• About the Patrons
• Reference Interview Checklist
• Important Statistical Compendia
• Selected Subject Specific Sources
• Bottom Line

About the Patrons

Main Departments	Geography Political Science/Humphrey Institute Economics/Carlson School Sociology History
Who's asking for reference assistance?	Undergraduates working on very specific assignments (e.g. find the Per Capita GDP from 1970-present of a country of your choice other than the US (Answer 1)).
	Advanced undergrads, graduate students/faculty/post-docs working on medium- and long-term projects.
	Economics/Carlson/Business people looking for statistics to support economic analysis (whether for projects or actual business decisions)
Common Question Characteristics	Very long time-series (e.g. avg. calf weight at slaughter as far back as it can be found, pref. to the 1860s (Answer 2))
	Very current statistics (e.g. in January 2003, patrons want to see Book of ___ Statistics for 2002)
	Very detailed geographic level, especially zip codes. This is more common with Census statistics, but people have also asked for sub-national statistics for countries around the world. Ironically, Business Reference has more and better zip code statistics than GPL because there's money in creating them!
	Highly dis-aggregated statistics (e.g. how many of the foreign students in US colleges are Asian?(Answer 3))

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Reference Interview Checklist

Who	Do they need the stats from particular source? If they could get it from more than one, which would they prefer (e.g. World Development Indicators, International Financial Statistics and UNSTATS all provide a variety of GDP time-series)
What	Described as variables, what are they looking for? "Housing statistics" isn't enough statistics on housing sales? occupancy? public housing? by some attribute such as race? (Answer 4)
Where	For what geographic level/place? If patron says "Twin Cities Metro Area" do they mean the seven county metro area (determined the state)? See http://govpubs.lib.umn.edu/census/profile.phtml#msa for the two lists.
When	For what time period do they want the stats? Are they flexible on this? (e.g. 1950-present for each year, but data is only available in 5-year chunks)
Why/To What End	Does patron need a printed table? A file for moderate modification? A file of raw data for analysis with dedicated statistical software? Say patron wants the resident population by race and state In the first scenario, you direct them to the Statistical Abstract, table #22 In the second, you send them to American Factfinder, Summary File 3 or 4: http://factfinder.census.gov In the third, you send them to IPUMS: http://www.ipums.org/usa/index.html.

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Important Statistical Compendia

CIS National Statistical Compendiums
Pro	Consists of serial publications of national governments that contain yearly summary data for the country as a whole. If a country does not issue such a publication, coverage may be provided by one that has similar characteristics.
	Also includes coverage for non-sovereign territories when parent countries treat them as separate entities.
Con	Format is microfiche
Tip	Useful in particular when user has been looking for a particular county's statistical yearbook without success or they found the book, but can't get to the location where it's shelved.
Related	International Database below
Fedstats
Pro	Closest thing to 1-stop shopping for U.S. web-posted statistics.
Frequently Used Sites Related to U.S. Government Information: Statistics
Pro	Put together and maintained by government publications librarians
	Organized by subject, publications and indicators (separately and together) and agency
International Financial Statistics International Financial Statistics (IFS) is the electronic version of the International Monetary Fund's standard source of statistics on all aspects of international and domestic finance from more than 200 IMF countries. It contains approximately 32,000 time series of financial and economic data. Topics covered include exchange rates, IMF postion, international liquidity, money and banking accounts, interest rates, prices, production, international transactions, government accounts, national accounts, and population. The database contains annual, monthly, and quarterly data going back as far as 1945. Data output formats include CSV, Excel. HTML, and TAB delimited.
Pro	Time series statistics on virtually every nation since 1948, annual and quarterly
Con	Software is definitely clunky to use the first time out.
Tip	Use the print edition in conjuction with the website; helps get the context for the statistics.
OFFSTATS
Pro	Resources organized by country and topic; all are official and free.
Statistical Abstract of the United States.
Pro	Single best starting point for U.S. statistics; has source information for every table.
Tip	Index refers to table numbers; not page numbers.
Print	Desk Reference; Use print whenever possible
Web	http://www.census.gov/prod/www/statistical-abstract-us.html
CD	Installed on GPL Workstations (with guide); available for circulation
SourceOECD
Pro	Unique source for trade by commodity by country.
Con	Very slow, many clicks to get to data
Tip	If patron wants trade information about a non-OECD country and an OECD country, you can rephrase the information request to be from the perspective of the OECD country and get the data (e.g. you can't get Guatamalan banana exports to Britain, but you can get British imports of Guatemalan bananas).
LexisNexis Statistical
Pro	Most comprehensive source we've got: US, sub-US, international & private sources
	Can be used like a journal index (find something good, see if we have it in print from MNCAT)
United Nations Common Database
Pro	Nearly comprehensive for UN statistics.
	Web access to some IMF/World Bank statistics, but not equivalent to CDs
WDI Online
Pro	Over 500 time-series indicators covering people, the environment, economy, states & markets and global links.
Con	World Bank's methods for getting these statistics are not universally accepted. There may be discrepancies between, say, UNESCO education statistics when presented in WDI and when presented in UNSTATS.
Tip	Lots of data is available in a variety of formats on the World Bank Data and Statistics page.
World Factbook
Pro	It profiles over 260 entities including nations and dependent areas; includes but not limited to information on geography, people, government, economy, transportation, telecommunications and defense.
Con	For only one year at a time and the CIA doesn't provide permanent public access to past editions. See the guide above for links to previous years.

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Subject Specific Sources

American FactFinder
Subject	The Decennial Census, the Decennial Supplementary Survey (C2SS), the American Community Survey, the Economic Census and Population Estimates.
Pro	Nearly 1-stop shopping for 2000 Census, C2SS, Economic Census & Population Estimates ; not 1-stop at all for 1990
	One interface for multiple data sets; once users get the hang of it, they can use that knowledge repeatedly. Not true of CDs where software differs, often lots from data set to data set.
	Can actually satisfy a significant range of user needs as intended.
Con	It's very complicated, users of all types are totally flummoxed by it and many won't want to take the time to get the hang of it.
	Presumes users want data in electronic format and most may, but for those who don't, getting information out of AFF is very time-consuming and difficult compared to copying a page out of a book.
Tip	Use the guide linked above to find out if the information the user wants will be in AFF first, then use it. Ultimately a time saver.
Related	Disks; SF1-4 are loaded on GPL CD-ROM workstations.
Bureau of the Census
Subject	Demographics, Economics, Transportation*, Justice*, Labor*, Housing*, Education*, Science*, Social Security* * joint activities with other agencies
Pro	Lots of data, current, historical, you name it; not equivalent to American FactFinder.
	New FAQ linked at the top of the home page; also accessible from http://ask.census.gov/cgi-bin/askcensus.cfg/php/enduser/std_alp.php
Con	see Pro; site is so extensive that it confuses users, especially if they've heard of AFF, but don't know much more.
Tip	Get familiar with the home page: · Subjects A to Z can be used to bypass the site structure and save time. · Access Tools are the many interactive tools on the site, like AFF. · Publications really are the publications and are all in .pdf format. · If someone asks about, say, immigration, click on People and the Immigration link will be right there.
Bureau of Economic Analysis
Subject	National, Regional/Local, International and Industry Economic Statistics
Pro	Fast easy web site with a single interface to mulitple datasets (CD software differs, sometimes lots, from dataset to dataset)
Datasets	Gross State Product & Gross Product Originating
	Interactive Access To National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA) Tables
	REIS Regional Economic Information System, 1969-
	State Personal Income
Bureau of Justice Statistics
Subject	Crime, Justice
Pro	Home page has links to Uniform Crime Reports, Sourcebook of Justice Statistics, additional statistics, multiple formats.
	The Publications page (also linked from the home page) has some nice features: in addition to listing some bibliographic information, users are also pointed to more and/or related information on the same subject. All publications listed will be available full-text.
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Subject	Labor, Prices, International Labor, Inflation & Consumer Spending, Employment and Unemployment, Occupations and Industries
Pro	Lots of data, current and historical
	Site is organized by topic and each topic page has a standard table of contents along these lines: "General Overview, Economic News Releases, Get Detailed Statistics, Tables Created by BLS, Special Notices, Publications and Other Documentation, Frequently Asked Questions, Contact Us"
Con	Richness of site can intimidate users
	Data Access Tools work well, but have lousy names: BLS Create Customized Tables -
Datanet
Subject	Minnesota
Pro	Access to time-series statistics covering social, economic and demographic conditions.
	Better choice than AFF for MN/local Census 2000 data; simpler interface, faster response.
Fastats A to Z
Subject	Health
Pro	User friendly subject access to health statistics
Pro	Each topic page gives some summary statistics, links to more comprehensive data and points the user to related sites.
International Database (IDB): Online Access
Subject	Socio-Economic data for countries around the world; culled from each country's census data
Pro	52 years of statistics, 48 years of projections (1950-2050)
	Easy to use; provides a format for saving as comma-delimited text files.
	There's always at least one class per semester that will be told to find vital statistics for other countries for an extended period of time and this tool gives them exactly what they need.
Con	Really lousy labeling. All of the access is online, yet only one type of access is described that way. Plus other labels are fairly opaque (e.g. IDB Online Demographic Aggregation (make up your own area), IDB Population Pyramids (well, they are pop. pyramids, but that's hardly a commonly used phrase), IDB Summary Demographic Data (country profile)).
Related	See CIS National Statistical Compendiums above.
LABORSTA
Subject	Employment, Unemployment, Hours of Work, Wages, Labour Cost, Consumer Price Indices, Occupational Injuries, Strikes and Lockouts
Pro	Time Series from 1969 to the present, some projections to 2010
	Easy, fast database with the option to download in files in comma separated files.
NCES Quick Tables and Figures
Subject	Education
Pro	This search tool allows you to locate all tables/figures published in the inventory of NCES' "Education Statistics Quarterly" by searching on the tables themselves.
	There is an index of sample searches for frequently requested tables at Sample Keyword Searches.
UNESCO Database and Statistical Yearbook
Subject	Education and Literacy, Science, Culture
Pro	Easy access, allows downloads
Con	Web site is framed and users have to go to the home page and choose statistics at the bottom and then choose from the Database, Indicators or the Yearbook 1999.
Tip	UNESCO statistics are also available from UNSTATS and World Development Indicators.

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Bottom Line

If you don't know where to start and the patron wants statistical information about:

The US, start with...	Statistical Abstract of the United States Lexis-Nexis Statistical Fedstats Historical Statistics of the United States
Other countries, start with...	World Develpment Indicators IN PRINT International Financial Statistics IN PRINT UNSTATS Lexis-Nexis Statistical UN Statistical Yearbooks (there are several series)
US States, start with...	MNCAT for state yearbooks and/or links to online editions State and Local Government on the Web Lexis-Nexis Statistical

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Answer Key to Examples

Answer 1	Per capita GDP time-series are available in International Financial Statistics. Extent of statistics varies by country.
Answer 2	Sufficiently similar statistics to about the 1880s were found in USDA annual reports.
Answer 3	The main source for nation-wide statistics on higher education is the IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System) from the Dept. of Ed. All the survey asks for is that resident aliens be broken down by federal race/ethnicity standards (e.g. Asian/Pacific Islander) and non-resident aliens totaled, so there's no way to get the international student information disaggregated by country from this survey.
Answer 4	Housing sales: http://www.census.gov/const/www/newressalesindex.html Occupancy: http://factfinder.census.gov/ Public Housing: http://www.huduser.org/datasets/assthsg.html