Day 13: HGP - Researching Journalists

As part of a the follow up to an awarded grant, I began researching and compiling bios on individuals connected with the Human Genome Project. As the scientists's bios were completed the previous year, I am researching people who were on the fringe of the program:  legal professionals, journalists and ethicists. 

Some of these individuals are well-known for other accomplishments and some only appear once or twice in documentation. 

After completing the test group of legal professionals, my rate per person was one per hour. At that rate of productivity, I should be able to complete the list in 25 hours (or 3.5 days). Let's see how this timeline shakes out.

Resources used:
I start out by searching in Google Books: "first name last name" + "genome"

This search string pulls information from inside numerous out of print books and highlights the pages where the person's name appears. By adding the term "genome" it narrows the search to those books where the person's name and the term genome appear on the same page. 

Once inside the book, you can re-search using just the person's name and only pull-up pages where that name appears. 

After this I generally search in professional directories such as Martindale Hubbell, LinkedIn, Who's Who, Men and Women of Science, CSHL archives and online catalog, and external special collections.

Later, I do a Google search with the person's name combined with a current/recent job title. This helps to pull up professionally relevant information on the person as well as some publications. To identify further genome-related publications, I utilized PubMed. 

Methodology: 

In an effort to keep the notes organized, I decided to create 5 sections:  Professional (current position, career history, and connection to the HGP (what role he/she played, work accomplished, and notes on important connections as well as how this piece connected to the larger picture); Education; Vitals; Known To; Genome-Related Publications; Connections to CSHL.