There are many ways to contact a person who has knowledge in your area of research. Why would you want to contact them? They may have facts or information not yet published or access to internal reports not readily available to the public. So how do you figure out who might have the information you need?
Reading. As you read articles, conference proceedings, reports and books in your research area note the names of the authors who seem to have written in your area. Then contact these authors to see if they have new research or information to share.
So how do you find them? Below are books and web sites that provide information on locating people.
Using Directories Using Search Engines .
Biography and Genealogy Master Index This is an index to biographical information found in books, encyclopedias, who's who or articles. Note you will find more authors listed here than most other places.
California Planners' Information Network (CALPIN) A directory of key officials that are involved in local planning.
Associations Unlimited is a directory of associations each entries include web site, address, phone, email and the purpose of the association. If there is a referral service is available the information is given.
National Governors Association provides directories and contact information for governor and federal staff.
Peoplefinder by Virtual Chase is a directory of places to find people, note some links require a payment for services.
California Roster of state, county, city and township officials, state officials of the United States by California Secretary of State. This is a directory of state services for the State of California. It also includes California city, county and unincorporated officials and contact information.
Companies, educational institutions and organization that have a web site, that provide some type of employee or staff directory that includes contact information.
California On-line allows you to search the State of California white and yellow pages for employees.
Dogpile collects several search engine links that search for people.
Google Web Directory has links to live and dead people by profession. They also provide links to Personal Home Web Pages.
Guide to Policy Experts from the Public Policy Institute of California provides names of experts in budgeting and public finance plus other topics. Their publications are also listed with links.
SearchSystems.net allows searching of public records including specific California things like various licenses, etc. Note some have searching fees.
Yahoo People Search provides telephone (USA only) and email search tools.
Yahoo! Directory has a people page listed by profession.
Return to Main Research Guide for Public Policy Page .
Content maintained by Kelly Janousek
