Database Feature: CQ Researcher

Maybe you’re doing a research project, or maybe you just like to read in-depth reports on various topics. Here’s one resource you might consider. CQ Researcher is an award-winning publication, which offers comprehensive, unbiased reporting and analysis on current issues. It is also known for its extensive coverage of health, social topics and trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, environmental issues, technology, and economic trends. The reports are published in print weekly and online 44 times a year by CQ Press. Access to the publication is offered by the Birmingham Public Library and Jefferson County Library Cooperative.

Each report has one theme that is researched and written by an experienced journalist. The site also provides an overview, background and chronology, assessment and analysis of the current situation, as well as views on both sides of the topic. Additionally, CQ Researcher also presents contact information for the topic and bibliographies of main sources.

Editorial Research Reports, predecessor of CQ Researcher, was co-founded in1923 by Richard M. Boeckel and Bertram Benedict. As a correspondent for the New York Tribune, Boeckel believed he and his fellow journalists needed a source which provided in-depth background information on topics they were covering. In 1956 Congressional Quarterly purchased Editorial Research Reports. Price also reports that flavored drinks may be a contribution to the rising numbers of female drinkers.

CQ Researcher’s current topic is on alcoholism, written by Tom Price, a longtime contributer to CQ Researcher and a Washington-based freelancer. According to Price, less Americans are reportedly abusing alcohol than in past years. However, there is one exception: college students. Drinkers ages 18 to 20 have the highest proportion to binge drinking, as stated by a January 2012 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistic.

The previous topic was on traumatic brain injury (TBI) was written by Marcia Clemmitt, a veteran social-policy reporter and former editor of Medicine & Health. Approximately 1.7 million people in the United States are reported to suffer traumatic brain injuries every year. The report states that about 20 percent of veterans who served in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have returned with a TBI. Researchers have also discovered that even mild TBIs could contribute to dementia, depression, and other mental disorders or mental illnesses.

A JCLC library card and residence in the City of Birmingham is required to access this database. Remote access is available.

Farah A. Ferguson
Business, Science, & Technology
Central Branch