U.S. Census Bureau Statistics

Statistics...

Students and researchers often need statistics. Business students and entrepreneurs seek statistics that describe trends in a particular industry, or the ups and downs of the economy as a whole. Social science students often need statistics which may describe the educational and health status of the population, or the population's voting behavior, or other characteristics of the society.


The U.S. Federal government is the main collector and aggregator of these statistics, and it is the Census Bureau that does much of this work, although other agencies also collect and publish statistics. However, knowing how to locate the statistics you want, or even having an idea of what exists, is pretty daunting both for students, and for this writer. Here are links to three blogs from the Census Bureau and one newsletter from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which give users an idea of the types of statistics that are available, and which simultaneously illustrate how the data casts a spotlight on our society.

U.S. Census Bureau: Random Samplings Blog (http://blogs.census.gov/).
"The official blog of the U.S. Census Bureau," aims to describe the Bureau's objectives and the results of the surveys. Recent entries include one on the geographic mapping tools available in the Census Bureau's LED (Local Employment Dynamics)/state partnership program.

U.S. Census Bureau: Director's Blog
(http://blogs.census.gov/2010census/).
The Director of the Census Bureau, Dr. Robert M. Groves, writes a blog specifically about the 2010 Census and its interpretation, as well as the science of statistics.

U.S. Census Bureau's Foreign Trade Division: Global Reach Blog
(http://blogs.census.gov/globalreach/).
"The official blog of the U.S. Census Bureau's Foreign Trade Division (FTD)." The FTD is the official source of U.S. import and export trade statistics. Blog entries relate to one of three categories: Trade Data, Foreign Trade Regulations, and information for exporters on electronic filing of shipments (Export Filing (AES). Note: some trade data may only be available through subscription.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Publication: Spotlight on Statistics
(http://www.bls.gov/spotlight/).
This small collection articles, heavily illustrated with charts and graphs, dates back to 2007. Recent topics include "Women at Work" and "Employment Situation of Veterans."

Link of the Week: The Economic Census

Most people are familiar with the U.S. Census, which is supposed to count every U.S. resident and is conducted every 10 years. (2010 is a census year - so if you have not returned your census form yet, here is what your community stands to gain by having a high participation rate.)

However, the Census Bureau also conducts an Economic Census. This is done every 5 years, the most recent one being from 2007. The data collected provides a detailed snapshot of the U.S. economy, by counting the number of establishments nationwide, their sales, their annual payroll, and the number of their employees. The Census Bureau then assigns each establishment to a specific industry, according to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). The 2007 NAICS is comprised of 1,175 industries grouped into 20 sectors, and by means of the Economic Census, these industries can in turn be viewed from the national to the local level.

Why would someone who is not a government official be interested in such things? The statistics can provide a tool to identifying business markets and competition. Comparing changes from one census to the next can illustrate trends in industries by location (or for that matter, trends in different locations by industry).

It takes some time before the Economic Census data is compiled and released. This is done in stages, and the bulk of the data sets are available 2-3 years after the census is conducted.

Not surprisingly, finding and using the data effectively can be a challenge, but there are tools available to help.

One is a reference book held by the Sawyer Library: Industry Research Using the Economic Census : How to Find It, How to Use It, by Jennifer C. Boettcher and Leonard M. Gaines.

Other tools come from the Census Bureau itself, which has posted a User Guide and instruction materials (Power Point slides and handouts) from conference lectures held around the country. The instruction materials and included exercises are especially helpful, since they provide an insight into the types of queries the Economic Census can answer.

Link of the Week: Open Vault

In this YouTube age, short videos have become increasingly important as both a cultural expression and a source of information. Most internet purveyors of short video clips provide entertainment and little more. However, for those who want to get past the Mentos fountains and the piano playing kitties, here is a website to peruse.

Open Vault is web resource created and maintained by Boston's Public Television station, WGBH, and (in the site's own words) "Open Vault provides online access to unique and historically important content produced by public television station WGBH for individual and classroom learning. The ever-expanding site contains video excerpts, searchable transcripts, a select number of complete interviews for purchase, and resource management tools."

Want to see, from 1993, poet Lucille Clifton read one of her poems? Want to see bits of a 1978 William Wegman video profiling his dog (or is it the avant-garde photographer....), Man Ray? Want to see Flo Kennedy sound off (in 1976) about racism in the women's movement? Want to see a clip from Vietnam: A Television History (1981), in which special counsel to U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson, Harry McPherson, discusses President Johnson's "internal stalemate" about the war? How about a cool, très artsy clip from Ros Barron's 1976 "dramatic movement work," Magriitte sur la Plage?

As the dates above indicate, this is not a good source for up-to-the-minute news segments. These are slightly more historical clips that come from the documentaries, public affairs programming, and news shows of WGBH. There are many excellent clips related to the Boston and Massachusetts region--especially useful are the ones detailing the issues and lives of the minority communities. In some cases, transcripts are provided for the clips, and you can register with the site to be able to keep notes on videos and the like. And, just like Amazon will suggest additional books or videos based on other user's purchases, Open Vault will even suggest other clips, based on the viewing of previous visitors.

Although you can buy some full-length videos related to a few of the featured programs at Open Vault (see Shop PBS or WGBH Stock Sales to explore these options) most of the clips in this media library and archive resource are not available elsewhere, and are meant to simply be used and viewed here.

This website is still developing and evolving, but if you'd like to explore short videos that have some educational value and informational substance to them, this website is worth a browse. [Note: If you don't already have it, you will need to download Apple's Quicktime Player to view the video clips.]

Link of the Week: EarthTrends

In honor of former Vice President Al Gore's recent win of the Nobel Peace Prize for his environmental work related to climate change, I thought I'd list a web resource called EarthTrends. EarthTrends self-describes as "a comprehensive online database, maintained by the World Resources Institute [WRI], that focuses on the environmental, social, and economic trends that shape our world."

These are the same folks who put out a well-known biennial World Resources report, which is available online at their website. Sawyer Library also owns printed versions of these reports, published by Oxford University Press, so if you'd like to browse through paper versions, come in and take a look at our reference holdings.

EarthTrends includes current news links right on its opening page. But it organizes much of the rest of its content according to Research Topics which include Coastal & Marine Ecosystems, Water Resources & Freshwater Ecosystems, Climate & Atmosphere, Population, Health, & Human Well-being, Economics,Business, & the Environment, Energy & Resources, Biodiversity & Protected Areas, Agriculture & Food, Forests, Grasslands, & Drylands, Environmental Governance & Institutions, and Special Collections. In each category, there is a Searchable Database, Maps, Country Profiles, Features and Data Tables.

Articles and tables are available fulltext and often links are provided to other WRI materials, or to useful resources elsewhere on the web.

Because of its currency and "statistical, graphic, and analytical data in easily accessible formats," EarthTrends can be a valuable resource. However, keep in mind that the WRI " is an environmental think tank that goes beyond research" into an environmental advocacy role. Their stated "mission is to move human society to live in ways that protect Earth's environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations."

Although Al Gore would no doubt applaud their efforts, the materials here certainly do not pass academic muster in situations where a teacher is requiring the use of peer-reviewed scholarly journal literature. In other situations, this website can be a valuable one.

By the way, it is worth noting that Vice President Gore won the Nobel in conjunction with another group, the IPCC. I featured them in our blog several months back. To take a look at that entry, click here.

Link of the Week: CSEP's Codes of Ethics Online

Business Ethics, Corporate Responsibility, Fair Trade, Whistle-Blowing, Fiduciary Obligation, Product Safety--Terms like these are bandied about a great deal....especially since scandals like Enron and WorldCom and Mattel's lead toys have come to light in recent years. But how do you codify what a professional or a corporation owes to their clients, customers, workers, or shareholders?

Codes of Ethics are designed to help, before it reaches the point of legislation and litigation.

In June 1996, the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions (located at the Illinois Institute of Technology) received a grant from the National Science Foundation to put their extensive collection of codes of ethics on the web. This web collection includes over 850 codes of ethics of professional societies, corporations, government, and academic institutions. Earlier versions of some codes of ethics of some organizations represented are also available so researchers can study the development of codes. A literature review, an introduction to the codes, and a User Guide are also available at the site. And the Center maintains links to other web resources, too.

You can either browse the "Index of Codes," which is organized by professional category, or you can use a customized Google to search across all the content at the website.

Whether you are a philosophy student, a management or business law major, or merely an interested consumer, this website might be worth a look.

CSEP's Codes of Ethics Online is but one of many websites that we have included in our Business Ethics Resource Guide, which lists database, web, and print resources that would helpful for anyone interested in business ethics. Consult this guide, or browse through our other guides for research guidance on other disciplines and topics. And remember, you can always come and talk to us about your latest research project at the Reference Desk!

Link of the Week: Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) System Search

Sometimes, when working on a company or (more likely an) industry research assignment, a professor will tell students to get their "SIC Code" as one of their tasks. Or, in attempting to use a library database or a ratio book, you will find that the industrial organization of a particular resource is done by SIC.

First established back in the 1930s, the Standard Industrial Classification was devised to create a uniform system of classification for business establishments, and thereby to facilitate the comparability of statistics and data "describing various facets of the U.S. economy."

This Link of the Week is the quick Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) System Search, a U.S. Department of Labor tool that allows you to either look up a known four digit SIC code and learn more about that industry category, or look up a keyword to find SIC categories that match your industry.

When SICs matching your search are presented, you can then click on a likely match and see a more detailed definition of that industry, and a list of business types that are assigned that SIC code. Although this search mechanism works quite well, it is a little on the quirky side, and is sensitive to singular and plural words. For example, when I searched restaurant I got seven possible results for industries like "furniture" and "sheet metal work." No close matches. But when I searched restaurants (plural), I received four results [see image above], one of which was 5812 Eating Places, which is, in fact, the category for restaurants.

Once known, the SIC can be a handy number to use in online directories to find other companies who would be competitors, or may be used in library database "advanced search" options to find articles or data about, or company entries within, a particular industry. And, as mentioned before, they can also be used in ratio books/databases like D&B Key Business Ratios for industry averages and benchmarks. [Note: For more on getting ratios from databases and books please take a look at Sonia's earlier database use tip on that exact topic.]

Two additional caveats should be mentioned.

First, because the SIC system is so old, it does a poor job of detailing technology industries. Therefore, a newer system was devised called NAICS (North American Industry Classification System). In some cases, published or online sources will use NAICS codes instead. For a similar search engine for NAICS (the 2002 Revision), see the North American Industry Classification System -- Revisions for 2002 page from the Census Department. And for more detailed descriptions and links to a wide variety of web pages related to the SIC/NAICS system, please take a look at our Sawyer Library Industry Information Resource Guide, which lists all kinds of databases, websites, and print resources that would help with industry research.

The other caveat is that if you are trying to compare a REAL company to an industry, doing keyword searching of the industry at the SIC System Search and then using what you perceive to be the closest match is NOT always the wisest approach. Many companies, especially large ones, are very diversified. And what you might consider to be their industry is not necessarily their real "primary SIC" code. So, when searching a company within an industry you might want to start with any of our directory databases, like Hoover's and search for your corporate name. Then look for the industry area of their profile--

like the one, from Hoover's, for Procter & Gamble, shown above. Look for the clear statement of what is officially considered the "Primary SIC Code" for the company, and then use this numerical code as you look for industry information, articles, and data, using the SIC.

Link of the Week: The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Sometimes, you can get a bit of handy overview information from a general web resource. Everyone is familiar with Wikipedia, for example, which is sometimes a useful tool. However, even though Wikipedia's entries are often dated at the bottom, indicating the last time a particular page was updated, you generally have no idea who wrote a particular entry and know nothing of that person's qualifications or expertise. Therefore, Wikipedia is NOT a valid resource for college-level research on even the most basic level.

Luckily, there are certain other more scholarly web resource projects, edited and written by academics in a particular field. These are, in some cases, a little more reliable....but only for basic overview and NOT for detailed term paper research.

One such academic web source in the field of philosophy is the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The IEP says of itself: "The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy was founded in 1995 for the purpose of providing detailed, scholarly information on key topics and philosophers in all areas of philosophy. The IEP is free of charge and available to all internet users world wide. The present staff of 25 editors and approximately 200 authors hold doctorate degrees and are professors at colleges and universities around the world, most notably from the United States, Great Britain, and Australia. The submission and review process of articles is the same as that with printed philosophy journals, books and reference works. The authors are specialists in the areas in which they write, and are frequently leading authorities. Submissions are peer reviewed by specialists according to strict criteria."

Except in the case of preliminary "proto articles" that have the initialism IEP at the end, entries in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy are signed by the academic researcher who wrote them, and are usually dated with a year copyright date.



So, yes, the IEP is a more reliable resource than most of the materials that you will find on the general web. That is why we have included it in the annotated listings in the Sawyer Library's Philosophy Resource Guide. But along with selected general internet sources, our Guide will also inform you about Sawyer Library databases that provide links to materials like very valuable peer-reviewed journal literature (which is what your professor really wants you to use in writing a paper). And we even have online versions of scholarly subject encyclopedias. These include the second edition (2006) of the respected 10 volume Macmillan Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

So, if you are interested in philosophy, take a look at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, which is certainly worth a browse. Spend some time perusing the listings in our Philosophy Resource Guide, as well.

And, as always, if you have any questions about resources available to you at Sawyer Library, please stop in and see us at the Reference Desk!

Link of the Week: Charity Navigator

We all would like to contribute what we can to charities and social action organizations that we feel are making a positive difference in our world. But identifying the best and most financially efficient organizations can be a challenge.

One website that can be useful in deciding where to put your charitable dollars is Charity Navigator which claims that it "works to guide intelligent giving. We help charitable givers make intelligent giving decisions by providing information on over five thousand charities and by evaluating the financial health of each of these charities. We ensure our evaluations are widely used by making them easy to understand and available to the public free of charge. By guiding intelligent giving, we aim to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace, in which givers and the charities they support work in tandem to overcome our nation's most persistent challenges."

Although Charity Navigator is itself a non-profit, it accepts no donations from the organizations it provides ratings for.

You can search your favorite charity right from the search box on the opening screen, or you can browse through an A-Z list, or look only at their 4-Star Charities, which you can further filter by type of charity, state, or other criteria. Other site features include various Top Ten Lists including negative ones like 10 Charities Drowning in Administrative Costs.

The articles here are also interesting. One recent one was entitled "March Madness." It reminds us that "college coaches are paid by either your tax dollars (in the case of state schools) or your tax-deductible private charitable contributions (in the case of private schools). " The article then details exactly how much some of these coaches are being paid....Would you believe salaries as high as $1,655,819 a year?!

Charity Navigator is but one of several websites that helps us hold charities accountable and helps givers identify worthy groups. For more links, take a look at our Nonprofit and Philanthropic Organization Resource Guide, which is one of a large number of research guides the librarians at Sawyer Library have created.

Link of the Week: Women' History Month--"Facts for Features" from the Census Bureau

In honor of Women's History Month, I thought I'd point out the Women History Month page from the ultimate collector of statistics, the U.S. Census Bureau. The Women's History Month page is actually part of a "Newsroom" feature of the Census called Facts for Features.

Have you ever wondered where those strange factoids and unusual bits of demographic data come from in newspaper articles and radio and television broadcasts? Well, they often come from the releases of the Census Bureau.

The one about Women's History Month includes the following facts:

$32,168: The median annual earnings of women 16 or older who worked year-round, full time, in 2005. Women earned 77 cents for every $1 earned by men. (Source: American Community Survey at <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/007419.html>)

32%: Percent of women 25 to 29 who had attained a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2005, which exceeded that of men in this age range (25 percent). Eighty-seven percent of women and 85 percent of men in this same age range had completed high school. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/007660.html>

Nearly 6.5 million: The number of women-owned businesses in 2002, up 20 percent from 1997. (The increase was twice the national average for all businesses.) Women owned 28 percent of all non-farm businesses.

2.9 million: Number of girls who participated in high school athletic programs in the 2004-05 school year. In the 1973-74 school year, only 1.3 million girls were members of a high school athletic team. (Source: Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2007, Table 1232.)

There are, of course, plenty of other Women's History Month websites out there. There's even a National Women's History Project, which is dedicated to "recognizing the achievements of women in all facets of life," in March, and throughout the year. Their Resource Center includes brief biographies and links to a variety of other pages, including some to Great Speeches and one to a history of the Women's Rights Movement.

One of our database vendors, Thomson Gale (aka InfoTrac) also has a few interesting free web resources. These include a page called Women's Rights on Trial, which reproduces overviews of 12 "key trials of historical importance to American women since the settlement of the colonies" as well as a brief Timeline of Women's History from ancient times to the present.

And don't forget to check out the Women's History Exhibit in the Library Display Case right outside our entrance during the month, too!

Link of the Week: HUD Homeless Assessment Report

Here's another "in the news" link of the week. Perhaps you heard on the TV news or read in the newspaper that the government just acknowledged that "754,000 persons are living in emergency shelter, transitional housing, and on the streets on any given night." Well, if you are interested in reading the report that goes with that admission, the publication is called the Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, and it was just released to the web.

HUD (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) says of their report: “This first-of-its kind study is a huge leap forward in our understanding of not only how many people are homeless, but also what their needs are,” said HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson. “We’ve got to remember that behind these numbers are people – individuals and families who are struggling to survive. This first report and those that follow will help us gauge how well our efforts, as well as those of our partners at the state and local level and the nonprofit sector, are working to help the homeless. We all must work in concert together to help our nation’s most vulnerable.”

HUD also produces Continuum of Care (CoC) Reports that provide information on homeless assistance grants. These include 2005 data on Massachusetts.

Besides these government resources there are, of course, many advocacy groups that produce reports and data. These include the National Alliance to End Homelessness which produced a Homelessness Counts report in January. The group also details various aspects of the problem in their "Focus Areas" that discuss specific topics like rural homelessness, domestic violence, and veterans.

Link of the Week: Population Reference Bureau

There are many useful sources of demographic information and data that you will find on our Demography and Population Resource Guide. One that I have always found interesting, is the Population Reference Bureau.

The PRB publishes a wide variety of articles and reports. Some, like The Feminization of Migration: Obstacles to Good Health Care, are quite specific. Others, like their wide-ranging Population Handbook try to provide the big picture.

Here's how they describe their mission: "The Population Reference Bureau informs people around the world about population, health, and the environment, and empowers them to use that information to advance the well-being of current and future generations. Read more

PRB's Core Themes and Strategic Approaches

We focus our work around four "core themes": Reproductive Health and Fertility; Children and Families; Population and the Environment; and Population Futures—Aging, Inequality and Poverty, Migration and Urbanization, and Gender. We also emphasize two Strategic Approaches: Building Coalitions and Mobilizing Civil Society.

Reproductive Health and Fertility
Children & Families
Population and the Environment
Population Futures
Strategic Approaches

PRB's work is funded by private foundations, government agencies, and individual donors, and we frequently collaborate with other nonprofit organizations and universities."

Especially useful is their DataFinder option, which allows you to search for specific types of data on specific countries and regions. "DataFinder contains data on 136 population, health, and environment variables for more than 220 countries, 28 world regions and sub-regions, and the world as a whole." By selecting a country and then selecting "all variables" in the different categories, you can build a tabular report of the PRB's available demography data on that nation.

Link of the Week: Intute

There's a reason college faculty warn their students to "avoid the internet." It is full of out-of-date, inaccurate, unsubstantiated, and sometimes just plain crazy content. Yet there are some materials out on the web that are appropriate for college level research. How do you find them? Our Sawyer Library "Research Guides" can help. And there are also some general web portals that have been constructed and maintained by academics specifically to provide links to materials worthy of perusal.

Here at the Reference Desk, several of us were fans of SOSIG, which was a European-based gateway to Social Science materials on the web. Well, a while back SOSIG was absorbed into another web portal called Intute.

Intute is "a consortium of seven universities working with a whole host of partners, bringing together the expertise of people and processes through which we can evaluate web resources and provide a structured approach to help people find and use them. Intute originates from the Resource Discovery Network."

The database further describes itself this way: "Intute is a free online service providing access to the very best web resources for education and research. All material is evaluated and selected by a network of subject specialists to create the Intute database....Issues of trust, quality, and search skills are very real and significant concerns - particularly in a learning context. Academics, teachers, students and researchers are faced with a complex environment, with different routes into numerous different resources, different user interfaces, search mechanisms and authentication processes. The Intute database makes it possible to discover the best and most relevant resources in one easily accessible place. You can explore and discover trusted information, assured that it has been evaluated by specialists for its quality and relevance. "

While the old SOSIG covered only the Social Sciences, Intute includes sections on Science and Technology, Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Health and Life Sciences. The opening page allows you to search for a particular key word concept across one or more of these subject areas, and annotated results help you choose the websites you really want to visit and explore. A browse feature and an advanced search option are also available.




This is a very well-designed web resource, and because it comes from "a network of UK universities and partners" it is not as Americacentric as many U.S. websites are. That expands your options and viewpoints.

To state the obvious, as valuable and worthwhile as this web portal is, it is NOT a substitute for doing library research in our high-quality databases that provide subject indexing (and often fulltext) to peer-reviewed journal literature. Still, if you are looking to expand your research by looking into available general web resources, this portal can definitely help you identify some of the rare quality materials out on the world wide web.

Link of the Week: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Everyone has heard the news and read the headlines over the last week or so. "Scientists Agree Man is to Blame for the World's Climate Change" they have proclaimed.

Well, you may be asking yourself who are these scientists, and where (and how) are they coming to agreement about global warming? Find out for yourself, by visiting the website of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Founded by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1988, the IPCC describes its role and methodology in this way: "The Panel’s role is to assess on a comprehensive, objective, open and transparent basis the best available scientific, technical and socio- economic information on climate change from around the world. The assessments are based on information contained in peer-reviewed literature and, where appropriately documented, in industry literature and traditional practices. They draw on the work of hundreds of experts from all regions of the world."

Not all of the reports from the recent (late January and early February) meetings in Paris have been posted, but you can look at many other recent reports here, as well as find out more about the principles and procedures of this group. Most interesting is the recently loaded Summary For Policymakers, which provides a good basic overview of the IPCC's latest findings.

There is a User Guide to the IPCC Website that details how to "find information about climate change" by linking you to specific publications. However, most of this information is currently from their 2001 reports, so stay tuned for the release of their latest findings.

Anyone interested in the topic of global climate changes will find the website of this in-the-news group worth perusing.

Link of the Week: MedlinePlus

Everyone has health issues. And we often want quick and reliable information on the web for our own health concerns, or those that relate to family and friends. One good portal for general web information in the area of medicine and health is MedlinePlus, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the National Institutes of Health.

The site describes itself this way: "MedlinePlus will direct you to information to help answer health questions. MedlinePlus brings together authoritative information from NLM, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other government agencies and health-related organizations. Preformulated MEDLINE searches are included in MedlinePlus and give easy access to medical journal articles. MedlinePlus also has extensive information about drugs, an illustrated medical encyclopedia, interactive patient tutorials, and latest health news."



On most secondary pages, there will be tabs under the main banner that allow you to quickly jump to a variety of site areas including an Encyclopedia of (over 4000) basic health entries, and a Merriam Webster medical Dictionary. I find the extensive Health Topics presentation especially handy. And this website covers public health topics beyond classical medical conditions, too. To show the variety of subject areas and linked sites at MedicinePlus, take a look at their "Health Topics" page on Domestic Violence.

MedlinePlus can certainly be a useful source for "consumer" health information. But if you are researching a paper, don't forget that your teacher probably wants you to use scholarly (peer-reviewed) journal literature. Browse our database lists for these high-quality electronic indexes to journals, which often also provide full-text access to cited articles. The most appropriate database would vary according to your exact topic and the type of class you are doing research for.

Academic Search Premier is our best general academic database, covering major journals in everything from medicine to sociology. But we also have databases that look specifically at medicine. These include Health Reference Center Academic, Health Source--Consumer Edition, an Ebsco-produced version of Medline (the National Library Medicine's online journal index), a Stanford-based public-access biomedical database called HighWire, and several others.

Remember: When in doubt, ask a reference librarian for suggestions on the online tool that will best suit your research needs!

Link of the Week: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project

In honor of Martin Luther King Day, our first "Link of the Week" is to Dr. King's Papers Project at Stanford University.

"The King Papers Project is a major research effort to assemble and disseminate historical information concerning Martin Luther King, Jr. and the social movements in which he participated.

Initiated by the Atlanta-based The King Center, the King Papers Project is one of only a few large-scale research ventures focusing on an African American. In 1985 the King Center's founder and president Coretta Scott King invited Stanford University historian Clayborne Carson to become the Project's director and senior editor. As a result of Dr. Carson's selection, the Project became a cooperative venture of Stanford University, the King Center, and the King Estate.

The King Papers Project's principal mission is to publish a definitive fourteen-volume edition of King's most significant correspondence, sermons, speeches, published writings, and unpublished manuscripts. The published volumes of The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., have already influenced scholarship and become essential reference works. Building upon this research foundation, the Project also engages in other related educational activities. Using multimedia and computer technology to reach diverse audiences, it has greatly increased the documentary information about King's ideas and achievements that is available to popular as well as scholarly audiences."

Among the resources at the website are a short biography of Dr. King, a King Encyclopedia, a few Audio Files, and an Inventory of Papers that usually either links to the material, or identifies where it is published or housed.

Want the text to his most famous "I Have a Dream" speech? Yes, you can link to that here.

This is a very worthwhile resource for King studies, and for documents in the history of the civil rights movement.

One additional note: Sawyer Library does own the ongoing book series that represents the Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. as well.