, Animals, Arts and Culture, Children and Youth, Computers and Technology, Consumer Protection, Crime and Safety, Disability Issues, Disaster Relief, Economic Development, Education and Literacy, Employment and Labor, Energy and Environment, Gay/Lesbian/Bi/Trans, General. Government Reform, Health and Medicine, Housing and Homelessness, Human Rights and Civil Liberties, Immigration, Media, Men, Nonprofits and Philanthropy, Parenting and Families, Peace and Conflict, Resolution, Poverty and Hunger, Prison Reform, Race and Ethnicity, Religion, Science, Sports, Substance Abuse and Recovery, Transportation, Welfare and Public Assistance, Women.
A detailed record exists for each resource in the database, including publishing organization, publication data, authors, a brief summary, how to obtain the publication (e.g., link for direct download, e-mail address, contact info), some brief information about the organization (and a website link), and links to other research by the same entity in the IssueLab archives, along with publication dates and summaries (if you click the link to add them to the display). Note that both current and historical materials are available, which makes this a particularly useful site if you’re interested in seeing how certain issues have evolved over time.
IssueLab offers a free monthly e-mail newsletter that provides updates on new research and different nonprofit organizations. An archive is available. We like the RSS feed, which provides ongoing access to the newest additions to the site.
Nonprofit organizations are encouraged to add their materials to the IssueLab database (for free); once you register, you can begin uploading materials immediately, but they will not be added to the database until vetted by IssueLab. This keeps incomplete listings and spam from inclusion. Detailed information for potential contributors is available.
We get a steady stream of e-mails from folks who want their organization’s reports posted on DocuTicker. We are usually happy to oblige, provided the document in question has at least some content value. We adhere to pretty much the same guidelines as IssueLab:
Acceptable works include policy analysis reports, white papers, case studies, fact sheets, data sets, and the like.
Unacceptable works are those that do not directly deal with a public policy issue. For instance, brochures about your organization or your programs will not be included in the IssueLab archive.
A general rule of thumb: If your publication doesn’t respond to a policy question or issue, if it doesn’t add to a current policy debate, it most likely will not be approved for inclusion in IssueLab.
We do maintain editorial oversight of Issuelab. This means that we reserve the right to not publish something that is intentionally hateful.
So if you’ve been informing us about your organization’s publications, you should seriously consider adding them to IssueLab’s database as well — if you haven’t already been contributing.