Reporter's Toolbox

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Toolbox is a biweekly column focused on the world of data journalism, with an emphasis on data tools, techniques and database resources that journalists can use to improve their environmental reporting.

For questions and comments, or to suggest future Reporter's Toolboxes, email the SEJournal Reporter's Toolbox editor Joseph A. Davis at sejournaleditor@sej.org.
Journalists can receive Reporter's Toolbox free by subscribing to the SEJournal Online, the digital news magazine of the Society of Environmental Journalists. Subscribe to the e-newsletter here.

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April 15, 2013

Broken Promise: Database Helps Track Illegal Parkland Conversions

InvestigateWest's Robert McClure and Jason Alcorn explain how to spin the local angle about how parks built or improved with money from the Land and Water Conservation Fund are increasingly being illegally privatized or converted to something other than parks — including sharing their searchable database of almost 40,000 park grants.

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January 15, 2013

Keeping Up on Chemical Databases

Find a rich collection of online resources courtesy of the National Library of Medicine and others, compiled by SEJ member and NLM technical information specialist Philip Wexler.

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September 15, 2012

EPA’s ECHO Database: Your Two-faced Best Friend

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April 15, 2012

Web Tool Brings Documents to Life

Amanda Hickman explains how the web-based tool DocumentCloud, founded in 2009 with a Knight News Challenge grant, lets journalists engage with the public and knowledgeable sources. Use it to analyze, annotate, and publish the documents behind your reporting.

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January 15, 2012

Checking Local Water Use and Scrutinizing Those Big Water Projects Can Benefit Your Community

Author Cynthia Barnett explains water-use truths and fallacies, offers tips for investigating water projects proposed for your audience area, and reports how some of the country’s most progressive engineers and local governments are showing that it’s absolutely possible to live with far less water.

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July 15, 2011

Some Spreadsheet Techniques To Help You Check the Scientists’ Studies

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April 15, 2011

So Little Time, So Stop Procrastinating!

Naomi Lubick writes about the common plight of procrastination and offers helpful tips to better manage your time and energy. Don't put it off — read it now!

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January 15, 2011

Disaster: Response Is Not Recovery Is Not Response

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October 15, 2010

Covering Recovery from Disasters

Jim Schwab, manager of the American Planning Association’s Hazards Planning Research Center, writes in Part 1 of a two-part series about the dynamics of recovery, silver linings, and post-disaster journalism.

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July 15, 2010

Free Online Tools Can Broaden Your Reach and Productivity

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