Resource file on database reporting p.35

By: William Web Training, data, newsletter, online chat groups sp.

THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR), a joint venture of Investigative Reporters and Editors and the University of Missouri School of Journalism, provides a host of resources, including training.
NICAR has conducted about 50 on-the-road seminars to North American news organizations, including the Los Angeles Times and Boston Globe. These sessions and weeklong seminars at its Columbia, Mo., headquarters have provided hands-on training to thousands of print and broadcast journalists.
In addition, NICAR distributes data to news organizations and thereby divides the cost of expensive databases. It has sent data to 100 organizations since last July and has 400 paid subscribers to its newsletter, Uplink.
Finally, NICAR has established an Internet discussion group on computer-assisted reporting called NICAR-L. CompuServe subscribers can access a similar group in the "Investigative/IRE" sections of Journalism Forum. A NICAR World Wide Web site is in the works.
NICAR, which in 1993 received $221,000 from the Freedom Forum, also gives old-fashioned telephone advice to reporters.
For journalists planning to be near El Paso, Texas, June 8-9, E&P will be hosting a hands-on resource lab for computer-assisted reporting at the 13th Annual Convention of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Attendees will have access to Internet resources as well as commercial online research services such as DataTimes, Lexis-Nexis and Dialogue.
E&P is also sponsoring a resource lab at International Newspaper Marketing Association's 65th International Conference in Boston on May 17, although training will focus more on Internet authoring tools than on computer-assisted reporting.