Over the summer we purchased two files that include all of the businesses and many of their attributes that were in the ReferenceUSA database for 2013 and 2014. Our historical data collection now covers 1997 to 2014. The data is stored in large delimited text files, and current Baruch students, faculty and staff can request extracts from these files here:
https://www.baruch.cuny.edu/confluence/display/geoportal/ReferenceUSA+Historical
There’s also a link to this page from our list of databases, under ReferenceUSA Historical Data.
This resource is for users who want to study historical change in individual business establishments in a given area over time. In most cases users who make these requests need to have experience with working with large datasets. All of the requests I’ve filled to date are from graduate students or faculty.
Patrons who are looking for current data or who have basic requests should use the ReferenceUSA database instead. Patrons who are looking for historical or contemporary summaries of business establishments (i.e. sums or counts of businesses by type and geography instead of lists of individual businesses) can use the Census Bureau’s County or ZIP Code Business Patterns data instead.