Program
Do you ever answer business reference inquiries? Do you wish your library had access to additional resources to address these questions? As libraries of all types face ongoing budget restrictions and potentially limited resources, a knowledge of the benefits, drawbacks, and general availability of open data resources is invaluable. In this interactive panel presentation an expert librarian and a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Census Bureau will explore open data resources in depth, including working through multiple case study research questions with participants, and encouraging an active discussion on the benefits of, and potential problems with, open data sources.
Jennifer Boettcher, Business Reference Librarian at Georgetown University Library, will present on open data more broadly, and how this data can be used in business research. Open data vocabulary will be explored, as well as what makes data ‘open data’ and what reasons might prevent otherwise public domain data from being available (privacy concerns etc.). The past, present and future of open data policy issues in the Federal Government will be touched on before diving into the major government publishers of social science data: the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Bureau of Economic Analysis and more. The audience will be asked to provide a sample business research problem to work through using the resources discussed. Examples of state and city open data portals, international sources, and accessing data via APIs will also be explored. The presentation will conclude with an audience discussion on potential problems with open data.
Andrew W. Hait, an economist with the U.S. Census Bureau, will touch briefly on important Census methodology and data definitions before exploring various Census Bureau data products in more depth. Products discussed will include the Economic Census, the Census Business Builder, and especially the new Census Bureau data exploration platform (the replacement for the American Fact Finder tool). Depending on the applicability to the particular case study chosen by program participants, additional resources discussed may include the Annual Business Survey, Business Dynamics Statistics, County Business Patterns, Enterprise Statistics, trade data, Statistics of US Businesses and more. Mr. Hait will conclude with a discussion of various use cases for U.S. Census Bureau data, as seen over the course of his 30 year career with the Bureau. This will include a discussion of use by librarians, Small Business Development Center counselors, corporate users, entrepreneurs, and more.
Throughout the panel presentations, the audience will be engaged through the use of Mentimeter polling software. Participants with mobile devices will be further encouraged to work concurrently through case study examples with our panelists. Participants will be left with a takeaway guide to the resources and methods discussed.
ALA Unit/Subunit: RUSA, RUSA_BRASS
Meeting Type: Program
Cost: Included with full conference registration.
Open/Closed: Open
Jennifer Boettcher, MLS & MBA
Business Reference Librarian
Georgetown University
Andrew Hait
Economist
Governments and Trade Management Division, U.S. Census Bureau