From my bulletin board topic:

Nothing would pull together your piece quite like a quote from a knowledgeable expert, academic or physician. What are some of your ways of finding experts in the field you're covering? And please: we already know about Profnet, Craig's List, WorldWit and of course, the mediabistro boards. Are those really effective places to dig up sources, though, or just the most popular? Are there different ways of utilizing them to yield more sources that might not be evident to a first-time-user?

Here are some other ways mediabistro readers dig up sources:

"-- Note the sources other writers used on the same topic. Like those sources? Call or e-mail them.

-- While digging up background from professional journals (health, psychology, etc), note who did the studies, and contact them.

-- Call university media-relations offices to find experts. (Not all universities have them, and some universities have media-relations offices for their various colleges.) It helps to call universities known for the subject area you're covering.

-- Use Google, Yahoo or another search engine, with keywords related to your subject as the search parameters, and see which experts come up. Contact them.

-- Call professional associations and ask to be put in touch with a member who would make a good expert source on your topic.

-- Visit a bookseller site such as Amazon.com to see which experts have written books in your subject area. Contact them."

"I was once assigned to travel across the country for a big-picture story about a political campaign in another state. I did a LexisNexis search for contact information but still felt out of the loop, so I called the political editor of that state's largest daily. We must have talked for an hour about the political scene in that particular campaign, the candidates' personalities, how to hook into campaign itineraries and all sorts of things. I don't remember whether he gave me any names and numbers, because this was a long time ago, but I imagine he did, and he was so helpful that I couldn't wait to thank him when I got there." (However, be careful with this: calling a reporter who has covered a story you're working on can blow up in your face.)

"In this day and age, publications are eager for writers to find experts who are NOT old white guys, because they want sources to reflect the real America. Besides, the old-white-guy demographic no longer has a lock on expertise!

Where can you go specifically for diversity? One good place to start is the Rainbow Source List. (You can also always request a minority or woman expert. It may feel weird at first to ask, but that's how you find the people you need.)

Another place where I've found experts: Multicultural Marketing Resources Inc. in NYC.

Many minority professionals now have professional associations. For example, if you need a financial expert, you can contract the National Association of Hispanic MBAs. All you need to find these organizations is a good search engine and a working knowledge of keywords.

Don't forget to seek out women, people in wheelchairs, and even expert sources you might have to interview via TDD.

One of my pet peeves when I was an editor for a national magazine was writers who sourced only in their immediate area. If you're going to writer nationally, you must source nationally. Online phone directories work wonders in helping to find sources beyond the county line. One of the best sites for this is The Ultimates."

"Since I write for lad magazines, I'm always having to find ''experts'' in the most appalling professions, so it really helps to have an big, eccentric circle of friends. I begin my search by sending out a bunch of desperate sounding emails describing the type of person I'm looking for and then beg people to forward them to anyone who might vaguely fit the description. And they've always come through!"

"I believe that both Columbia & New York Univ. have good p.r. staffs. NYU has a 40-page book of its various experts that it will send out to journalists."